Influencer marketing is one of the newer players in the digital marketing world, but that hasn’t stopped it from being highly effective.
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As it continues to grow, new startups geared toward influencer marketing are popping up everywhere — some with more traction than others. When more than 50 million people worldwide consider themselves content creators, there’s something to be said about hopping on the influencer marketing trend.
Influencer marketing startups can be crucial to the success of companies and influencers by encouraging partnerships that advance campaigns. Influencer marketing firms typically make it simpler for brands to participate in marketing campaigns and generate more engagement. While brands have the option to collaborate with influencers on their own, working with influencer marketing startups makes the process more streamlined and organized.
Here are some of the top influencer marketing startups for 2023.
How Did We Rank This List?
We included these influencer marketing startups based on size, innovation, contributions to the influencer marketing industry, and potential for longevity.
The Top Influencer Marketing Startups of 2023
- Perky.ai
- TikTal
- Meraki Creative
- GetEvangelized
- Social Native
- Affable.ai
- Pietra
- Social Cat
- Creator IQ
- Mavrck
- #paid
Let’s take a look into why HireInfluence has ranked these companies in the top influencer marketing startups:
Perky.ai
For Perky.ai, they believe the impact on ROI and outcome stems from recruiting the right influencers and attracting the right viewers. Perky.ai simplifies the process of predicting audience response in real-time. Most startups struggle for brands to buy in. For Perky.ai this isn’t a problem. With over 300 brand partnerships and 10,000+ user-generated content videos, they’re hitting the ground running.
According to Angel, Perky.ai has 1-10 employees.
TikTal
TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform in history. TikTal recognizes this and built its company specifically around influencer marketing and talent scouting on TikTok. They have multiple headquarters globally, including France, The U.S, The U.K., and Singapore.
At a high level, TikTal is the liaison between influencers and a brand. They find the right-fit influencers that work with a brand’s campaign goals and manage the relationship between both. TikTal builds detailed reports about the campaigns, verifies influencers, and checks the authenticity of followers.
Tik Tal works with content creators in a variety of industries like cosmetics + beauty, product testing, fashion, fitness, tech, family, and lifestyle.
According to Angel, TikTal currently has anywhere between 51-200 employees.
Meraki Creative
Meraki Creative is a boutique agency that specializes in multiple marketing verticals. They focus on influencer marketing, digital marketing, branding and design, media relations, user-generated campaigns, and more. Through their four-step process, their clients are in the know every step of the way.
They’re headquartered in India with around 20 employees.
GetEvangelized
GetEvangelized is a micro-influencer agency that helps connect influencers with businesses to form partnerships for endorsements. They provide marketers with a collection of data points to select the most interesting influencers to launch and assess campaigns that are powered by follower behavior.
GetEvangelized has around 1-10 employees.
Social Native
Social Native offers a combination of influencer marketing, custom content, and content editing solutions. Their roster of influencers ranges from nano to micro and macro. They also work to cater to audiences that are new leads and help reengage customers. Social Native prides itself on getting content to brands in just a few days. Quick and efficient.
Using multiple verticals of content, Social Native assists brands in reimagining old content to repurpose, use earned content, and leverage creator content.
Social Native has worked with brands like Perrier and Dollar Shave Club.
Social Native is quickly growing, with over 200 employees and counting.
Affable.ai
Affable is developing a platform that will enable businesses to find, work with, and track social media influencers. Their AI algorithms identify influencers and their followers on social media sites, including Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Affable.ai offers search by filters to find influencers aligned with brand values and communication tools to keep in touch and track the progress of campaigns. Affable.ai claim using its platform makes it easy for brands to scale their influencer marketing efforts. They’ve worked with over 100 leading global brands and have the case studies to prove their footprint in the market.
Currently, Affable.ai has around 50 employees.
Pietra
Pietra is the solution for influencers to start and scale new brands and eCommerce businesses. They connect you to vetted suppliers, help you launch new product lines, and build a brand from the ground up.
This platform is great for influencers who want to monetize their already-built reputation and try their hand at entrepreneurship. From tampons to vitamins, skincare, journals, and clothing — the only limit to your offerings is your imagination.
Pietra has around 30 employees, according to LinkedIn.
Social Cat
The Social Cat helps small brands and businesses connect with micro-influencers. They encourage influencers and brands to use gifted collaborations to work with smaller budgets. Early-stage startups can benefit from their roster of 10k creators and truly form a partnership with influencers they want to work with.
Creator IQ
CreatorIQ uses AI-powered algorithms, including predictive modeling to find suitable influencers and predict the behavior or prospects for your campaigns. CreatorIQ also employs technology to identify follower fraud, inflated reach metrics, and fake/mercenary influencers, in addition to expediting the influencer marketing process. They work with big-name clients like Disney, Tiffany & Co., Unilever, Dell, and Ralph Lauren — a testament to their valuable platform.
In 2019, Creator IQ won the MarTech Awards’ Best Platform for Influencer Marketing.
In addition to having offices in New York City, Chicago, and London, CreatorIQ is based in Los Angeles. According to LinkedIn, they currently have around 250 employees.
Mavrck
Mavrck considers itself the all-in-one influencer marketing platform. They offer influencer discovery, fraud detection, risk assessment, and performance forecasting for potential partnerships. They have a strong presence in the influencer marketing realm and have worked with brands like Totino’s, American Girl, and Jansport.
The Mavrck platform is available on a subscription basis, with pricing that is based on the demands of the user.
According to LinkedIn, Mavrck has 140 employees.
#paid
The creative input of influencers is the focus of #Paid. They place a strong emphasis on choosing influencers whose ideals align with yours. Wherever you are targeting in the sales funnel, #paid aids in structuring and organizing content production.
Businesses of every size use their software to collaborate with creators and grow their businesses. According to LinkedIn, they have around 130 employees.
Benefits of Working with an Influencer Marketing Startup
While a brand may want to work with mega influencers coming out of the gate, it isn’t always feasible with the marketing budgets of new companies.
Working with an influencer marketing startup gives brands and companies a taste of what it’s like to collaborate with content creators within their niche and what to expect from partnerships. Typically, startups work with budgets of any size, including shoestring budgets, and are happy to help brands navigate influencer marketing for the first time.
Celebrating the Top Influencer Marketing Startups
Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. As new companies pop up and innovate in their creative spaces, it will be interesting to see the evolution of each and their contributions to the creator economy.
