70. SoSquared

Founder: Sam Royle and Greg Donnelly
Year founded: 2019
Website: sosquared.com

With TikTok searches outstripping Google in some cases, and brands seeking to build their presence on X, Instagram and maybe even Threads, the influencer market is booming in the UK, with searches for the term quadrupling from 2016 to 2021. But with fast growth, comes growing pains. 

This is what Sam Royle realised while working in the influencer marketing space. From content creators waiting on delayed payments after Instagram DMing their bank details to brands, to companies keeping track of processes through spreadsheets, it was clear the industry lacked infrastructure and professionalism.

Royle’s and his fellow cofounder Greg Donnelly’s solution? SoSquare – an influencer marketing platform that directly connects brands to content creators, helping to bridge the gap between both parties and offering data-driven insights to help take social campaigns to the next level.

SoSquared’s target audience is two-fold: influencers and content creators, and businesses and agencies looking to create high-performing social campaigns.

Aside from connecting businesses to talent, the platform also offers a purpose-built campaign management system that helps you track and manage the collaboration process from start to finish.

However, it’s the platform’s data-driven strategy that truly separates it from the competition. Unlike similar solutions, SoSquared offers a real-time influencer insight display, providing transparency for brands selecting influencers, and enabling the agency to meet the modern demands of the industry. 

SoSquare’s vision is catching on fast. In the past year, the North West based startup has developed a close partnership with TikTok – with Royle speaking at numerous TikTok seminars – and was also a city winner at Tech Nation’s Rising Stars Competition.

The platform also boasts several high-profile clients, including Revlon, L’Oreal, The Hut Group, Lamborghini, and more – and it’s not taking its foot off the pedal yet.

In five years, SoSquared aims to have a global business across most of the Western world and potentially parts of the Middle East.

By helping businesses scale while enabling creators to make their side hustle into a full-time living, SoSquare is clearly providing a solution to a real-world problem – and we can’t wait to see where they go next.