Popular Pays

Popular Pays is an influencer marketing and creator management platform that acts as a central hub for brands running collaborations with social media creators, covering the workflow from campaign conception through execution and measurement. The product is organized around four stages: Discover, a searchable creator marketplace and influencer database filterable by demographic, skill, audience size and network; Source, which handles hiring creators directly through the platform along with contracts, legal and payments; Collab, where brands publish briefs, review creator submissions, comment, request edits and approve content; and Analyze, which tracks content performance and campaign metrics for reporting on ROI.

The company supports two main types of engagement: influencer marketing campaigns in which creators publish brand content on their own channels, and commissioned content creation in which creators produce branded visuals, UGC-style assets and atmospheric content for the brand's own social pages and marketing channels, formatted for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Alongside self-serve platform tooling, Popular Pays offers campaign strategists and client partners who structure campaigns for clients. Brand safety is handled through a framework the company calls SafeCollab, which includes creator vetting and screening, keyword filtering and content pre-approvals, and an AI-based tool that scans creator content for red flags.

Popular Pays is a graduate of Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch and describes itself as a recognized partner of Meta, TikTok, Amazon Ads and Pinterest. Since its March 2022 acquisition it has operated as part of Lightricks, whose photo and video creation apps and platforms include Facetune, Photoleap, Videoleap and LTX Studio.

Founding story

Co-founder Corbett Drummey previously worked as an account manager at Leo Burnett on the Allstate "Mayhem" campaign and had earlier co-founded a tutor-matching startup at the College of William & Mary; the company was incorporated as a C-corp in May 2013 in Chicago.

Business model

Popular Pays sells brands access to a platform and accompanying managed services for sourcing, contracting, briefing, approving and measuring creator content. Prospective customers are directed to book a demo and speak with a client partner about packages rather than sign up for published pricing. The platform also intermediates creator compensation, handling contracts and payments to creators on behalf of brands.

Revenue is generated from brands purchasing campaign and content packages sold via client partners, with the platform handling creator payments; a company profile listed roughly $1M in trailing-twelve-month revenue at the time of that listing.

Traction

The company reports more than 6,800 successful campaigns to date, over $25M paid to creators through the platform, more than 5,800 brands working with its creator community and a creator network of over 160,000. Customer reviews are aggregated on G2 with a 4.4 rating.

Latest developments

Popular Pays has continued to publish product updates and marketing content under Lightricks ownership, including an AI-powered influencer background-check and brand-safety tool for scanning creator content, and content covering topics such as Amazon connected TV advertising and influencer marketing KPIs during 2024 and 2025.