An interesting byproduct of social media is the relationship it has forged between brands and famous social media personalities, otherwise known as influencers. When celebrities like Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian take to Instagram to rave about a product you’ve just got to try, it’s because they’ve partnered with the company that sells that product.
Compared to more traditional forms of advertising like television and print, marketing through influencers is a pretty new practice, which means companies are having to turn to new tools to track and use the method effectively. One option is CreatorIQ, which announced Wednesday it closed on a $24 million Series C round.
Founded in 2014, CreatorIQ helps companies like Disney and Sephora track all of the influencer campaigns they are running, giving them full access to valuable data about who they are reaching and what strategies are working. The company claims it is the world’s largest platform of its kind, with five straight years of 100 percent growth.
To keep up the momentum, the company outlined the five areas where it plans to use this $24 million. This includes further global expansion, more partnerships and new tools for user experience, data science and paid media on its platform. The company is also hiring at its headquarters in Los Angeles and its office in New York City.
This latest funding round was led by Kayne Partners Fund and brings CreatorIQ’s total capital raised to more than $40 million.
“CreatorIQ, as the most advanced enterprise technology in the influencer marketing space, is consistently the top choice of global marketing leaders looking to bring enterprise technology and data ownership in-house,” Nishita Cummings, a managing partner at Kayne Partners Fund, said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with CreatorIQ to support the company’s plans for accelerated growth as it cements itself as the pure-play SaaS leader in the influencer marketing software category.”
