Pico rebrands to Hype, raises $10 million to keep making creator tools

Pico, a Stripe- and Bloomberg-backed platform that makes tools for content creators to build their businesses, is rebranding–and raising $10 million.

Pico was originally founded in 2016 (as PennyPass) by Stanford alums Nick Chen and Jason Bade. We wrote about the company back in 2021, when it launched its link-in-bio entrant PicoLink. Now, it’s changing its name to Hype and launching Hype Kits, which are pre-designed, link-in-bio-esque web templates for creators to make quick landing pages to direct their followers.

Hype is also raising a $10 million Series A from lead investor King River Capital with participation from Bullpen Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Precursor Ventures, Tapestry VC, and Sterling Road. With this Series A, Hype’s total raise tallies up to $20 million.

Chen told TechCrunch Hype is still focused on link-in-bio offerings, which puts it in competition with companies like Linktree, Koji, Carrd, and Shorby.

“We already offered a link in bio tool through the landing page builder,” Chen said. (That tool had creators build their landing pages from the ground up, while Hype Kits are premade with drag-and-drop elements.) Chen said the goal of Hype Kits is to “make it easier for different creators to quickly get started with us.”

One of Hype Kits’ main features, he added, is the ability to add phone and email signup boxes. Once creators have that contact info from their followers, they can send things like newsletters, tour tickets, video links, and other content directly. Chen said creators using Hype’s tools have collected more than 4 million email and phone contacts.

Hype additionally offers revenue tools like subscription sales. Chen told TechCrunch that Hype creators have made $30 million in revenue so far, with Hype taking a 5% cut of all payments. Hype currently aims to be profitable by mid-2024.