Takumi, the influencer marketing startup, has managed to rake in $4 million (£3.2 million) in a Series A funding round. Attracting the support of family offices and high-net-worth individuals, this round has brought the company’s total raised to date to $7.1 million (£5.7 million).
Based in London and co-founded by Mats Stigzelius, Solberg Audunsson and Gummi Eggertsson in 2015, Takumi provides an influencer first managed service platform, specially focusing on micro-influencers on Instagram who have between 1,000 to 200,000 followers. The influencer (iOS/Android) app enables approved Instagram users with as few as 1,000 followers to look through a selection of “gigs” listed by brands. The influencer can then pick which campaigns they want to support, and post their own creative-spin on the proposed brief, including a hashtag signalling that it is paid-for-content.
Takumi, already having set up offices in the US, Ireland and Germany, plans to use the new inflow of funding to boost further expansion across the globe, and also to continue development of its product. Takumi co-founder and CEO Stigzelius commented on the news:
Influencer marketing is still in its early stages but will grow into a major marketing channel over the next five years. Brands are increasingly leveraging social media influencers to create highly engaging branded content to reach their ideal consumers more organically.
The company has currently placed its development office in Reykjavik and sales offices in both Berlin and New York. Stigzelius also added:
At Takumi we believe that the market will consolidate around a few proven winners in each major territory that are able to cater to the increasing client demand for quick, efficient, high quality campaigns and who can provide the required volume of campaign opportunities and talented influencers to fulfill those campaigns.
Dominic Perks, CEO at Hambro Perks, who also participated in Takumi’s Seed round, spoke about his expectations for the firm:
Based on the progress they have achieved to date, the team they have in place and their current growth rate, we would expect Takumi to establish itself as a best in class, global influencer marketing platform.
