Investment Round: CreatorIQ, Partipost, Spark, Social Champ

Welcome to the first in our new monthly series rounding up the latest investments in mobile, social, and influencer marketing companies, with data and infographics provided by Tracxn Technologies.

CreatorIQ receives $24m boost
Enterprise influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ’s latest round of financing has ended with $24m in new cash available for the business. The Series C round was led by Kayne Partners Fund, the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, with participation from TVC Capital and Unilever Ventures.

CreatorIQ will use the funding to focus on its user experience, data science, paid media & advanced measurement, global expansion, and strategic alliances & partnerships. The company recently took some steps on the partnership front, announcing its Certified Partner Program alongside its inaugural partners: Collectively, Digital Brand Architects, Everywhere Agency, ShopStyle, and Sway Group.

“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,” sad Nishita Cummings, Managing Partner at Kayne Partners Fund.

Partipost adds $3.5m
Singapore-based crowd influencer marketing & commerce platform Partipost has secured an investment of $3.5m. SPH Ventures led the Series A round with further backing from Quest Ventures and other investors.

As a result of the investment, Chua Boon Ping, CEO of SPH Ventures, will join Partipost’s Board of Directors as a director and Jeffrey Seah of Quest Ventures will join as an observer.

The funds raised will further develop Partipost’s tech platform and accelerate business expansion into Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia, as well as strengthen current operations in Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan.

“Our latest fundraising round will enable Partipost to develop even better technology and collect more data to help us achieve our goals of helping brands connect to the right crowd of influencers as well as empowering these influencers with ability to be rewarded,” said Jonathan Eg, Founder and CEO of Partipost. “Having strategic investors, such as SPH Ventures and Quest Ventures, will provide us with domain expertise and market networks to realize our growth vision faster.”

Brazil’s Spark picks up $1.5m
Spark, an influencer marketing solution based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has raised R$8m ($1.5m) in a seed investment led by Apex Partners.

The funds will be used to help toward launching new business verticals, increasing the size of the Spark team, and for training.

“Our job is to bring investment diversification to our customers and within this scenario, we evaluate promising and innovative businesses from various segments,” said Fernando Cinelli, Chairman of Apex Partners.

“Spark stood out in this curatorship especially for the exponential growth that the influencer marketing segment has been showing in the country. Our objective is to boost the company’s scale-up and monitor its consolidation in the national market.”

Social Champ gains angel investment
Pakistani social media scheduling tool Social Champ has received $225,000 from an private angel investor.

On the back of the investment, Social Champ, which was incubated from Nest IO, has partnered with Sybrid. The collaboration will see Sybrid operate with Social Champ to promote its latest investment-related objectives and roadmap.

“Social Champ currently has above 6,000 users. We make sure to include all of the features that will make sharing more efficient, including the ability to have social profiles added by various users,” said Sameer Ahmed Khan, Co-founder and CEO of Social Champ. “After all, social media appearance is all about sharing your content at the right moment, and keeping your profiles active and fresh. And with the world going downhill, we want people to steer clear of stress and mental fatigue.”