Howl
Founded 2015 · 32 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
Howl provides affiliate marketing and commerce tools for creators to earn commissions from brand partnerships and build curated product storefronts. The platform connects creators with premium brand deals, retail media budgets, and multiple monetization options beyond traditional affiliate links.
Also known as Howl Technologies Inc · Howl.Link · Planet Howl
Investors · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Howl is a creator commerce and affiliate marketing platform that connects content creators with brands and retailers. Creators use Howl to create trackable, monetizable links to products on e-commerce sites, organize them into link folders, and share them across social and publishing platforms including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Substack and Twitch. A browser extension surfaces whether a page is monetizable and shows the applicable commission rate before a link is created, and multiple team members can create links for the same account.
Beyond links, the platform offers customizable storefronts with themed product collections and custom shop URLs, a real-time orders feed that includes return information, and analytics with custom filters and breakdowns of earnings by brand, campaign, link and social platform. Monetization options include commissions, personalized elevated rates, upfront content flat fees and licensing, and pay-per-lead and cost-per-click deals. Howl Select is a program for growth-oriented creators that the company describes as including $25,000 guaranteed in flat fees, a $10,000 growth accelerator and a $5,000 budget for testing and sampling.
Howl markets access to retail media network advertising budgets as a distinguishing element of its offering, positioning brand partnerships and guaranteed payouts alongside traditional affiliate commissions. Sign-up is open to creators regardless of follower count, with the company stating it evaluates engagement and conversion potential rather than audience size, though some premium deals carry specific requirements.
Founding story
Howl was founded by Li Haslett Chen, its CEO and a former McKinsey consultant. Advisers to the company include David Fischer, former chief revenue officer at Meta Platforms, and Bill Macaitis, former CMO of Slack.
Business model
Howl operates a two-sided marketplace connecting creators with brands and retailers. Creators generate trackable affiliate links and storefronts and earn commissions on resulting sales, alongside flat fees for content, content licensing, pay-per-lead and cost-per-click arrangements, bonuses and elevated commission rates. Howl states it handles payment processing itself, paying creators in a payout cycle after transactions clear (often Net 30, 60 or 90 days), with no minimum payout threshold, return fees or added fees charged to creators.
Howl sits between brands/retailers and creators, monetizing brand and retail media budgets that fund creator commissions, flat fees, licensing, pay-per-lead and cost-per-click payouts; the company states it does not charge creators hidden fees or return fees.
Traction
Howl's site states thousands of creators use the platform, and its Chrome extension reports roughly 1,000 users. Retail partners cited in press coverage include Samsung and Sephora.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Howl competes in the influencer and affiliate marketing sector, described in press coverage as a crowded field, and seeks to differentiate through collaborative marketplace tools for creators and retailers and access to retail media budgets. Its browser extension appears alongside comparable link-monetization tools from MagicLinks, Mavely, Levanta, Sovrn Commerce, impact.com and CJ.
Howl positions itself as the only affiliate platform that draws on retail media network budgets, which it links to higher commissions and direct brand partnerships. It also emphasizes guaranteed payouts, no return fees or hidden costs, no minimum payout threshold, longer conversion windows for attribution, and commission-rate visibility inside its browser extension before a link is created. Its CEO has contrasted Howl with competing products he characterized as primarily creator databases, describing Howl instead as matching retailers with creators and surfacing real-time sales data and the products a retailer wants promoted.
Technology
Howl provides link-generation and attribution infrastructure with a Chrome extension that detects monetizable pages and displays commission rates, short howl.me links, link folders and bulk link management, real-time order and returns feeds, analytics dashboards segmented by brand, campaign, link and platform, storefront builders, and integrated payment processing. The company describes Howl.Link as a rebuilt infrastructure layer with longer conversion windows for attribution.
Go-to-market
Howl acquires creators through self-service sign-up on its website and a Chrome extension, with no follower-count requirement, and layers on invitation-style programs such as Howl Select for creators focused on growth. On the demand side it works with major retailers and brands, including Samsung and Sephora, and offers brand deals, bonuses, gifting and elevated rates allocated to individual creators. Marketing materials feature creators including @mkbhd (20.3M followers), @evanysphotography (1.5M), @JustinTse (902K), @CJKnowsTECH (148K) and @BenGKaiser (138K).
Content creators of any audience size across social and publishing platforms, and the brands and retailers seeking creator-driven sales, including consumer brands such as Samsung and Sephora.
Geography
Howl Technologies Inc. lists an address at 335 Madison Ave, Floor 16, New York, NY 10017, United States.
History
Press coverage in December 2022 described Howl as a two-year-old startup at the time of its Series A. The company subsequently rebuilt its platform as Howl.Link, describing it as the next generation of its social commerce infrastructure with upgrades spanning attribution, analytics, orders data, link management and payment transparency, rolled out through an Early Access phase.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsHowl distributes a Chrome extension that lets creators generate monetizable links from e-commerce sites and view commission rates before creating a link; version 1.2.4 was updated on this date.
Howl introduced Howl.Link, an upgraded version of its social commerce infrastructure covering attribution, analytics visualizations, an orders feed with returns data, link folders and bulk link management, and line-by-line payment detail. The company noted an Early Access phase with features rolling out over the following summer.
Press coverage reported that Howl, then a two-year-old startup, raised $27 million in Series A funding led by Highland Capital Partners, with The Information first reporting the deal.
$27M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Howlhowl.link · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Howl do?
- Howl is a creator commerce platform for affiliate links, storefronts, brand deals and retail media-funded payouts.
- Who are Howl's investors?
- Howl's investors include Eastward Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners.