The former head of campaigns at influencer marketing agency Social Chain is helping to promote a game-changing tech platform.
Vancouver-based Trufan, which helps influencers and brands identify and reward their top fans, has raised $500,000 from several angel investors including NBA basketball stars.
Manchester-based Tim Hyde, who spent two years at Social Chain during a period of rapid growth and also worked for LADbible, is chief marketing officer at the company and a co-founder alongside Swish Goswami and Aanikh Kler.
The funding will fuel the launch of the Software-as-a-Service company’s web platform and expansion to markets across Canada and the United States.
The platform uses a proprietary algorithm to help some of the world’s biggest brands and influencers directly message and reward their top followers on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Users will be able to highlight their most passionate, influential and trending fans to be able to directly reward and segment them using various filters.
“In the last year there has been more spent on advertising through social media than on traditional media outlets like television, radio and print,” said Hyde. “However, brands and influencers continue to waste millions of marketing dollars on social advertising which fails to reach the correct audience for their objective.
“Through Trufan advertisers can save themselves millions by focusing their spend on consumers who are primed for purchase.
“It also allows brands and influencers to focus on building a community rather than accumulating a following.
“We allow users the ability to identify existing advocates and build a deeper connection with their audience.”
Trufan is giving private beta access to more than 400 influencers and 250 brands. On that list are influencers like Kevin Hart, Cameron Dallas, Gucci Mane, Ludacris, Cody Ko, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade along with several brands like the UFC, Western Union and K-Swiss.
Investors include Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma, Indiana Pacers guard Davon Reed and DraftKings CEO Jason Robins.
Its advisory board includes Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes. Trufan’s team of seven will be going through Hootsuite’s national incubator The League of Innovators which aims to spread access to entrepreneurship across Canada.
Trufan will be also be producing content with LOI and K-Swiss, with a plan to release a podcast where celebrities are interviewed by their top fans and a web series that shows the behind the scenes of growing a start-up from the ground up.