Australian influencer marketing platform Tribe is planning to go public on the Australian Securities Stock Exchange (ASX).
The business, which connects brands directly with influencers, raised $5.5 million in a pre-IPO funding round before Christmas.
Tribe founder Jules Lund says the funding round attracted strong investor demand and was completed in a few weeks with Saville Capital as the main investor.
Saville Capital joins other Tribe investors including Expert360 founder and Telstra board member Bridget Loudon, former Unilever CMO Keith Weed and Catch of the Day founders Gabby and Hezi Leibovich.
Lund says Tribe is considering an IPO to provide the business access to capital to pursue “significant market opportunity”, particularly in the US which it says is now its fastest growing market.
“Over the past five years, we’ve focused on building great technology, expanding into key regions and building relationships with many of the world’s largest brands and agencies,” Lund tells AdNews.
“It’s early days in the process and while an IPO is a pathway, it's one of a few options. That said, we’ve got a phenomenal team in place and we’re really excited at the prospect of continuing our growth.”
Tribe expanded into the US in 2019 with the team there headed up by CEO Anthony Svirskis in New York.
While Svirskis is still based in the US, he has returned to Australia as Tribe considers an IPO. The US sales team is being run by a local sales director and being overseen by Lisa Targett, Tribe’s global head of sales.
Svirskis tells AdNews that the adoption of Tribe in the US has been really strong since its launch two years ago.
“It’s our strongest growing market and is already exceeding our other markets in subscriptions and average budget sizes,” Svirskis tells AdNews.
“We see the US as a key part of our future growth. The market size and opportunity there is far beyond Australia and the UK.
“The pandemic has impacted each market very differently. We saw shifts in customer categories as you’d expect. In general there was an uptick in usage from repeat customers, more content sales, and pleasingly more brands and agencies subscribing to the platform as a longer term solution to their digital content needs.”
Tribe was founded by TV and radio personality Jules Lund in 2015. The business currently operates in Australia, the UK and US.
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