Series B funding worth £3m secured for marketing startup

Takumi International ltd has secured £3m in Series B funding from angel investors and venture capital funds from the US and UK.

The emerging influencer marketing industry could potentially overhaul the way advertisers reach their audiences.

The budding channel allows marketers to crowdsource content creation and target potential consumers through local creators who have proven to consistently outperform larger celebrity accounts.

Solberg Audunsson, co-CEO of Takumi, commented on the funding: “The new capital will be used to double down on product and expedite our plans in the US.

“Takumi is a market leading brand in Europe. Our investment into superior technology and product means we are ready for the scale and demands of the US market.”

Takumi has worked with over 800 brands and 15,000 unique influencers since the marketplace launched in November 2015. In the first quarter of this year, Takumi launched campaigns for brands like Heinz, Nestlé and Gillette, as well as securing a contract exclusive with a popular financial brand.

Many of the world’s advertising multinationals are said to work with Takumi on a recurring basis. WPP, Publicis and Omnicom are to name a few.

Takumi also announces their nomination to the respected Digiday awards 2018 under ‘Best use of Social’ for their work with Kellogg’s in the UK.

Solberg Audunsson, co-CEO, added: “Our focus from day one has been on a superior influencer experience and distributed sales teams close to the world’s biggest buyers.

“Influencers want a great app and lots of trust to speak to their audiences in an authentic voice. We’ve managed to bridge this gap and that’s what the Takumi brand stands for today; quality and trust.

“Brands have been stepping up their campaign requirements and are more wary of influencer audience quality. Our recent platform changes to address such concerns landed our biggest quarter ever in Q1 this year.”