Influencer marketplace Captiv8, which links up creators like Zach King, Casey Neistat, and iJustine with Fortune 500 brands like Johnson & Johnson and Amazon has just announced a $2 million funding round.
Investors in Captiv8, which has been operating in stealth mode for the past year, include Social Capital, United Talent Agency, and Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH Fund. Captiv8 says its data-driven approach, which is powered by artificial intelligence, enables brands to harness the ‘Oprah Effect’ that leading creators have over clamorous fans today. Brands can leverage Captiv8’s platform to buy ads across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, and Facebook.
Captiv8 is able to target geography, household income, ethnicity, age, and gender in helping brands determine which influencer might be the best fit, it says. It works with 125,000 creators in all with a combined reach of 2.1 billion fans.
“Influencer-created content provides a solution to banner blindness giving brands a powerful new way to drive engagement,” Captiv8 co-founder Krishna Subramanian said in a statement. “2016 will be the year brands will invest over $1 billion dollars in influencer marketing.”
“Digital media has given birth to a new generation of global superstars,” added Robyn Ward, head of new media ventures at UTA. “Captiv8’s platform allows us to identify important trends and critical data about how these artists engage with their fans.”
Prior to Captiv8, Subramanian co-founded the mobile ad exchange network Mobclix, which was acquired in 2010. Captiv8 is based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.
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