Customer review website Trustpilot is considering listing its shares on the public exchange in London, potentially at a £1 billion valuation.

The company said it has London in its sights for a flotation, which will raise around 50 million US dollars (£36 million) to help fund growth.

Bosses are thought to be targeting a valuation for the company of around £1 billion if it chooses London for the listing.

The company, which allows customers to leave reviews on businesses, will have around quarter of its shares in circulation after the float.

Some of these will be the 50 million dollars worth of shares the company will create to raise cash, with the rest sold by existing shareholders, including directors and staff.

Chief executive Peter Muhlmann said: “Today is a significant landmark in our development.

“We believe that an IPO of the business will allow us to continue the momentum of recent years, providing a platform to deliver new products to more geographies, and succeed in our vision to become a universal symbol of trust.”

The listing represents a win for London’s market, beating competition from across the pond.

More than 120 million customer reviews have been left on Trustpilot since it was formed in 2007.

Mr Muhlmann told the PA news agency that Trustpilot’s mission is to create trust between consumers and businesses online.

“With an IPO, I think I can accelerate that journey partially by raising money that we can invest in the platform, invest in growth, partially to retain and incentivise the staff and attract the talent we need. And partially to really get the public profile that comes with being a listed company,” he said.

One of the hardest parts of this mission is to ensure that reviews are trustworthy, and the company’s algorithms, which last year deleted 1.5 million fake or harmful reviews, need constant investment.

Part of the 50 million dollars that will be raised will be used for this, while other parts will go towards making it as easy as possible for consumers to share their opinions. Mr Muhlmann also wants to make it “as easy as a click of the button” for a business to invite all customers to share their opinions on Trustpilot.

He said company bosses are becoming wise to the cynicism that customers feel when a business has too many good reviews.

“There’s a new way to look perfect in the eyes of the consumer. And that is to be ‘perfectly imperfect’, in the sense that you are transparently inviting all your customers, also the unhappy ones, to share their opinion of your business and that it is OK to get a negative review every now and then,” he said.