The creator economy has grown dramatically in recent years. More than 50 million people worldwide now consider themselves content creators, and the size of the market has grown to more than $104 billion USD according to Creator Marketing Hub. During 2021, investors poured approximately more than $1.3 billion USD of venture money into the creator economy, indicating a high level of confidence in the sector with great opportunity of value creation. Due to this growth of the creator economy and the impact those creators generate in the new generations (Gen-z and Millennials), brands around the world are extremely interested in making creator/creator marketing a big part of their marketing strategy, but have you ever tried to contact and/or hire an creator? This pain is a common denominator for small and medium-sized brands, such as enterprises, whereas of today there is no communication channel to contact and work with content creators. As Alessandra Angelini, CEO & Co-Founder at Influur, has mentioned, this is a real pain point that she suffered back in the days as a CNN journalist. “It was easier for [Alessandra] to contact and interview a senator, congressman or even a president of a fortune 500 company than to contact an creator.” For this reason, Alessandra Angelini, Valeria Angelini, Paula Coleman and Estefany Oliveira came together to create Influur. Influur is the super app for creators and brands that enables a better relationship between both parties, attacking problems regarding connecting with creators, uncertainty of payments, and the non-existence of tracking campaign results. Due to this, Influur is an all-in-one marketplace that makes it easy for brands and creators to connect, post & apply to job opportunities, negotiate deals, and pay securely.
In analyzing the opportunity, we spoke with several SME brands and large enterprises who suffered with the same problem that Influur is trying to solve and we ultimately decided to back the company in December 2021 alongside investors such as P72, Magma, among others. Below is a summary of several aspects of the investment thesis:
Influurʼs Community: Through the platform, creators and Brands can connect, post statuses, like, and comment on the app; thereby creating an organic community. The community is creating network effects, growing at a fast pace due to its social engagement for all users.
Creator-centric platform/APP: It is important to understand the user, in this case the creator/content creator, that always uses his phone and not his computer. Therefore many of today’s competitors’ solutions are not suitable for creators as they are web-based (one-sided marketplace) not offering an end-2-end solution for both parties. Influur being an creator-centric platform/APP with its social media/community component has created a combination to offer traditional financial services and social media engagement to satisfy both brands and creators. Below we summarize a few features that differentiate Influur to solve the pain points that brands and creators have:
- Matching & recommendation engine: Influur users can search and work with any creator or brand worldwide.
- Posting & applying to job opportunities: Influur allows creators to apply to jobs.
- “Let’s Work Together (LWT’s)” feature: Influurs’ proprietary process to secure a transaction/job opportunity from start to finish.
- Paying securely/Wallet: Creators get paid on time, right after a campaign/job is done, (which was not a standard practice).
- FinTech Solution: Advance invoice factoring, no need to wait 30/60/90 days to get paid by brands.
- Community-based: Creators and brands share to the world what they are working on while they grow their network on Influur.
For these reasons, we are excited to partner with Alessandra Angelini, Paula Coleman, Valeria Angelini, and Fefi Oliveira to connect brands and creator across the world.
Please see Influur’s webpage for additional information.
