Los Angeles-based startup Pearpop announced Thursday that it banked a total of $16 million to build out its virtual marketplace for buying and selling social media collaborations.
The total includes $10 million in Series A financing led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six as well as $6 million in seed financing co-led by Slow Ventures and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures.
The company’s list of angel investors is stacked with even more celebrities including Amy Schumer, Diddy, The Chainsmokers, Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd, to name a few.
“Pearpop has the potential to benefit all social media platforms by delivering new users and engagement, while simultaneously leveling the playing field of opportunity for creators,” Alexis Ohanian, founder of Seven Seven Six, said in a statement. “The company has created a revolutionary new marketplace model that is set to completely reimagine how we think of social media monetization.”
Pearpop was first made available on TikTok. The virtual marketplace enables content creators to buy and sell duets, comments or song snippets. Since its launch in October of 2020, the company has attracted nearly 10,000 creators to its platform.
Despite launching in the middle of the pandemic, the company’s growth shows no signs of stopping.
“We haven’t really seen a change. I think this product has just generally resonated with folks. Whether [users] are cooped up in their homes or not, I think we’re kind of seeing the same type of activity right now, which is exciting,” Spencer Markel, co-founder and president of Pearpop, said in an interview with Built In.
Following the latest round of financing, Pearpop plans to aggressively hire for its team. The company will direct additional resources toward building out new tools and features for creators to better manage and monetize their social capital.
“Eventually we’ll be on all the social platforms that facilitate collaborations,” Cole Mason, co-founder and CEO of Pearpop, said in an interview with Built In.
Mason was inspired to get Pearpop off the ground following years of working in the fashion and entertainment industry.
“I realized the only way to [grow my social following] was through collaborations, and there’s a select group of people that can do it, where they’re living in content houses and collaborating together,” Mason continued. “But for most people, they’re not going to be able to collaborate with larger influencers. [Pearpop] creates a marketplace where anyone can scale their social capital and, you know, be able to share the stage with anyone.”
In one example cited by the company, musician Tobias Dray saw his track usage on TikTok jump from 30 uses to 671 uses from a $25 collaboration on Pearpop.
“What we’re trying to accomplish here is to level the playing field. There’s a lot of elitism, I would say, in the creator community where you only have access to unlock and monetize your social capital if you’re lucky,” Markel continued, “It depends on whether or not you’re connected to the right people and whether or not you have the money to facilitate transactions that require agents or to get lawyers involved in negotiating deals. It inherently makes it exclusive to people who can afford those options.”
Pearpop was created by and for creators of all kinds and the most important aspect of the platform, according to Markel, is its ability to bring people together.
“[Pearpop] is a great networking tool,” Markel continued. “It’s a community that’s helping each other out. I think that’s a big part of why we’re doing this and what gets us super passionate.”
Additional investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Atelier Ventures and Chapter One Ventures.
