Podcorn Raises $2.2M In Seed Funding To Help Make Podcast Ads More Authentic Through A Self-Service Platform For Native Sponsorships

Los Angeles CA, USA—Podcorn, the marketplace enabling podcasters and brands to collaborate for native branded content, announced $2.2M in a seed funding round. The company will use the funds to advance the product development of its proprietary advertising and distribution platform. The financing was led by Global Founders Capital, with participation from Bessemer, 500 Startups, Alumni Ventures Group, Correlation Ventures, Next 10 Ventures and others.

"GFC strives to be at the forefront of innovation in content creation and advertising, and have been carefully searching for the right investment into the industry,” said Don Stalter, Partner at Global Founders Capital., “Agnes and David have both proven the ability to achieve a market-defining position in an emerging industry. They are in a great position to repeat such a story in the exponentially growing podcast ecosystem. We are looking forward to supporting them in realizing their vision.”

From the creators and founders of FameBit, who built the marketing platform designed to help YouTube creators better connect with brands which was recently acquired by Google, Podcorn aims to merge influencer marketing with podcasting and drive more advertisers to connect to and discover relevant podcasters to sponsor at scale, while fueling more podcast content creation. Podcorn seeks to take a very fresh approach to podcast ads in regards to not just making brands a part of the podcast, but also a part of the conversation through native ad integrations into episodes and shows, topical discussions and panels with podcasters, and other forms of branded content.

"The podcast industry is at the tipping point of delivering modern and engaging content but the medium is still in a very early and fragmented stage of monetization,” said Ethan Kurzweil, Partner at Bessemer. “David and Agnes have the marketplace expertise and product vision to have a profound impact on the industry and apply their creativity to create new partnership opportunities for podcasters and brands.”

“Today’s podcast landscape is similar to that of early YouTuber / brand partnerships space, in that only a small portion of podcast creators are able to monetize, and it’s a manual and tedious process for brands to find the right podcasters to collaborate with directly,” said Agnes Kozera, Co-Founder of Podcorn. “We see a huge opportunity to leverage our previous experience and expertise to streamline the process of podcast sponsorships and to provide a space to create ads that preserve the democratic and intimate nature of the medium.”

For more information, please visit https://www.podcorn.fm

About Podcorn

Podcorn is a self-service marketplace for brands to easily find and collaborate with the right podcasters to create more authentic ads through native branded content. Podcorn leverages technology to take the pain out of finding and sponsoring on-demand audio shows and to empower podcasters to monetize their voices and passions in a way that is engaging for listeners.

About Global Founders Capital

Founders drive incredible opportunities in the world, and we are their greatest advocates. That’s because our team has built multi-billion dollar technology businesses from scratch and has thrived through all the twists and turns of entrepreneurship along with it. Over the past two decades, we have backed over five hundred entrepreneurs worldwide. Facebook, LinkedIn, Zalando, Lazada, Traveloka, Trivago, Jumia, Away Travel, HelloFresh, Eventbrite, Funding Circle, Slack, Revolut, Canva, Delivery Hero and HomeAway represent a few of our global successes. Global Founders Capital manages over $1.2 billion of committed capital and invests out of eleven offices worldwide. https://www.globalfounders.vc