LONDON, UK – October 13, 2022 – Kyra, a global creator economy company bridging the gap between brands and TikTok creators, today announced it has closed $15 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bonnier Ventures with participation from LionTree, Torch Capital, GMG Ventures and Firstminute Capital amongst others. The new financing will allow Kyra to further build out its home for creators, beginning with the launch of Kyra Platform, a proprietary platform streamlining and optimizing TikTok partnerships for brands and creators alike. 

“We built Kyra to help brands authentically connect with Gen Z on TikTok, and we’re excited to deploy our Series A capital to launch the Kyra Platform and alleviate challenges within the creator economy,” said Devran Amaratunga Karaca, CEO and co-founder of Kyra. “Ultimately, we’re aiming to channel our expertise in the Gen Z and TikTok space to foster a community in which brands and creators can thrive and maximize the effectiveness, scale, and impact of their partnerships.” 

The Kyra Platform was built to solve the fragmented and often inequitable landscape in the nascent creator economy and provide a marketplace for brands and vetted TikTok creators to connect, contract, and collaborate on campaigns and analytics. It joins other products in Kyra’s ecosystem such as Kyra Originals, originally produced TikTok channels reaching more than 13M monthly viewers, Kyra Profile, a Gen Z creator incubator program, and Kyra Studios, a production studio creating social content on behalf of brands. 

“Today, one can see the fantastic impact of the ever-growing creator economy, and the launch of the Kyra platform will help secure an efficient dynamic between creators and brands, which couldn’t be more exciting,” said Jonas von Hedenberg, Investment Director at Bonnier Ventures. “Kyra has a track record of leading the way, constantly going the extra mile to super serve both creators and brands and this next phase is poised to accommodate the rapidly changing media value chain.” 

Kyra’s new platform will give creators access to premium brand deals, instant payments, community growth and networking with other creators. Brands will be able to share campaigns with the creator network through two buying models, effectively producing high quality, tailored creator campaigns and reaching the scale of organic user-generated content. Upon launch, Kyra has onboarded 200 creators, and has a growing waitlist of over 5,000 to date. 

The easy-to-use interface enables brands to identify and collaborate with creators, engage their target audience, maximize ROI, analyze results through Kyra Lift studies and consult KyraIQ, the most comprehensive creator database forecasting upcoming trends on TikTok. Additionally, the platform features a first-of-its-kind Community Brief, which allows brands to open campaigns to the entire marketplace of Kyra-vetted creators, while allowing creators to get paid based on performance. 

Kyra allows creators to tap a full-service creator team to eliminate cumbersome contract negotiations and maximize content output and earnings, while brands can quickly connect with the right partners for their campaigns and track performance at scale. Activating bespoke concepts for consumer brands, Kyra manages the end-to-end creative process for brands from idea generation to production and optimization. 

To date, Kyra has partnered with a diverse slate of creators including Abby Roberts, Iconicakes, and Nintendo Grl, as well as global brands representing some of pop culture’s buzziest names, including Nike, Calvin Klein, Levi’s, Converse, Crocs, Vita Coco, Amazon Prime Video, and more. In the last 12 months, Kyra has paid out more than $5 million to creators across nearly 300 partnerships. 

Creators interested in joining Kyra Platform can sign up for the wait list at www.kyra.com/signup. Brands seeking to partner with Kyra and the company’s creators find more information at www.kyra.com.

About Kyra 

Kyra is a global creator economy company bridging the gap between brands and TikTok creators. We are a team of creators at our core, producing best-in-class social content geared for Gen-Z, while accelerating a world for creators to do the same with ease. The company encompasses Kyra Originals, originally produced TikTok channels reaching more than 13M monthly viewers; Kyra Profile, a Gen Z creator incubator program; Kyra Studios, a production studio creating social content on behalf of brands; and Kyra Platform, a new proprietary platform enabling TikTok partnerships for brands and creators at scale. Kyra works with a diverse slate of creators including Abby Roberts, Iconicakes, and Nintendo Grl, and global blue-chip brands such as Nike, Converse, Levi’s, Calvin Klein and more. Learn more at Kyra.com. 

Media Contacts: 

Lindsey Boyle, [email protected] 

Crysten Curry, [email protected]