HYPD Raises Funds From Bhuvan Bam And Tanmay Bhat To Build Shopify For Creators

Creator-owned marketplace startup HYPD has raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Better Capital, Sauce VC and others. Influencers Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhat, Ranveer Allahbadia, and Dhvani Bhanushali also invested in the round as angel investors along with CXOs of unicorn companies, according to HYPD. 

Bhuvan Bam and Tanmay Bhat are both actors, writers and comedians famous for their content on YouTube. The startup will use the freshly-infused capital towards marketing and development efforts. It claims to have powered a GMV of INR 50 lakh for creators already.

The round also saw participation from Joyance Partners, LetsVenture, Dr. Ritesh Malik (Founder, Innov8), Aditya Sehgal (ex-President Rickett), Harish Narayan (CMO, Myntra), Nadeesh Ramachandran (Head Of Performance Marketing, Google). Founders such as Shantanu Deshpande (Bombay Shaving Company), Revant Bhate (CEO, Mosaic Wellness), Harshil Mathur & Shashank Kumar (Razorpay), Rohan & Uday (Epigamia) also participated in this round.

Founded in 2020 by Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar, HYPD was created with the intention of helping content creators make a sustainable source of income. It allows them to create their own multi-brand store on the platform.

“Every entrepreneur wants to be a creator, and every creator wants to be an entrepreneur. Taking cues from this prevalent tendency, HYPD is paving the 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,” said Ashwarya Garg, cofounder of HYPD.

“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,” added Akshay Bhatnagar, another cofounder of HYPD. 

The Indian influencer market was valued to be worth between $75 Mn and $150 Mn this year. The global market, in comparison, is valued to be worth over $100 Bn. Globally, more than $800 Mn in venture capital has been invested into the creator economy since October 2020.

“Creators are emerging as a driving force for ecommerce. Ashwarya and Akshay have built a simple to use tool to allow creators to monetise their following through commerce. Agencies and influencers big and small are using HYPD to earn more meaningful commissions directly from digital brands,” Manu Chandra, founder and managing partner, Sauce VC said. 

Last year, WazirX had launched a marketplace platform for artists and influencers to mint, sell and exchange NFTs.