HYPD Marketplace Secures $1.5 Million in Seed Round

HYPD, enabler of Asia’s first creator-owned marketplace, announces the close of its seed funding round. The creator tech platform, that’s enabling content creators to launch their own multibrand stores/businesses, recently accrued $1.5 million. The seed funding round was led by three different cohorts, viz. VCs, such as Better capital, Sauce VC and more; Creators/Influencer Network such as Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhatt and more and the Sector Experts such as CXOs of unicorn companies. The capital acquired will be utilized to activate 1 million content-creators, along with marketing and developmental endeavours. In the past three months, creators have powered GMV of over 50 lakh from their respective stores, directly earning a sizeable amount of profit, currently pegged at 12 lakh. (approx.)

Harnessing its first-mover advantage, HYPD has assembled the industry masterminds under one roof, who’ll define India’s early creators’ ecosystem. Synergizing their sectorial prowess, these investors are not only pumping in capital, but are also transforming HYPD into a go-to destination for all content-creators. HYPD is not only a no-code platform, but also enables an entire ecosystem for creators’ economy, ushering in an era of ‘Creator-preneurs’.

Conceptualized with the intent to create a sustainable source of income for content creators, HYPD was founded by a serial entrepreneur duo Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar in 2021. Through this fiscal and strategic partnership, HYPD is set to initiate a paradigm shift by giving content-creators a business destination of their own.

Elaborating on the funding and the concept behind, co-founders Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar, HYPD said, “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’. 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. 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.”

The first cohort of VCs boasts of topnotch names in the industry viz. Better capital, Sauce VC, Joyance Partners and Lets Venture. This cohort is bringing in capabilities to build the strongest SaaS infrastructure that seamlessly facilitates the creators’ economy. Furthermore, apart from leveraging the financial aid, HYPD is set to make the most of their dominant position in the D2C markets to further strengthen brand partnership.

Commenting on the idea and growth potential of HYPD, Manu Chandra (Founder & Managing Partner, Sauce VC) said, “Creators are emerging as a driving force for ecommerce. Ashwarya and Akshay have built a simple to use tool to allow creators to monetize their following through commerce. Agencies and influencers big and small are using HYPD to earn more meaningful commissions directly from digital brands. Brands are meanwhile benefiting by getting influencers to run not just top of the funnel awareness campaigns but drive actual sales through shoppable videos and live commerce. We are excited to back HYPD and take this offering to all digital brands and creators across the globe.”

The second cluster of investors entails best-in-breed Creators and Influencers themselves. HYPD has roped in the likes of Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhatt, Ranveer Allahbadia and many more first-rated creators and agencies. Investing beyond capital, these top creators and agency networks bring in the trust and expertise to better understand creators’ issues and address them. Alongside, they harness their influence to spread awareness around the fledgling creator economy and initiate conversations, inspiring more creators to turn into Creator-prenuers.

Commenting on the concept of creator-prenuer, Bhuvan Bam said, “Every creator at some point in time has to turn into an entrepreneur to earn from what they love doing & HYPD’s business-in-a-box solution makes it so much easier for every creator out there to monetise their audience at one destination, owned by themselves.”

Angel investors and industry experts make for the final cohort. This dynamic group of investors, which includes veterans 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) & many more; bring in the mix of business intelligence and marketing intelligence. Their industry expertise is going to shape up the brand’s GTM strategies. Apart from capital support, this cohort will aid in creating a strong brand building tactics, strategic partnerships, and be the knowledge partner to every problem in the startup hustle-book.

HYPD has empowered 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 to deliver that within 72 hours. With that said, empanelment of at least a 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.