Octoly influencer marketplace raises €9 million in capital to finance global expansion

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 7, 2017

Octoly, the influencer marketplace featuring 10,000 beauty, fashion and lifestyle influencers announced it received the backing of Havas, Otium Venture, Twins Partners and the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, as it completed a first financing round worth €9 million.

Octoly was launched in 2015 as a platform to put micro influencers in touch with consumer brands. To this day, 200 international brands and retailers have joined the fray, from Dior to Urban Decay, Sephora, Clinique, Clarins and Opi. Octoly has a staff of about sixty, active from its Paris and New York offices, and after starting out in the beauty sector it has extended to fashion and lifestyle. Until now, some 150,000 products have been sent out via Octoly to over 10,000 micro influencers.

"Ours is a unique positioning, since brands are willing to give away products for free, so that influencers can express themselves independently. Other players in the marketing influence game pay influencers for their product placement, making their message less credible with fans," said Octoly's founder Tomas Owadenko. "We have global ambitions for this concept, which was developed in France and in just one year became a leader in the USA in terms of product reviews."

Besides bolstering Octoly's global plans, the capital will also be used to support the launch of Octoprime, a new web platform which gives Octoly's influencers the chance to build their own store around the products they recommend on Instagram or YouTube. Octoprime is a tool which goes in the opposite direction of Amazon's Influencer Programme, "accessible only by a handful of star influencers."