Influencer marketing startup HypeScout raises $280,000 pre-seed funding

The round was led by Anchorless Bangladesh, a New York based early-stage venture capital firm active in the local startup ecosystem

HypeScout, a SaaS-based Bangladeshi influencer marketing startup, has raised $280,000 in pre-seed funding.

The round was led by Anchorless Bangladesh, a New York based early-stage venture capital firm active in the local startup ecosystem, said a press release.

The round also saw participation from Green Bridge Capital, based in the United Kingdom.

Quazi Zulquarnain, director, global strategy and operations at Uber, Eddie Bearnot, CEO at Frontier Nutrition Inc, S Nibras Islam, director at SSL Wireless, and a few more local and international angels, facilitated and advised by Bangladesh Angels Network, have also participated in this round.

Founded in 2021, HypeScout connects influencers with advertisers by letting influencers monetize their follower base.

The SaaS platform ensures end-to-end management of a brand's influencer campaign.

Bangladeshi brands and agencies usually struggle to find and manage influencers since the process is time consuming as it requires back-and-forth communication with relevant influencers.

HypeScout simplifies this process for brands through a standardized and automated filtering mechanism, and dashboard where brands can execute successful campaigns at scale.

Influencers face similar issues while scouting openings for campaigns from brands.

Micro influencers with a follower base of around 5,000-50,000 find it hard to get the right deals to work with.

The platform creates opportunities for these micro influencers to monetize their follower base by giving them exposure to brands.

A feature called "HypeSocial" in the platform helps them grow their follower base and crowdfund their own creative projects.

Influencers have personalized campaign dashboards on the platform where they can see a suggestive price range based on the platform's historical system analysis.

Based on that, they can quote a competitive price for each campaign.

The advertisers can then directly offer deals to influencers without having to interact.

With a data-driven approach, the platform provides audience information and insights of the influencers that are not available publicly.

The algorithm analyzes influencer profiles and matches them with brands that are the best fit for both the brands and the influencers.

Currently, the company is serving over 4,500 brands, and around 32,000 influencers are earning directly from the platform.

They have worked with brands like bKash, Nagad, GrameenPhone, Foodpanda, Pathao, Domino's Pizza, Suzuki etc.

International brands like Nodwin Gaming, and PUBG Mobile have also subscribed to their services.

Some renowned agencies like Magnito Digital, Axiata Digital Bangladesh, Wavemaker, Asiatic Mindshare, Jarvis Digital, Roebuck have also subscribed to the services.

Additionally, some of the more popular macro-influencers in the country are actively using and earning through their platform.

“We started with only 50 influencers in 2021. The number has reached over 32,000 now. We are serving an array of local and international brands and agencies to find the right influencers for them. Having over six years of marketing expertise, I realized that an automated platform like HypeScout was a must. However, after starting, I realized that we were not only helping advertisers, but also inspiring thousands of young and creative content creators, which is really overwhelming,” said Faym Bappi, co-founder and CEO of HypeScout.

HypeScout aims to focus on further product development and monitoring influencer content quality.

The team is now working on building smart algorithms that will help advertisers find relevant influencers for their campaigns more effectively.

The company is prioritizing on bringing hyper-growth in the market and is aiming to onboard over 100,000 influencers and brands within the next year.

“Consumers in Bangladesh have increasingly higher disposable incomes where everyone is looking for products and services that are unique to them. HypeScout's technology allows brands to connect with them where both sides benefit. We've been impressed by Bappi and the HypeScout team's vision to increase data usage in marketing, and their SaaS product is one of the best we've seen in the region.” said Rahat Ahmed, founding partner and CEO of Anchorless Bangladesh, regarding the investment.

Influencer marketing has grown to become a $16.4 billion industry globally, and is projected to reach $143 billion by 2030.

HypeScout wants to tap into this novel niche through creating seamless systems in bridging the gap between influencers and advertisers -- strengthening the overall infrastructure and growth of Bangladesh's budding influencer marketing industry.