GRIN Seeks to Redefine Modern Influencer Marketing & Brand Advocacy
GRIN, the leading influencer marketing software platform for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A funding led by e.ventures. A syndicate of some of the world’s most successful ecommerce founders and operators also participated, including founders of MVMT, BVAccel, Liquid IV, Cuts Clothing and Ivory Ella. The round also had participation from existing investors including Bullpen Capital and LAUNCH fund.
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GRIN leads the influencer marketing space with impactful tools designed for the unique problems that brands face when selling directly to consumers online. GRIN’s software enables ecommerce brands to manage and activate large networks of social influencers, traditional affiliates, athletes, customer advocates and more. This has enabled the most visible consumer brands on social media, like MVMT Watches, to build massive followings by seeding their products to influencers all over the world.
“The current influencer marketing process is painfully broken. Brands often run large-scale, sophisticated programs internally while using several messy systems and tools that don’t work well together,” said Brandon Brown, CEO and founder of GRIN. “We bring the only SaaS platform to market that makes this process completely seamless — enabling brands to manage the full lifecycle through discovery, recruitment, activation, product seeding, contracting, reporting, analytics & payments.”
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GRIN solves a pain-point for brands attempting to adapt to the significant change in consumer behavior experienced over the last several years. Consumers now predominantly engage with media on their mobile phones, instead of television, an adjustment which is causing a crisis for how brands operate. Modern brands are succeeding by going to where the consumer attention is and building trust. They do so by partnering with influencers, athletes & opinion leaders who have engaged social media audiences in those channels.
As the category leader within influencer marketing, GRIN’s eyes are now set on expanding the category by building the world’s first ‘Opinion Leader Platform’. A platform that combines influencers, affiliates, athletes and more – all of these people-based marketing disciplines – under one system of record for brands.
“The definition of an influencer is rapidly expanding,” continued Brown. “Marketers used to think of influencers as Instagram models or YouTube gamers. But the influencer population has evolved to virtually anyone who is an opinion leader with an audience.”
GRIN allows brands to activate every type of marketing relationship they have; influencers, affiliates, athletes, partners, advocates, customers and more. It’s a vital vertical solution for ecommerce brands with features that allow brands to:
- Discover, prospect and recruit
- Manage talent at scale
- Manage contracts and deliverables
- Audit security and compliance
- Send products and track the shipments
- Manage payroll and taxes
“Influencer marketing is the most critical component of the high-growth direct-to-consumer brand playbook,” said Brendan Wales, partner at e.ventures. “GRIN’s product stands out as the clear ecommerce leader in this space as the platform handles everything from revenue attribution, to product fulfillment to payments in a smooth and simple way. We are excited to be investing in and working with their talented team.”
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