Heaptalk, Singapore – Partipost, a crowd influencer marketing & commerce platform, has received extended funding on their series A, with a total investment of USD5 Million (21/07). Quest Ventures has led the recently extended and oversubscribed round with existing investor SPH Ventures and new investors iGlobe Partners and XA Network. The funds will be used to accelerate product and market expansions as the COVID-19 business climate propels the growth of Partipost’s commercial clientele.
This investment with new and existing institutional and strategic investors reflects the influencer marketing industry’s increased mainstream market acceptance and outstanding growth potential. According to a report by Influencer Marketing Hub is expected to be worth USD13.8 billion in 2021. The funds raised will further develop Partipost’s tech platform, accelerate business expansion into Vietnam, and strengthen current operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
With the legal completion of this fundraising round, Jeffrey Seah – Partner, Quest Ventures – will join Partipost’s Board as Director. He was previously Board Observer from Quest Ventures’ earlier investment in Partipost.
As Asia’s fastest-growing crowd influencer marketing & commerce platform, Partipost drives authentic word-of-mouth marketing by matching brands to influencers with the highest brand affinity. With data insights collected through its in-app polls and user behaviors, Partipost’s data-centric framework crowdsources influencers with follower sizes ranging from a few hundred to millions of followers. Driven by consumers’ growing need for trust in influencer marketing and commerce, Partipost rewards influencers for their media reach and message impact in their curated social media content message, determined by their followers’ responses.
The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for businesses to build a strong presence online. Partipost has always been dedicated to helping businesses achieve their objectives, and as a result, has been able to maintain existing clients while onboarding new clients. This includes Pepsi, Dettol, The Body Shop, and brands under Unilever such as St. Ives and Simple Skincare. Partipost also saw a threefold increase year-on-year in the total number of influencers during the pandemic.
“Since our initial investment, Jon, Ben, and Tony(founders) have demonstrated their business acumen and operating verve across the 3 markets they originally operate in. They have balanced the need to recruit brand-safe nano influencers that resonate with commercial partners, and simultaneously pitch to and onboard business partners looking for authentic direct-to-customer relationships as social commerce notches increasing contribution to sales. We look forward to the leaders expanding their formula to new markets and filling up the management bench strength for further growth,” added Jeffrey Seah.
Earlier this year, Partipost expanded to Malaysia and the Philippines. Partipost has recently rolled out two new initiatives – the Nano Ambassador and Mass Campaign Programs, which are better catered to brands focused on achieving brand awareness, sales, and scale. Partipost is set to run more than 10,000 campaigns with over 3,000,000 influencers within the next 18-24 months through these programs.
Jonathan Eg, Founder and CEO of Partipost, said: “This extended fundraising round will enable Partipost to continue to improve our technology, execute our expansion plans, and double down on our existing markets. Partipost hopes to be a platform that millions of brands will use and allow everyone to be an influencer in their own authentic way.”
Building better experiences for their users
Relating to the post-funding plan, Jonathan Eg told the media that Partipost plans to develop even better technology and collect more data to help brands connect to the right crowd of influencers and empower influencers with the ability to be rewarded.
Previously, Partipost brings forward their selling points for brands that enable them to sign up thousands of influencers for a campaign in a single day and helps them react quickly to online trends. Partipost will also use part of the funding to build data tools to help brands match campaigns with Partipost users more efficiently. The company says it expects to increase its base of aspiring influencers to one million within the next 18 months.
Since the launch of the Partipost mobile app in 2018, the startup has seen an average of double to triple-digit percentage growth MoM to more than 200,000 influencers. Partipost has seen through 2,500 influencer marketing campaigns for over 850 brands across geographical markets in the past 12 months with rapid traction.
Critically, the mobile app is said to allow Partipost to activate thousands of influencers for a single campaign within 24 hours. Partipost is set to hit over 1,000,000 influencers within the next 18 months.
