Modash turns the influencer marketing script by connecting the internet with a long tail of creators | TechCrunch

Estonia-based Modash raised $12 million in Series A led by henQ, a Dutch VC firm that prides itself on “extraordinary venture capital.” And what’s amazing about Modash, according to CEO Avery Schrader, is that its team “has a strong opinion in an area where no one has a lot of faith.”

The area in question is influencer marketing. Like competitors CreatorIQ and Upfluence, Modash helps brands like Farfetch find people to spread their message. But instead of targeting content creators with huge followings, Modash scrapes open data to allow its customers to find games among the long queue of 250 million creators it claims to list (excluding if they choose to opt out.)

This means that brands are being connected to content creators on the Modash platform. But – the idea of ​​the founders is – these are the people who can make ads because their younger followers can interact with them, and they put a high value on what they say.

In fact, it is a modification of the usual marketing script that can help to avoid the criticism that has arisen in the high-paid shilling products. Not having signature designers also makes it easier to grow, in an area where the market isn’t problematic.

This is why Modash remains a force in the maker economy – as Schrader understands why others may not. “The whole VC team has already put one or two beds down in the space,” he told TechCrunch.

“[But] people miss the point that the creator is an atomic part of the internet, and [creators] will continue to do things,” he continued, explaining why he and his team believe in the marketing power of content creators and the market opportunity to help them create money.

“Whatever you immediately think of when you think ‘motivator’… I think it really has a negative connotation… Regardless of whether you don’t do it use is what you think of an influencer, and whatever you eat, whatever is in your YouTube search history, that’s what we support,” he added. It’s like young artists doing amazing things, talking about things they really love.

The 26-year-old Canadian is self-made; Originally from Nova Scotia where he used to focus on videos and forums, he headed to Estonia after reading that it was becoming the “Silicon Valley of Europe.” There, he soon found himself recording podcast episodes with the Baltics technorati, while trying his hand at influencer marketing for clients like Estonia’s Bolt.

The consumer side of the problem is key to Modash. The vision of the startup is that brands are looking for an end-to-end platform that allows them to have resource creators, but also review campaigns, manage payments, and more. That’s what makes the money, with plans starting from $199 per month to the standard business class.

With Bolt and the Estonian agency among its first customers, Tallinn has proven to be a great platform for Modash to launch. Regardless of whether the comparison with Silicon Valley stands or not, the effects of the network were clearly there and several Estonian founders became Modash’s first mentors and angels, some of whom have returned to join the latter.

The capital is where Schrader met his co-founder and CTO, Estonian software engineer Hendry Sadrak (right in the photo above) and their founding team. “Even today, 40% or 50% of the company is in Estonia,” Schrader said. “Many of them are from Bolt, Pipedrive, Transferwise… – the Estonian mafia.”

If Schrader sounded unsure about the exact percentage of the home staff it’s a sign of how much the team has grown over the last few months. “We were 25 years old [people] at the beginning of the year, we are already 60 years old, and we have set a cap for next year not to exceed 99, because it is very important to keep the group as small as possible.

Much of Modash’s new work will focus on data engineering, as AI-enabled discovery features are a big part of its product roadmap.

In addition, the startup plans to hire people for customer-facing roles in North America to be closer to its customers there.

Schrader himself was back in Canada when he spoke to TechCrunch, and told us that he plans to spend at least half of his time in the country going forward. International expansion and a greater focus on e-commerce will be priorities for the first Series B round, he said.