Trufan Raises $500K, Debuts New Platform to Let Brands and Influencers Reward their Top Fans

Tech Startup Creates Proprietary Algorithm that Displays a User's Influential and Engaged Followers

VANCOUVER, Nov. 12, 2018 /CNW/ - Trufan, a Vancouver-based SaaS company that helps influencers and brands identify and reward their top fans, announced today that they have raised $500,000 from several angel investors to fuel the launch of its web platform and expansion to markets across Canada and the United States. The company, founded by two of Canada's top young entrepreneurs, Swish Goswami and Aanikh Kler, was pleased to bring on several strategic and notable investors into its second pre-seed round including Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles Lakers forward), Davon Reed (Indiana Pacers guard), Manny Padda (Managing Partner, New Avenue Capital), Michele Romanow (Dragon, CBC Dragons' Den and Co-Founder and President, Clearbanc), Andrew D'Souza (Co-Founder and CEO, Clearbanc), Jason Robins (CEO, DraftKings), Jake Ratner (Creative Director, Ratner Creative), Brian Poe Llamanzares (CEO, Time Master Watches), Eagle Rock Wealth Management, Austin and Trevor Eastman (founders of Odyssey Sports Group).

The company's web platform, which will be entering private beta on November 15, uses a proprietary algorithm to determine a user's top influential and engaged followers on Twitter. Trufan users can use the platform to directly message and reward their top followers, segment them using various filters and export their followers into a CSV file that can be used for retargeting campaigns on Twitter. This direct channel can help users sell to their top fans, set up local events, build influencer lists, structure retargeting campaigns, and most importantly, build a loyal community. 

Trufan's first round of financing was filled by Karen O'Brien, VP, Signet Jewelers, formerly Western Union. On Trufan, she said "From a brand perspective I am very excited about the potential that Trufan offers. Many brands are still trying to understand the opportunity around influencer marketing and how to align different kinds of influencers around brand values and purpose. Trufan will enable brands to leverage the highly valuable intersection between influencers and their most engaged fans in a unique way… to understand consumers better, gain insights, drive offers in a direct and personalized at scale approach."

Trufan plans to close out this year by giving private beta access to over 400 influencers and over 250 brands. On that list are influencers like Kevin Hart, Cameron Dallas, Gucci Mane, Ludacris, Cody Ko, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade along with several brands like Western Union, McDonald's Canada, UFC, WestJet, K-Swiss and TheScore. Many of these early beta testers have come from referrals generated by Trufan's advisory board which is stacked with industry leaders like Michael Hyatt (Chairman, BlueCat Networks), Mark Zablow (CEO, Cogent Marketing), Chuck Figueroa (Commercial Marketing, NBA), Sam Sheffer (popular YouTuber), Jeff Rubin (CEO, SportsMe), and Eliot Robinson (CEO, Dunk Media).

For Swish and Aanikh, they see their work at Trufan as not only a way to advance the field of marketing but entrepreneurship as a whole in Canada. On that, Swish said "Many cities don't do the best job of profiling some of the incredible companies that have been born on Canadian soil. We want to let people know that it's never been better to build a company in Canada."

Trufan's team of seven will be going through Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes' national incubator The League of Innovators (LOI) that hopes to spread access to entrepreneurship across Canada. Swish is on the board for LOI and was incredibly grateful to them saying "We're genuinely thankful to LOI and Ryan for giving Trufan office space at Hootsuite and for giving us a platform to spread our passion for solving problems." Trufan will be also be producing content with LOI and K-Swiss, with a plan to release a podcast where celebrities are interviewed by their top fans and a web series that shows the behind the scenes of growing a startup from the ground up.

SOURCE Trufan Inc.

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