Hype (formerly known as Pico), a NYC-based all-in-one marketing and payments platform that helps creators and small businesses grow and monetize their online audience on and off social media, is announcing its relaunch along with $10M in Series A funding.
The round, which brought total financing to nearly $22M to date, was led by King River Capital, with follow-on participation from existing investors Bullpen Capital, Precursor Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Tapestry VC and Sterling Road. Megan Guy, Co-Founder and General Partner at King River Capital, joined the company’s board in conjunction with the capital raise.
The capital will be used to further expand Hype’s product offerings and explore new opportunities for partnerships and acquisitions across the creator economy this year.
Led by Nick Chen, CEO and Co-Founder, Hype provides a platform that bundles key marketing and revenue tools for creators, available through its new collection of Hype Kits. With 11 premade Kits available at launch, Hype aims to provide the most relevant tools to anyone looking to activate and monetize the online community they’ve built, regardless of their platform or business model. New and existing users can choose the Kit that best fits their needs and expect a personalized product experience over time, as the company continues to develop its intelligence around success factors in the new small business economy.
Each Hype Kit can be customized with various features, including:
- A pre-designed web page that creators can further customize and use as their link-in-bio across social media.
- A drag-and-drop mobile website builder that makes it easy to share rich media links, collect contact information from visitors, sell memberships or ask for tips.
- An enterprise-grade CRM that enables creators to identify their most engaged fans, send text message blasts to their entire audience and integrate newsletter tools like Mailchimp and ConvertKit.
- Built-in revenue tools to collect tips and sell recurring subscriptions and memberships.
- A website plugin to create premium, paywalled content experiences on personal websites.
- Intelligent analytics and insights that respond to an entrepreneur’s growing business and shifting needs.
To date, Hype creators and entrepreneurs have earned over $30M in revenue and collected more than four million email and phone contacts using the platform’s suite of marketing and revenue tools. Hype operates on a freemium model, with more capabilities available as add-ons, depending on one’s business needs. The startup’s goal is to become the creator’s virtual business manager, providing a personalized combination of tools and tips to manage their brand, engage with followers off-platform and earn money.
FinSMEs
07/04/2023