NEWS December 3, 2018

APPRL raises 2.2 MEUR and launches AI tool for content creators

APPRL is the leading Nordic platform for driving sales from premium content creators, i.e. to brands in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors. Today is the launch of its new technology platform, which is focused on helping its partners using data. APPRL also announces having raised another 2.2 MEUR from some of its current investors.

The new platform enables brands to improve the ROI of their influencer marketing efforts and helps content creators to understand which type of products are best suited for their audience. Another key feature of the new platform is an AI-based tool for influencers & publishers providing personalized product recommendations from the millions of items on APPRL. The vision of APPRL is to build a global, data-driven platform for influencer-driven commerce.

“Today many companies only look at engagement rates when selecting which influencers to work with. However, this says very little about actual ROI as it can be manipulated and doesn’t indicate the followers’ purchasing power. We can help advertisers select influencers based on how good they are at generating sales, which can’t be faked”, says Gustav Gisseldahl, Cofounder & CMO

“We’re not a traditional influencer campaign platform, we are building infrastructure for influencers to drive sales and relevant awareness for brands, in real time and at global scale”, says Martin Landén, Cofounder & CEO

During the past year, APPRL has raised 2.2 MEUR from its current investors Spintop Ventures, Backstage Invest, and its angel investors Jonas Meerits (Happy Socks, Eleven/Nordic Feel), Magnus Sandberg (Google), Ludvig Linge (TAT), Jonas Dromberg (Inventure, Bloomberg) who provide deep experience from e-commerce, media and tech. In the past two years, the team has grown from 4 to 25 people and revenue by 500%. The new capital will be used for international expansion as well as continued investments in data science, to strengthen APPRL’s position as the data-driven solution in a world of influencer marketing that is more focused on engagement and awareness than creating sales and real ROI for brands.

For its international expansion, APPRL has strengthened the team with Rami Nihlawi as CCO and Cornelia Brantås as Director of Sales, both coming from Soundtrack Your Brand (Spotify for businesses) where they’ve built the global sales unit from start (as Managing Director Global Markets and Director of Sales respectively). Moreover, Fredrik Isaksson has joined as CFO (previously CFO at CMORE), and a number of data scientists have joined from companies like Klarna and iZettle.

“The vision of creating a unique, new form of marketing is what makes it exciting to join APPRL”, says Rami Nihlawi who has just joined the APPRL team as Chief Commercial Officer.

“It feels fantastic to have people like Rami, Cornelia and Fredrik joining us, they all bring experience from scaling tech companies within retail and media internationally, says Martin Landén”, Cofounder & CEO.

More information
Martin Landén, martin@apprl.com, Cofounder & CEO
Images → http://bit.ly/APPRL-Press

About APPRL
APPRL, headquartered in Stockholm, is a data and technology platform for influencer-driven commerce, that connects brands like H&M, Net-a-Porter & Gucci with inspirational content from influencers such as Sofi Fahrman, Ebba von Sydow & Camilla Pihl and publishers such as Elle and Vogue. APPRL started with a focus on fashion, but today APPRL works with brands within beauty, home, design, sports, health and more verticals to come.

More about APPRL → http://apprl.com → http://apprl.com/about

NEWS May 29, 2018

Wehype – the innovative advertising platform that helps advertisers reach gamers – closes funding round

Wehype helps advertisers conduct influencer marketing campaigns targeted to the gaming world. Now the company is backed by John and Martin Wattin, of Inbox Capital, along with several other well-known investors.

Wehype makes it easy and painless for advertisers to reach the huge audiences that follow gaming and esports. In Wehype’s digital platform ad buyers are provided powerful tool allows them to launch scalable influencer marketing campaigns targeting millions of gamers around the world, in under ten minutes.

Watching other people play computer games is a trend that has exploded in recent years. In 2017 Superdata reported that more people watch gaming videos online than those who watch HBO, Netflix, ESPN and Hulu combined.

– We have a product that is unique on the market today. We cut out the unnecessary intermediaries and put ad buyer in direct contact with those influencers who have the most relevant audience. In addition, we use a number of technical elements to simplify time-consuming steps such as communications, payments and data collection, says Robin Åström, founder and CEO of Wehype.

Now the company has closed a successful funding round and Wehype’s shareholder list has grown to include a number of renowned and experienced entrepreneurs and investors, including John Wattin and Martin Wattin of Inbox Capital, Betsson founder Pontus Lindwall, and Christian Ehrhardt (e.g. Vitamin Well).

– We have worked a long time on finding the right investors who can support us in our continued growth and international expansion. We primarily chose to bring in people who see their ownership in the long term and that can contribute and add synergies to our operations, said Robin Åström.

Wehype’s network already consists of thousands of influencers, reaching an audience of tens of millions of people. Its customers include well-known brands such as ASUS, Warner Music, Hertz and SJ.

– Wehype is a very exciting company that is at the forefront in its field. I look forward to being on this journey with them and contributing with my experience, says John Wattin.

Wehype was part of the Sting Accelerate program in the spring of 2017.