A new UK platform that digitises word-of-mouth recommendations on social media, has raised £2.25m in seed capital investment and has a £35m valuation pre-revenue.
Kindred, which launched in October, helps to track sales to specific social media recommendation.
It digitises these ‘word-of-mouth’ recommendations using specially-created codes.
Brands pay commission on any sales made as a direct result of an influencer’s partnership with the app, and a percentage of the commission made from every sale is donated to a charity of the influencer’s choice.
The technology allows brands to accurately track and measure the results of the influencer’s activities.
The likes of Jimmy Choo, Gillette, ASOS, Pets At Home, Missguided and Boohoo have signed up to the platform and hundreds of campaigns are live, the firm said.
Aaron Simpson, Kindred’s founder, was previously founder of luxury concierge service Quintessentially.
“Kindred is creating the new global community of conscious consumers and we are directing millions of pounds, dollars and euros to the world’s most needy causes in the process” he said.
COO Mike Gadd added, “Kindred does something very simple, as it taps into two prevailing trends: a concern over how we consume as a society, and a growing scepticism around paid-to-post “influencer” marketing.
“For brands, Kindred is a new, authentic and direct link to customers and for charities it’s an amazing and original way to get straight to a younger audience – who very much want to contribute and are demanding this shift to conscious consumerism.”