Irish tech unicorn Wayflyer makes first major acquisition, moving into creator space

Wayflyer, the revenue-based financing and growth platform for eCommerce merchants, today announces the acquisition of creator funding provider Peblo. Through this acquisition Wayflyer gains a significant presence in the influencer marketing space.

There are around 2 million creators globally earning an average of $100k each per year. Unfortunately these creators often have to wait up to 120 days to get paid by their partnering brands, which restricts their ability to grow their business. 

Discussing the growth of the content creation market, Aiden Corbett, Wayflyer CEO said: “By 2026, there will be an expected 15m influencers worldwide, so the creator market is one that is too fast-growing for us to ignore.”

Peblo solves this pain point by providing funding to creators, plugging the gap between upfront cost and client payment. Wayflyer’s acquisition of Peblo will enable individual creators to access up to $2m in financing, and the business expects to advance over $5m to creators over the next year.  

Alongside solving creator cashflow issues, Peblo will also be able to efficiently connect influencers with relevant eCommerce brands through Wayflyer’s platform, streamlining the process of selecting and brokering influencer agreements. 

Peblo will remain as a standalone brand and will benefit from Wayflyer’s market-leading underwriting capabilities and knowledge of the eCommerce sector.

Jake Browne, Peblo CEO, added: “Wayflyer is one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs. We are delighted to become a part of its impressive story. Aidan and the team’s knowledge of the internet economy is second-to-none.

The business’s team of six will join Wayflyer’s rapidly expanding team: the business grew its headcount by 525 per cent in 2021 and is looking to hire over 400 people globally by the end of this year.

Aiden continued, “Jake and the team at Peblo have built a great product and we’re looking forward to working alongside them to continue to grow it over the coming years.”

The acquisition comes off the back of Wayflyer’s $150m Series B fundraiser in February, which has brought the Dublin-headquartered fintech’s valuation to $1.6bn, making it Ireland’s sixth unicorn business. This follows an impressive period of growth for Wayflyer, which opened offices in Atlanta, Spain and Australia last year.