The pre-seed investment comes from Christian Schaefer, Managing Partner of Asia Counsel, and Eric Rosenkranz, former CEO of APAC and Latin America at Grey Global Group

Vietnam FINAL

Hiip, a startup offering an automated influencer platform helps brands and advertisers connect with social influencers in Vietnam, has secured an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from Expara Ventures.

Christian Schaefer, Managing Partner of law firm Asia Counsel, and Eric Rosenkranz, former CEO of APAC and Latin America at Grey Global Group, have also co-invested.

As per the agreement, Rosenkranz will become Chairman of Hiip.

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Phi Nguyen, CEO of Hiip, said: “For a very long time, brands in Vietnam used to choose influencers based on subjective feelings. We want to change that. We will help brands to choose the right influencers based on data. With our new funding, we will upgrade the product and expand the market to help connect more brands and influencers.”

Officially launched in April this year, Hiip is an online platform to help connect brands, advertisers directly with the appropriate impact on the first social network in Vietnam. The platform helps brands and advertisers to reach target customers, build brand reputation and increase sales by connecting directly with a network of thousands of influencers to promote products product, service or specific campaigns.

Brands can use Hiip platform to freely create advertiser accounts and campaigns, and they will be matched with the right influencers based on the specific requirements and influencer data.

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The startup claims to have more than a thousand influencers already registered on its platform and has grown 50 per cent month on month in the number of customer bookings.

Expara Managing Director Douglas Abrams said: “We invest in innovative products that solve painful customer problems in fast-growing markets and Hiip definitely fits that bill. They have a strong team and are set for regional expansion.”

“Currently, influencer marketing is only available to multi-national and big local corporations. With Hiip, we aim to help thousands of local brands to connect and cooperate with the correct social influencers,” said Eric Rosenkranz.

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