Hummingbirds is a female-founded startup that connects hyperlocal content creators with brands and rewards them for sharing and marketing their products with a small, engaged community via social media.
The company announced a $5.4 million seed round on Wednesday, bringing its total funding to $10 million. The new capital will support the platform’s expansion to 20 additional cities by 2025, including Atlanta, Georgia. Charlotte, North Carolina. and Denver, Colorado.
Launched last year, the platform is betting on localized word-of-mouth marketing for brands to build trust with local customers. Businesses large and small often struggle with local marketing due to ineffective traditional advertising, limited budgets, or competition from other brands. Hummingbirds believes the solution lies in leveraging nearby creators to promote its products, such as “PTA moms” (i.e., parents who are actively involved in school activities such as fundraisers) and other local residents.
“When[brands]think about driving in-store behavior for these retailers, they need new marketing tools. So Hummingbirds has found that these brands can act quickly, increase brand awareness, build a loyal following, and drive customers to actually come back to the store and buy their products again and again,” co-founder Charise Flynn told TechCrunch.
Hummingbirds allows brands to launch targeted marketing campaigns that target local residents and encourage them to share their products with their followers on social media. We currently have over 300 brand partners, from well-known brands like ChopLocal, Cutwater, Goodles and Olipop to small businesses and local chains like AE Dairy and Fareway Grocery.
To encourage participation, companies offer perks like gift cards ranging from $50 to $250, free experiences (like a massage at a spa), free products, and other perks.
Hummingbirds takes a 0% commission from creators, but brands must pay to launch campaigns on the platform.
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The platform focuses on everyday creators who consider social sharing a hobby, and most of their followers are friends and local connections. The paper claims that “nano-creators” (people with up to 10,000 followers) often achieve higher engagement rates thanks to their loyal followers. The company claims its strategy of creating “city-specific content” increases sales by up to 14x and enhances social engagement by 80%.
“Their engagement rates are much higher than traditional industry standards. We see 3-4% engagement on average… most influencers have 0.7% engagement,” Flynn said.
Several startups similar to Hummingbirds have emerged in recent years, including Franki, Mavely, Mavn, and Soci, but Hummingbirds sets itself apart by primarily targeting content creators in Central America. The platform operates in more than 20 cities, including Des Moines, Iowa. Madison, Wisconsin. Nashville, Tennessee. and Omaha, Nebraska.
This focus is strategic, as the company believes this area is often overlooked and difficult for many brands looking to expand their reach.
“They don’t know how to market to Central America.[Customers]spend a lot of money on groceries, so we can activate the Hummingbird community to increase brand awareness and increase product sales velocity. Our focus on a part of marketing that is a little more difficult for them was very beneficial,” Flynn explained.
Co-founder Emily Steele is the visionary behind Hummingbirds. Working as a small-time content creator in Iowa, she recognized an opportunity to help brands reach her community.
“Hummingbirds started in Des Moines, Iowa, when we tried an oat milk latte, shared it on social, and got excited about helping others share our city’s small businesses,” Steele said. She also said the company’s name comes from the nickname her father-in-law calls her, since hummingbirds are the “local pollinators” and are always “flying around town.”
Recently, the company has experienced rapid growth. It has quadrupled its revenue and doubled the size of its community in the past year, now claiming to have 11,000 creators.
Seed round participants include Allos Ventures, Ground Game, Homegrown Capital, InnoVenture Iowa Fund, ISA Ventures, M25 Fund, and Next Level Ventures.
