Posted by New Delhi: HYPD, enabler of Asia’s first creator-owned marketplace has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round.
The three different cohorts participated in this round including venture capitalists such as Better Capital, Sauce VC and more. Then, there’s the Creators/Influencer Network such as Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhatt and more.
And then comes the angel investors and industry experts that include investors like Aditya Sehgal (ex-President Reckitt), Harish Narayan (CMO, Myntra), Revant Bhate (CEO, Mosaic Wellness), Shantanu Deshpande (CEO, Bombay Shaving Company), Dr Ritesh Malik (Founder Innov8) and more along with sector experts such as CXOs of unicorn companies.
HYPD is a creator tech platform that enables content creators to launch their own multi-brand stores/businesses.
The capital acquired will be utilised to activate 1 million content-creators, along with marketing and developmental plans. In the past three months, creators have powered GMV of over Rs 50 lakh from their respective stores, directly earning a sizeable amount of profit, currently pegged approximately at Rs 12 lakh.
With its first-mover advantage, HYPD is not only a no-code platform but also enables an entire ecosystem for creators’ economy, ushering in an era of ‘Creator-preneurs.’
Serial entrepreneur duo of Aishwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar founded HYPD in 2021 with an intent to create a sustainable source of income for content creators.
“Every entrepreneur wants to be a creator, and every creator wants to be an entrepreneur. Taking cues from this prevalent tendency, HYPD is paving way for a new breed of creators called ‘Creator-Preneurs,’” said HYPD Co-Founders Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar.
“We are stoked to have the best cohort of early stage funds, creators, entrepreneurs, angels in the country. These stakeholders are our ‘Hypdronauts’, set to scale the brand to newer heights. HYPD is a product at the intersection of a booming consumer D2C business and swelling influencer marketing economy,” added the founders.
“The creators are often treated as virtual billboards, but with the commoditization of business infrastructure, any creator can transform their audience into a scalable empire. We are putting more power in the hands of the creators. Suddenly, what looked like a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, is becoming a multi-trillion-dollar one. If we have to draw an analogy, we are the Shopify-for-creators,” explained the duo.
HYPD claimed to have empowered over 500 creators to launch their stores already. They have partnered with top 500 brands in the country that these creator-prenuers could choose from to create content around and sell on their respective stores.
Moreover, the creators can also request to onboard a brand they would love to associate with, HYPD assures them to deliver that within 72 hours.
With that said, the empanelment of at least 1000 more brands is in the pipeline. Given its growth potential, HYPD is on a fast track mode and is already in talks for its Series-A funding.