We are thrilled to announce that our portfolio company #Paid has closed an $18.9 million CAD ($15 million USD) Series B round to continue building the home for creator and brand collaborations.
The all-equity, all-primary round closed in July and was led by Sands Capital. The round also saw participation from Ascential, Vanedge, BDC, and ScaleUP Ventures. Numerous e-commerce specialists including Arati Sharma, Web Smith, and Nik Sharma also invested alongside a number of content creator angels.
We made our early investment into the company back in 2015. This was at a time when social media influencers were building personal and authentic relationships with their fan base online. It was becoming more and more apparent that brand marketers would soon look to this new channel for brand engagement and to amplify their messaging with their specific target market.
We understood how powerful this shift in creator-brand-collaborations was through Wattpad’s own influencer program – Wattpad Stars. There was value in leveraging influencers to tell stories, but we knew how difficult it would be to connect influencers with marketing campaign managers across multiple platforms. #Paid solved this crucial problem.
The #Paid platform offers tools that allow social media creators and brands to collaborate on Instagram and Facebook. The company plans to expand its channel offerings with this round of investment.
We are so proud of the traction that #Paid has made so far and know that the team will continue to grow and scale the booming creator economy. Congratulations to the entire team!
