Breef lands $16 million in funding to grow its online agency marketplace

Globalization has forever changed the ways companies do business. This is especially true for brands that have to find the best agencies for their digital and creative needs. But finding vetted agencies can be a daunting task. That’s where Breef comes in. Breef is the world’s first online agency marketplace to enable brands to manage and service all agency projects.

Brief’s platform has transformed project outsourcing for global brands and emerging businesses by facilitating agency connections in under seven days – through a combination of proprietary technology and payment innovations. Since its launch four years ago, Breef marketplace has grown to over 10,000 marketing agencies across 25 countries. Breef has now passed $100 million in project value created on the platform.

To further meet the increasing demands for its service, Breef announced today it has raised $16 million in new funding led by Greycroft, with strategic investment from leading funds including BDMI (part of media powerhouse Bertelsmann), Touch Ventures, UTA.VC (United Talent Agency Ventures), The House Fund, Rackhouse Ventures, and Burst Capital. To date, Breef has raised a total of $21 million in funding.

Breef will use the new cash infusion to continue to evolve the product offering – building on the new platform experience released this month. In addition, the startup will also use funding proceeds to grow its global team. Breef recently announced its first international bases in the UK and Australia. The company will also invest further in its industry-first payment infrastructure, BreefPay, and expand upon partnerships with brands like the spend automation platform Ramp, venue rental marketplace Peerspace, and small business marketplace Newity.

Founded in 2019 by Emily Bibb and George Raptis, Breef is redefining the future of work by taking the agency online. The company’s technology is the first of its kind to streamline the agency outsourcing process and facilitate high-value, high-growth projects. Breef’s proprietary platform allows brands to manage and service all agency projects, pitches, and payments, facilitating efficiencies within today’s distributed workforce. The platform hosts more than 10,000 vetted agencies, and thousands of world-leading brands, and has now passed $100 million in project value created on the platform.

Breef’s customer base include established companies like Pantone, Spotify, and Heineken, as well as emerging brands such as Byte and beverage company Flying Embers, which use Breef to find the best agencies for over 50 project types. This includes everything from branding to website development, digital marketing, content creation, and more.

“Breef has taken the analog agency model online,” said Ali Schleider, Investor at Greycroft. “The amount of demand we are seeing from brands and agencies flowing through the platform shows companies are looking for a new way to get creative work done. Our belief is that Breef is not only repositioning marketing spend, but creating an accessible solution for quality talent – no matter market conditions.”

Breef democratizes connections between brands and boutique agencies, simplifying and improving the planning, scoping, pitching and payment processes for outsourcing. Its platform allows companies to create a project or access support from a Breef Marketing Strategist, and receive pitches from vetted agencies within seven days. The process eliminates the need for complex and time-consuming requests for proposals (RFPs), delivering on the flexibility to outsource projects in days – instead of months – saving brands an average of 35 percent in fees per project through competitive pricing.

“As brands evolve with the times, we need speed and agility to meet the ever-changing demands of modern marketing,” said Elley Cheng, Vice President and General Manager at Pantone. “Breef has delivered us easy access to new, specialized agencies that can help us quickly jumpstart initiatives.”

Core to that value proposition is Breef’s proprietary technology that allows for the matching between brands and agencies, enabling brands to form partnerships curated to their exact needs, timeline, and budget. For the first time, companies are able to transact high-value projects online – in a world where meeting face-to-face no longer matters – and net-30 terms are now replaced by same-day payments.

“We are building for the next generation of work. Our approach is transforming the marketing industry at large by rewarding transparency, creating unprecedented access to agency talent, and helping companies reduce costs,” said Emily Bibb, Co-Founder of Breef. “Brands – big or small – can be agile on our platform and specialized, boutique agencies can finally work with their dream clients.”