Ex-Unilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed has become an angel investor and made his first investment in Australian-based influencer marketplace Tribe.

The self-serve platform helps brands find branded content from micro influencers, and what makes this different is the influencers on the platform only get paid if their submissions end up being used by brands. In March this year, Tribe received £5.7 million Series A funding from investors including Weed who didn’t disclose how much he had invested. Weed said the biggest challenge marketers face right now is how they produce more and different types of content for multiple channels at the same time. He was interested in Tribe as it has the potential to solve this challenge with its quality, cost-effective and quick content.In January, Tribe launched an on-demand influencer content marketplace, allowing clients to access a range of content creators who can essentially create their marketing campaigns for them. Giving brands access to around 53,000 influencers, Tribe lets marketers see branded content executions from influencers before they pay for the work.

Influencer transparency

It was only last year at Cannes he said that Unilever would only work with influencers who try to increase transparency and help combat bad advertising practices, calling the sector to take “urgent action now to rebuild trust before it’s gone forever.” Unilever used Tribe for a number of brands. Whilst there, he decreased the number of agencies the companies used and told platforms such as Facebook and Google they need to be more accountable. Weed said Tribe’s ability to ensure the people on the platform are clean and transparent was a factor he considered before his investment.

After 35 years with Unilever, Weed has lauded Twitter and Instagram for their efforts to crack down on fake followers. For now, Weed won’t consult the businesses in an official capacity but he has not ruled out becoming an active investor in the future. Weed told Business Insider that he has plans to invest in other startups as well as serving as an independent director, or non-executive advisor at other businesses.
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