#PRODUprimetime with Ríchard Izarra with founders of Influur: In less than a year our platform has closed two investment rounds for US$5.8 million

#PRODUprimetime with Ríchard Izarra presented Alessandra Angelini, Chief Executive Officer; Valeria Angelini, Chief Product Officer, and Data Analyst; journalist Paula Coleman, Chief Operating Officer; and Fefi Oliveira (Nickelodeon and Netflix actress), Chief Influencer Officer; all co-founders of the Influur platform, which is less than a year managed to close two investment rounds: a pre-seed, which was US$800,000, and a second, the seed round, for US$5 million led by Point72 Ventures, “one of the most important hedge funds in the US,” assured Alessandra Angelini.

BRIDGING INFLUENCERS AND BRANDS
Influur was born two years ago aiming to connect influencers and content creators around the world. “What we wanted to create was a 100% professional platform, where the influencer connects with the brand in the simplest and most effective way,” said Alessandra Angelini.

In addition to the investment rounds, Angelini explained that there is another very important financial part of the app that goes beyond investment: the wallet, “which we have created for both brands and influencers. It has been quite a challenge to be able to manage a payment platform, practically worldwide at the moment, but we are getting there and it is one of the most interesting parts of Influur”.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
“The platform is 100% exclusive. To access it, you need an invitation code that can only be sent or generated by any user who is inside the app right now. The way Influur works is with job opportunities. Just as in the corporate world I have a link where I can apply for job opportunities and I know how much they are going to pay me; we wanted to create exactly the same for the creative world. When brands access Influur, they can post a job opportunity and there is this mass of influencers who are ready to work and apply to job opportunities and that’s where we make the match. The brand chooses which influencer to work with. Most of our brands activate campaigns in less than 24 hours, without Influur, this process would be practically impossible,” says Angelini.

DREAMS COME TRUE
For Paula Coleman, COO of Influur, the platform is a dream come true. “We began to realize that there are many careers today that have been created by the digital world and these were not being taken seriously. With Influur we wanted to give professional status to these new careers that have emerged and that is why we created a platform where jobs can be posted, influencers and creators can apply, negotiate, there is a social aspect and apart from that, you can pay within the app. We are not only creating a platform, but we are doing it in the US, with American investors, and we are at the level of any other company here. There is no excuse when you really want to fulfill a dream,” Coleman emphasized.

THE INFLUENCER POINT OF VIEW
Fefi Oliveira, Chief Influencer Officer, is the company’s influencer with 10 million followers on social networks, a journalist from the University of Miami, and an actress. She remembers when she started how difficult it was to contact a brand, you did not know how to communicate with it, or what to say in order to be considered for a job. Sometimes you sent DMs, you answered emails, you sent emails, it was 40 emails that went back and forth trying to reach an understanding with a brand, and with Influur we gave formality to the work of an influencer for the first time. And nothing makes me happier than being part of this process and being able to say that: ‘yes you can do it. We launched the first professional platform for influencers and brands created from the point of view of the influencer, which is what makes me the happiest,” she said.

She added that everything complements. “The contacts I am making within Influur complement my life as an actress. Right now I’m not recording, because a project production involves between 12 and 16 hours a day and more when I’m starring as was the case of my last show. But I think anything is possible because the first round of investment where we raised US$800,000 took place when I was filming a series in Mexico, while I was talking to investors and telling them: ‘there is an incredible application called Influur where you should invest ‘, so everything is connected,” he concluded.

Watch interview here