Company gets funding to help Instagram power-users sell out on their feeds

If you can get popular on social networks, you have the opportunity to make money from your “celebrity” status. This has been the case for a long time with most major networks. Instagram has been relatively untouched when it comes to this trend, but a German company is trying to change that. Remember when people used social media to be social? Me neither.

Berlin-based Brandnew IO wants to connect brands with influential users on photo-sharing networks. The startup just announced a six-digit seed round to help it get started. The funding comes from investors in the digital advertising industry, including Oygo CEO Christoph Wilke, Clipkit founder Cengiz Kurt, and an undisclosed marketing services group, among others.

Brandnew IO, founded earlier this year by Francis Trapp and Malte Münchert, is currently only available for Instagram and Pinterest. The fresh funding will be used to further develop the product and acquire new brand clients. Trapp said in an interview today that the company is looking to extend Brandnew IO beyond photo-sharing communities, perhaps into networks such as Tumblr or Snapchat.