PeerIndex, the Klout-like influencer ranking startup which this year picked up a $3 Million Series A round, is beefing up its team and scaling up operations. Specifically, it’s hired Garth Holsinger, Klout’s ex-VP of Sales and Business Development, to help accelerate their marketing and partnerships. This makes for a significant move, especially since they’ve lured him away from the very agency he set up after he left Klout.
They’re also bringing on David Galbraith (former co-founder of Moreover and co-founder of Yelp) and Rikk Carey (ex-Napster and co-founder of Plaxo) as advisers. These are pretty heavyweight names. And tonight they also go live with a campaign with on-demand limo service Uber. Busy busy.
Garth told us he left Klout 5-6 months ago to start his own agency in NYC focused on influencer marketing. However he joined PeerINdex because he “realised the analytics were rock solid, and climate in UK is ripe for this,” he told us by phone tonight. “Agencies are pouncing on Influencer Marketing and major brands are now ready to act. There is a huge amount of enthusiasm.”
Founder and CEO Azeem Azhar says that while Klout concentrates on the U.S., PeerIndex plans to scale outside and win the ROW market (Rest Of World). The startup is now running influencer campaigns in multiple languages in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Germany and India.