Bounty raises $4.7M to assist on a regular basis TikTokers earn a living from critiques – TechCrunch

Bounty, a web-based service that helps TikTok creators monetize model critiques and suggestions, introduced right now it closed on a $4.7 million seed spherical led by early-stage client tech VC agency M13.

The brand new service, at present in beta, is designed for on a regular basis TikTok customers — not simply skilled creators — who need to earn cash by reviewing manufacturers’ merchandise.

To enroll, prospects enter their telephone quantity on the Bounty website and are despatched an inventory of directions. Bounty customers should first purchase an eligible product from one of many partnered manufacturers. After the order is processed and delivered, the shopper will obtain a particular hyperlink by way of textual content to simply accept the “Bounty” to allow them to receives a commission once they submit their video evaluate to TikTok. The creator uploads content material with the model tagged and #bounty within the caption. Bounty will then detect the submit and lets the shopper comprehend it’s being tracked. The movies additionally should be appropriately tagged as “sponsored” per FTC pointers. Bounty notes.

Reviewers are in a position to earn as much as $10 per each 1,000 views their TikTok content material receives and get to maintain 100% of their earnings. They’re paid for natural views generated within the first 48 hours. The worth per view step by step goes down as views go up to make sure a good return for the creator and the model, the corporate explains. So the higher the video performs throughout the first two days, the extra the creator will get paid.

Anybody 18 years of age or older with a TikTok account can use Bounty.

The funding can be used to onboard manufacturers from the corporate’s waitlist of 750+ manufacturers. At current, Bounty works with 30 manufacturers, together with Jones Highway Magnificence, BlendJet, Olipop, and Doe Lashes.

Throughout beta exams, Bounty labored with round 14,000 creators. The corporate experiences its high creators made round $3,000 per thirty days however didn’t share specifics as to what number of movies they posted or what a median consumer would earn.

Nevertheless, Addie Neri, a TikTok consumer (@addingtoneri) with a modest following of 19.4K, informed Fast Company that she was in a position to make upward of $560 with one Bounty video. As of Might 2022, she’s earned over $3,000 in complete from posting about Jones Road Beauty merchandise with the assistance of Bounty.

Except for incomes cash from views, the creator additionally will get paid when the model re-uses their video in different methods. Manufacturers can view the content material created via Bounty’s web site and might then license it to run as a TikTok Spark Ad — an advert format that lets advertisers place advert spend on user-generated content material to spice up it to extra viewers. They will additionally use the video of their different paid advertising and marketing efforts.

That is potential as a result of creators are granting Bounty a license to their content material as part of their settlement, permitting Bounty to sublicense the content material to the model on their behalf. The creator retains a license to the content material, as nicely.

Manufacturers pay Bounty a month-to-month payment, which varies based mostly on platform utilization, however begins at $99 a month.

Traders Sugar Capital, Interlace Ventures, in addition to founders and executives from Rothy’s, Fabletics, and Stack Commerce, amongst others, participated within the new spherical, bringing the overall quantity raised to $6.7 million. The funding will even assist gasoline hiring plans for Bounty’s engineering, design, and advertising and marketing departments. Early hires are from Google, Sezzle, and Dharma.

The Miami-based firm was based in 2021 by Abe Wolke. He hopes that the product will democratize the influencer economic system by “giving paying prospects the power to be rewarded if their content material is utilized by the model and helps the model develop,” he says.

The previous means of doing this was to pay an company to ship influencers free merchandise in hopes of a submit. Nevertheless, that is much less efficient as a result of it appears like an advert. When an actual buyer posts content material, it comes throughout as extra real. In fact, prospects who’re being paid for his or her optimistic critiques of a product aren’t essentially being extra truthful than a creator who bought the merchandise without spending a dime. And the corporate tells creators destructive critiques don’t qualify for payouts.

“Celebrities and big-name creators aren’t our focus,” explains Wolke. “We’re targeted on unlocking the lengthy tail of creator advertising and marketing, serving the micro and nano creators — on a regular basis prospects and creators who don’t have an agent or a big viewers and in any other case could not get observed by their favourite manufacturers. That mentioned, anybody who’s an actual buyer can take part.”

The startup is tapping into manufacturers’ rising curiosity in working with smaller creators. As Insider Intelligence recently reported, “nano” influencer spending (influencers with 1,000-5,000 followers) will rise 220.5% in 2022, whereas “mega” influencer spending (creators with 1M+ followers) will develop solely 8.0%. In a separate report, the firm noted TikTok advert income is anticipated to triple to $12 billion this yr.

Bounty launched into beta this March, and claims “progress has been exponential,” in line with head of engineering Aaron Decker knowledgeable. “A few weeks in the past, we solely had 800 signups every week. Earlier than that, it was solely 500 every week,” he mentioned.

Now, 1,000 creators enroll per week, the corporate says.

The startup is poised to publicly launch its service to a wider viewers within the weeks forward. In the interim, Bounty will solely work with TikTok customers, but it surely plans to develop to Instagram Reels within the subsequent 12 months. YouTube Shorts and different video platforms can be thought-about additional down the highway.