IPO just one option for Tribe, as it ‘continues to assess the best way to fund’ growth
Social influencer platform Tribe may look to go public on the ASX later in 2021, but the decision to IPO hasn’t been finalised.
Despite media reports suggesting that Tribe has confirmed plans to list on the ASX in 2021, founder Jules Lund told Mumbrella that an IPO is just one option for marketing and influencer business, with no timeline set.
Tribe’s Anthony Svirskis and Jules Lund
Tribe launched in the US in May of 2019 with headquarters in New York City, and has since experienced strong growth for its subscription service. It also has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Manila and London.
Lund says that despite Tribe’s continued expansion and ongoing investment in technology, the business will continue to look at different ways to fund growth in 2021, after last year saw “exaggerated shifts to digital” across the market.
“Over the last five years we’ve worked hard to expand Tribe into the UK and US and both of these markets are performing really well,” he says.
“We’ve invested $13.5 million in the technology, and there’s been a steady maturing of the social advertising and digital content industries.
“2020 saw exaggerated shifts to digital, and that is the trend we’ve always been building for. An IPO is an option we are considering in 2021, but no timeline has been set and we’ll continue to assess the best way to fund our growth.”
Lund and Tribe confirmed to Mumbrella that Tribe closed a pre-IPO funding round of $5.5m before Christmas, but hasn’t begun the separate process of funding required to IPO.
On the recent growth and success of Tribe, Lund points out the “clear difference between those advertisers winning at personalisation and the rest”.
“That often comes down to whether their ad assets are mobile-first. It just so turns out that the experts in crafting this content are in fact, a brands own customers,” he says.
“We exist alongside our creative agency partners to unlock this crowdsourced content to amplify their multi-channel creative.”
Tribe was founded in 2015 by TV and radio personality Lund, and works by providing brands such as Facebook, Unilever and Mars to post a brief for influencers through the platform.
Influencers then buy the product, create the content and upload it for consideration, competing with other submissions. The content creator sets the price, Tribe adds a 30% service fee, and if the brand likes the content, it buys it.
There’s no obligation for brands to approve (and therefore pay for) any of the hundreds of submissions influencers send in.
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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