A Chat with Devran Amaratunga Karaca, CEO and Co-Founder at Global Creator Economy Company: Kyra

Kyra is a global creator economy company with a suite of services that help bridge that gap between brands and TikTok creators. We are a team of creators at our core with a passion for truly channelling the power of content, creators, and social media marketing to help engage and resonate with the next generation.

The company encompasses Kyra Originals, originally produced TikTok channels reaching more than 13M monthly viewers; Kyra Profile, a Gen Z creator incubator program; Kyra Studios, a production studio creating social content on behalf of brands; and Kyra Platform, a new proprietary platform enabling TikTok partnerships for brands and creators at scale.

At Kyra, we work with a diverse slate of creators including Abby Roberts, Iconicakes, and Nintendo Grl, and some of the world’s most beloved brands such as Nike, eBay, LinkedIn, L’Oreal and more.”
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
Our uniqueness comes from our vantage point. We are creators ourselves, so we understand the roadblocks both content creators and brands face when bringing a campaign to life, as well as the workflow that could solve for them. In launching nearly 300 partnerships in the last 12 months, we’ve paid out more than $5M to creators and have key learnings to launch the Kyra Platform – a proprietary platform streamlining and optimizing partnerships for brands and creators alike.

This platform boasts a marketplace of global content creators for brands to leverage to get their product, goods, or service in front of Gen Z at scale. Featuring both a ‘hero’ and ‘community’ brief, Kyra manages the end-to-end creative process for brands from idea generation to production and approvals with the help of Kyra-vetted creators.
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
Kyra has gone through many iterations in its short 5 years, but our goal to help amplify the careers of content creators has remained present through it all. We started as a dual-focus media company and creative studio running popular YouTube channels before pivoting into the world of TikTok. With the creator economy growing to a 100 BN industry, we saw an incredible opportunity to make headway with Gen Z with short-form content, and have been scaling that aspect of the business through a restructure.

We recently closed $15 million in Series A funding, led by Bonnier Ventures with participation from LionTree, Torch Capital, GMG Ventures and Firstminute Capital amongst others. This financing will allow us to continue building out a home for creators to connect with dream brands, get paid instantly based on performance, and network with their industry peers, all in one place.
 

What can we hope to see from Kyra in the future?

 
The next chapter of Kyra is arguably the most exciting. We are solving the fragmented and inequitable landscape that is the creator economy. For brands, expect to see us continuing to shape our product to meet your needs. We are taking a process that could last for months and streamlining it into a swift and hassle-free process, where you can tap some of the world’s best TikTok creators. For creators, we will continue advocating on their behalf to grant them access to premium brand deals, instant payments, professional development and networking opportunities.

Additionally, we will continue producing best-in-class video content on our Kyra Originals channels (Rag Report, Blended, and Kyra), as well as for brands through Kyra Studios.