As the influencer economy grows, startups like Passionfroot, Agentio, and One Impression, along with social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are trying to build marketplaces to connect brands with creators.
Miami-based startup Influur is banking on two unique aspects of its platform: quick response from creators and financial tools to ensure they are paid on time.
The company is developing a suite of tools for brands to track campaigns better. Additionally, it is considering introducing new financial products for creators, including loans, debit cards, and credit cards.
To support these efforts, Influur has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Point72 Ventures and HTwenty Capital, bringing its total funding to over $15 million. Angel investors include Sofía Vergara and Thalía.
Ishan Sinha, a partner at Point72 Ventures, said that the platform helps creators become better entrepreneurs.
“Creators are good at making content. But they might not be business-savvy entrepreneurs. So having a place where their money can live, they can get a quick payout, and see their analytics is powerful,” he said.
Influur was founded in 2021 by four Latina female founders: CEO Alessandra Angelini, who worked at CNN as a producer before founding the company; chief influencer officer Fefi Oliveira, who has worked in the entertainment industry with companies like Nickelodeon and Telemundo and has over 9 million followers across her social media accounts; chief sales officer Paula Coleman, who also worked at CNN as a producer; and chief product officer Valeria Angelini, who worked as a data analyst at FedEx.
Before starting Influur, Angelini asked Oliveira, whom she met in college, why creators were not responding to CNN’s contact attempts. Oliveira explained that influencers receive thousands of messages on Instagram and email, making it hard to manage them all.
To tackle this problem, Angelini envisioned a tool for influencer marketing, similar to Google AdSense, to manage a brand’s spending in that space.
Marketplace and community
Upon onboarding, creators can connect all their social media accounts, display their pricing for marketing engagements, and list past brand collaborations. The startup founders noted that the platform currently hosts over 40,000 creators with various follower counts.
Creators can apply for open brand campaigns that match their criteria. They can also opt for “gifted collabs,” where they receive a brand’s product in exchange for content. As for brands, they can also individually approach select creators for collaborations.
On the platform, creators can get suggestions and tips from other experienced creators and learn from them. To keep interactions relevant, the platform restricts posting to creators with over 2,000 followers.
Angelini said many marketplaces list influencers by scraping web data, which often leads to low response rates. She mentioned that an influencer typically responds to a brand request within 24 hours on Influur.
Influur also offers a premium subscription for creators priced at $30 per month, which gives them access to a one-click media kit with details of their price rates, past campaigns, socials, and engagement rates. They also get access to experiences where they can create content and exclusive webinars from popular creators.
According to Oliveira — who has been a creator for years — one of the main problems has been chasing brands for payouts after the work is complete. To solve this problem, Influur asks brands to pay money up front, stores the money in an escrow, and then transfers it to a creator’s wallet when they ship all campaign deliverables.
“Influencers have often waited 60 to 120 days after posting the final product to get paid. We are solving that problem with our wallet and instant pay feature,” Oliveira said.
Creators can wait 30 days to get their payout or instantly withdraw the money with a 15% fee to Influur. Currently, the company supports payouts in a dozen countries, including the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. The startup mentioned that 20% of its creators have paid that fee to get a quick payout.
In the future, the startup plans to launch a set of financial tools for creators, such as virtual accounts, short-term loans, credit cards, and debit cards. “Influencers want Influur to become their bank. We plan to launch a new financial product, so we are not only part of earning money for influencers but also a part of how they save and spend money,” Angelini said.
Point72 Venture’s Sinha said that in the fund’s diligence, it found that creators wanted financial stability and that the startup was building the right tools to achieve it.
Insights for brands
With its Series A raise, Influur is working on adding insights for influencer campaigns along with financial tools. The company is also building a prediction engine so that companies can predict how a campaign might perform with a particular creator.
The company is expanding its team across its four hubs: San Francisco, Miami, Mexico, and Argentina.
In addition to charging creators a 15% instant payout fee and a premium subscription, Influur also charges a 20% to 25% service fee for every transaction from brands. While the company had some profitable months last year, it’s going to take a while before Influur generates a profit as it aims to be overall cash-flow positive by 2026.
The startup believes that it has an edge over other marketplaces thanks to its financial tools, its insights engine, and having a popular creator as a co-founder.
