Popular Pays Extends Series B To $6.6 Million, Adds Audible Co-Founder Ed Lau As Board Observer

Chicago-based Tech Company Gains Trusted Advisor, Extends Series B Funding by $1.1 Million

Popular Pays, the software company that helps marketers collaborate with social content creators, raised an additional $1.1 million in series B financing. The new investment comes from ICCP SBI Venture Partners and brings the total amount raised for the round to $6.6 million.

Popular Pays also added ICCP SBI Venture Partners Managing Director and Audible co-Founder, Ed Lau, to the board as an observer. Lau brings a wealth of experience in digital media and first-hand knowledge of scaling companies from the ground up.

“We’re building a new content operating system that will transform the way creators, brands, and agencies work, collaborate and get paid,” says Corbett Drummey, CEO of Popular Pays. “We give brands the tools they need to get work done but with transparency that the market needs.”

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In a crowded field of competitive influencer marketing tools, Popular Pays attracted investors with a standout turnkey platform based on its technology and its ability to serve as an all-in-one solution, giving customers the ability to create, scale and manage their work with influencers and custom content creators from creative briefing to payment.

Beringea, a Detroit-based Venture Capital firm, lead the Series B round with participation from GoAhead VC and Hyde Park Angels. After closing, Popular Pays decided to extend the round because of ICCP SBI Venture Partners extensive experience in building enterprise software companies.

Popular Pays has now raised a total of $12.6 million since launch five years ago. Since their Series A in April 2017, the company has roughly doubled in size. The team expects to add a dozen full-time roles in 2019 and grow to 50 employees.

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Earlier in the year, Popular Pays was added as a Pinterest Marketing Partner in the Creative Specialty group and recently was named a Facebook Marketing Partner in the Creative Platforms category. Drummey was also added to the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising.

Key features and benefits of Popular Pays’ software include:

• Ability to search and engage a community of expert content creators across all networks and formats, including recommended candidates
• Automatic Brief Builder
• Integrations with the social networks to use final content in paid media
• Contracting and payment automation
• Workflow tools that allow for strategic and creative control, including content review, direct communication, shipping, & revision tracking
• Efficiently scale content and social posts for your brand

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