Linktree has just announced a successful equity offering that saw the company raise $110M, with funding led by Index Ventures and Coatue, valuing the Australian-based firm at $1.3B.
The company expects to use the newly obtained funding to focus on further geographic expansion, recruitment, revenue streams and growing value for its creators and brands through new tools as well as partnerships.
Having hit the key milestone this past year of achieving 24 million users, existing investors couldn’t help further fuel Linktree’s growth. This funding round, as well, saw investments from previous investors AirTree Ventures and Insight Partners, and new participation from Greenoaks Capital.
Onboarding a US President to enrich leadership
In its next phase of growth and evolution, Linktree has announced the onboarding of Mike Olson as the company’s first President. Having had a lengthy and distinguished career in the gaming and creator economy, holding Executive Growth and Operational positions at Twitch, Pandora, LinkedIn, and Microsoft, Mike is truly suited to this task.
“I’m honoured to be joining Linktree at this milestone moment. Over the past few years, the creator economy has grown rapidly and Linktree has led the way through innovations in discovery, engagement, and monetization – there are so many commercial possibilities with an audience of this size,” said Mike Olson, President, Linktree. Olson will focus on partnerships, corporate strategy, big talent recruitment and building a sustainable culture across the global organization.
An exclusively dominated niche within the tech industry
Linktree has gained recognition in its quest to help users create streamlined online identities to showcase and commercialize their profiles. The platform’s influencer, small business, and music verticals grew more than 300% each, on average, from 2020 to 2021. This growth saw Linktree drive 1.2 billion clicks to commerce-related websites in the last year alone. Today, Linktree users are engaged across 250 verticals worldwide.
The platform is utilized by 24 million creators, brands and celebrities on its platform. It boasts popular personalities and brands including and not limited to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Shawn Mendes, the Los Angeles Clippers, TikTok, Red Bull and HBO.
Linktree is among the top 300 most popular websites globally, averaging 1.2 billion unique visitors a month. In 2021 alone, Linktree enabled over 1 million artists to generate 90 million visits to streaming services, twice as many artists and thrice as many clicks as in the prior year.
Promoting brand engagement and trust
Linktree is probably best recognised as every brand’s or personality’s link-in-bio. This has been crucial to helping these individuals and businesses connect their otherwise fragmented online presence. This has not only driven engagement but also added safety and trust to the process in which fans can interact with businesses.
“Trust online is more challenging than ever with the massive growth of the creator economy and increased fragmentation of digital identity on platforms across the globe. Over the last year, Linktree quickly emerged as a brand that creators and their audiences can trust,” said Danny Rimer, Partner, Index Ventures.
Linktree at a glance
Linktree was founded by brothers Alex and Anthony Zaccaria and Nick Humphreys in 2016 with the aim of enabling creators, brands, artists, publishers, agencies, and businesses of all sizes to consolidate their online ecosystems, engage with their audience and monetize their passion. It has offices globally, most notably in Los Angeles and Sydney, with its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.
The platform has continued to prioritize the needs of creators, recently releasing Commerce Links and Stores, a feature, which includes integrations with Shopify, Square, Paypal, Spring, and GoFundMe. Since the acquisition of Songlink/Odesli in August 2021, Linktree has also announced exciting new partnerships with Bandsintown, Audiomack, Soundcloud, and Community.
