Influencer marketing platform influence.co has announced that ad industry heavyweight Alex Bogusky (via his Boulder-based venture capital firm BCV) and a group of Aussie agency financiers have made an investment in its current funding round.
Bogusky was a founding partner of advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which grew to more than 1,000 employees with offices in Miami, Boulder, Los Angeles, London, and Sweden.
BCV managing director Dane Mcdonald said: “We firmly believe every digital agency and PR company will offer influencer marketing services.
“We’ve been looking for a company that is technology-driven and doesn’t run campaigns themselves. We believe the winner in this space will support agencies and not compete with them.”
In addition to BCV, two Australian firms which were cornerstone investors in influence.co have also participated in the latest funding round: Twenty3 Capital and Jaszac Investments.
“We were impressed by influence.co’s management team and vision to create a global platform which is not limited by country borders,” Twenty3 Capital CEO John Tripodi said.
“In our opinion, marketing spend on influencer campaigns will continue to increase across all major markets, [and] influence.co has quickly become the standard platform for influencers of any size to have a presence and showcase their work to potential clients.”
The total funding round is $500,000 and will close in January. It is expected to provide the company enough runway to achieve profitability.
Simultaneously, influence.co is announcing a full set of features designed to help digital media and public relations agencies build their own influencer marketing practices.
Agencies of all sizes can now build and execute complete influencer and micro-influencer campaigns on the platform for a fraction of the cost of full-suite software options.
Niel Robertson, CEO of influence.co, said: “More than 50,000 influencers have already signed up with influence.co, and with our new discovery, tracking and reporting tools, any agency can offer world-class influencer marketing to their clients.
“We expect the involvement of Alex and our Australian partners will massively accelerate our ability to serve the agency landscape.”
