Former radio star Jules Lund could list his influencer platform TRIBE on the ASX

Jules Lund, who across the past two decades has hosted TV shows including Getaway and appeared on radio as part of lineups including Fifi & Jules with Fifi Box , The Scoopla Show alongside Emma Freedman and 2DayFM Breakfast in Sydney, has announced his next move.

He has initiated plans to launch his influencer platform and branded content marketplace, TRIBE, on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

TRIBE launched in 2015 after Lund “fell in love with the power of social media” and he realised ‘micro-influencers’ could reach highly-engaged fans and consumers for a much lower price point than full-blown traditional celebrities.

In 2019, Lund and TRIBE’s CEO Anthony Svirkis then took the operation to the US after a $10.5 million capital raise.

Late last year, the business raised a further $5.5 million in a pre-IPO (initial public offering) round, with Svirkis noting investor demand was strong.

Lund said it’s early days in the process, and while an IPO is a pathway, there are also other options on the table.

“An IPO is an option being considered as it will provide TRIBE the access to capital to pursue the significant market opportunity in front of us, particularly in the US which is now our fastest-growing market,” Lund said. “No timeline has been set for the IPO, and we will continue to explore capital market opportunities.”

Lund said over the past five years, he’d been focused on building great technology, expanding into key regions and building relationships with many of the world’s largest brands and agencies.

“TRIBE was built for the future of advertising as marketers shift budgets to digital,” Lund explained. “We consider this new demand, as much as it augments the roles of our creative agency partners. The platform generates mobile branded content at speed and scale to enable marketers to extract better performance from their digital ad spend. There’s been turbulence throughout the year for all marketers and advertisers, but the underlying theme and movement to digital has not changed through the pandemic, only accelerated.”

The main investor in the pre-IPO round was Saville Capital.