Influencer platform Partipost raises US$7 million led by iGlobe

PARTIPOST, a crowd influencer marketing and commerce platform, has raised US$7 million in a funding round led by iGlobe Partners.

Other investors include Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, Taiwan Mobile, Cathay Venture and Quest Ventures. iGlobe partner Joyce Ng will join Partipost’s board as a director.

Partipost helps companies drive word-of-mouth marketing by matching brands to influencers with followers ranging from a few hundred to millions.

It banks on consumers’ growing trust in influencer-led marketing, and rewards influencers for both their media reach and impact of their social media messaging, determined by their followers’ responses.

The fresh funds will be used for expansion into Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong in the next 18 months, which will bring the company’s operational footprint to eight markets. It will also be used for the development of Partipost’s new suite of products for clients.

“Traditionally, to engage and to activate influencers would cost a lot of time and resources - from sourcing, vetting to reaching out and negotiating with the relevant influencers. Partipost’s soon-to-be fully self-serve platform would allow even SMEs to create a campaign which can activate hundreds or even thousands of influencers really quickly and easily,” said Hillary Tam, Partipost’s regional head of marketing.

Tam said the company has run over 7,000 influencer marketing campaigns, and its platform will be able to recommend the right campaigns and the right influencers to help brands achieve their marketing objectives.

Partipost was founded in 2016 by Jonathan Eg, Benyamin Ramli and Tony Jen. Its clients include DFI Retail Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Jinro and COTY.

Consumers are increasingly turning to social media to research products and discover them. Research commissioned by Partipost found that nano influencers – everyday people with fewer than 5,000 followers – have the highest impact on the buying decisions of consumers.

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These people typically come from a consumer’s circle of family and friends, and hold more sway compared to celebrities and influencers with a mass audience.

“Partipost has disrupted the traditional idea of marketing by creating a robust crowd influencer ecosystem and efficient workflow for influencers and brands,” said iGlobe’s Ng.

“This is our third cheque in support of Partipost,” said Jeffrey Seah, partner at Quest Ventures Asia Fund. “In addition to garnering an increased share of the advertising and marketing budget pies, Partipost has increasingly been retained by marketing clients to develop product sampling and research campaigns in traditional trade distribution channels.”