Creator Platform Parade Raises $4M

Cami Tellez's new venture is named Devotion, co-founded with former TikTok executive Jon Kroopf. It's an AI-powered platform designed to help brands scale their influencer marketing programs, a problem Tellez faced when building her previous company, the Gen Z-focused underwear brand Parade. Before its acquisition and eventual shutdown, Parade was valued at $200 million at its peak, largely due to its innovative use of micro-influencers and community-building. Tellez's team had to build their own internal tools to manage gifting, payments, and engagement with creators, a system that became a blueprint for other consumer brands. Devotion aims to industrialize that playbook for the current algorithmic era, where content performance, not just follower count, determines reach. Tellez notes that a creator's post that might have reached 20% of their followers five years ago now reaches closer to 2%, a shift that democratizes influence and creates opportunities for brands to work with thousands of creators. The platform uses AI to automate creator discovery, vetting, and compliance analysis, and even provides a "brand fit" score. After a year in beta, Devotion has already signed over 10 clients and generated seven-figure revenue, signaling strong market demand for tools that can manage creator ecosystems at scale.