Bounty raises $4.7M to help everyday TikTokers make money from reviews

Bounty, an online service that helps TikTok creators monetize brand reviews and endorsements, today announced the close of a 4.7 seed round million led by consumer technology venture capital firm M13.

The new service, currently in beta, is designed for everyday TikTok users — not just professional creators — who want to earn money by reviewing products from brands.

To sign up, customers enter their phone number on the Bounty site and receive a list of instructions. Bounty users must first purchase a qualifying product from one of the partner brands. Once the order has been processed and delivered, the customer will receive a special link via SMS to accept the "Bounty" so that they can be paid when they post their video review on TikTok. The creator uploads content with the brand tagged and #bounty in the caption. Bounty will then detect the post and notify the client that it is being tracked. Videos must also be properly labeled as "sponsored" per FTC guidelines. Premium notes.

Reviewers can earn up to $10 per 1,000 views on their TikTok content and keep 100% of their earnings. They get paid for organic views generated within the first 48 hours. The price per view gradually decreases as views increase to ensure a fair return to the creator and brand, the company says. So the better the video performs in the first two days, the more the creator gets paid.

Anyone 18 or older with a TikTok account can use Bounty.

Funding will be used to onboard brands on the company's waitlist of more than 750 brands. Currently, Bounty works with 30 brands, including Jones Road Beauty, BlendJet, Olipop and Doe Lashes.

During beta testing, Bounty worked with approximately 14,000 creators. The company reports that its top creators earn around $3,000 per month, but didn't share details on how many videos they posted or what an average user would earn.

However, Addie Neri, a TikTok user (@addingtoneri) with a modest 19,400 followers, told Fast Company that she was able to earn over $560 from a Bounty video. As of May 2022, she has earned over $3,000 in total by posting about Jones Road Beauty products with the help of Bounty.

In addition to earning money from views, the creator also gets paid when the brand reuses their video in another way. Brands can display created content through the Bounty website and can then authorize it to run as a TikTok Spark ad – an ad format that allows advertisers to place ad spend on user-generated content to broadcast it to a larger number of viewers. They can also use the video in their other paid marketing efforts.

This is possible because the creators license their content to Bounty as part of their agreement, allowing Bounty to sub-license the content to brand on their behalf. The creator also retains a license to the content.

Brands pay Bounty a monthly fee, which varies based on platform usage, but starts at $99 per month.

Investors Sugar Capital, Interlace Ventures, and founders and executives of Rothy's, Fabletics, and Stack Commerce, among others, participated in the new round, bringing the total amount raised to $6.7 million. The funding will also help fuel plans to hire Bounty's engineering, design and marketing departments. The first hires come from Google, Sezzle and Dharma.

The Miami-based company was founded in 2021 by Abe Wolke. He hopes the product will democratize the influencer economy by “giving paying customers the opportunity to be rewarded if their content is used by the brand and helps the brand grow,” he says.

The old way was to pay an agency to send free products to influencers in hopes of a post. However, this is less effective because it looks like an advertisement. When a real customer posts content, it comes across as more authentic. Of course, customers who get paid for their positive reviews of a product aren't necessarily more truthful than a creator who got the item for free. And the company tells creators that negative reviews aren't eligible for payouts.

"Celebrities and big designers are not our priority," says Wolke. “We are focused on unlocking the long tail of creator marketing, serving micro and nano creators – everyday customers and creators who have no ag...