Creads Raises $4.1 Million To Fuel International Growth

French startup Creads raised $4.1 million (€3 million) from CM-CIC Capital Privé. Creads is an advertising agency powered by a marketplace of advertising jobs. As a company, you can submit your ad brief to the platform and set your requirements. As a creative freelancer or agency, you can work on those tasks. Eventually, Creads wants to become the dominant professional social network for creative people, a sort of Behance of advertising.

Today’s round is the first funding round for the company. Started in 2008, Creads now has 25 employees in three countries — France, Spain and Japan. It works with 50,000 creative people.

One of the company’s main strengths is its hybrid model. Clients don’t have to deal with community members. Creads itself hires project managers who can foster the connection between Creads and its community. Clients only have to deal with Creads, as if it were a traditional creative agency. In fact, many creative people in the community are traditional advertising agencies. In that case, Creads is just a way to reach new clients.

The next step for the company is to open an office in the U.S. and gain market share on the American market. Creads just created a new English-first vertical in order to get English-speaking clients. Clients already come from 50 different countries.

Thanks to Creads’ large community, the company is able to work on a wide range of projects, from a new brand name, to a new logo, a website, a video and more. And with today’s funding round, the company will be able to handle even more projects at the same time.