With a “Buy Now, Pay Later” Approach, Brands can Plan, Scope and Find Vetted Agencies Online
Breef, the world’s first online marketplace for high-value, high-consideration transactions between brands and agencies, has announced $3.5 million in funding led by Greycroft. With prior investment, this round takes Breef’s total funding to $4.5 million.
“The agency model was broken. In light of the shift towards remote work, Breef is empowering businesses to work more efficiently by simplifying connections and accelerating payments.”
Founded in 2019 by Emily Bibb and George Raptis, Breef is reimagining the future of work by taking the agency online. The company’s platform is democratizing connections between well-known brands and boutique agencies. Breef simplifies the planning, scoping, pitching and paying process for projects, bringing efficiency to agency relationships and empowering users to transact high-value business over the internet.
“Breef, prior to Covid, identified the growing demand for a distributed workforce and the need to streamline business transactions within the digital and creative space,” said Will Szczerbiak, Partner at Greycroft. “We feel strongly that Breef will continue to redefine access to quality work, and shift the paradigm on how brands think about growing their workforce.”
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To date, Breef has grown a community of over 5,000 vetted boutique agencies in 20 countries. With more than 40 project types from Brand Creative and Public Relations to Digital Marketing and Web Development and Design, Breef users save an estimated 32% in project costs compared to the traditional agency model. Brands such as Spotify, Brex, Shutterstock, Bluestone Lane and Julianne Hough’s Kinrgy, are propelling Breef’s success, with millions of dollars in projects being created on the platform each month.
“We are constantly seeking partners to fuel our growth. Using Breef, we found the right agency within a matter of days, replacing the lengthy search process,” said Bryan Smith, COO at Kinrgy. “Breef has helped us completely reimagine our agency relationships and now all of our external partners are sourced through the platform.”
The company’s co-founders are passionate about advancing the creative economy, championing small agencies through a digital-first ecosystem of online tools, streamlined connectivity to brands, and proprietary payment technology to encourage financial growth. Bibb has been at the forefront of digital marketing and brand building for high-growth startups like POPSUGAR, VSCO and S’well. Raptis was on the founding team at fintech company Credible.com, which was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2017 and acquired in 2019. Both founders experienced similar challenges sourcing agency partners, and recognized the potential for technology to replace a traditionally slow and offline process.
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“Our backgrounds in marketing and fintech gave us unique insight into the challenges associated with high-value, high-touch transactions,” said Bibb, Co-Founder of Breef. “The agency model was broken. In light of the shift towards remote work, Breef is empowering businesses to work more efficiently by simplifying connections and accelerating payments.”
With this new investment, Breef will continue to grow its global community and product offering, formally launching its project funding service — Breef(pay) — to help simplify payments to agencies, and reduce the impact of cash flow challenges that growing businesses often face.
Alongside Greycroft, additional investors in Breef include Rackhouse Ventures, The House Fund, John and Helen McBain, Lance Armstrong, 640 Oxford Ventures and Laurence Holyoake.
