Noise raises $5.5M seed round led by Capital Midwest, M25, and Grishin Robotics
- NOISECompany
Capital Midwest FundInvestorM25Investor
grishin-roboticsInvestor
Noise, a creator‑marketing SaaS platform, closed a $5.5 million seed round on Sept. 16, 2026, led by Capital Midwest, M25 and Grishin Robotics, bringing its total capital to $7.2 million.
Deal Terms
Noise announced a $5.5 million seed financing on Sept. 16, 2026. The round was led by Capital Midwest, M25 and Grishin Robotics, with participation from Capitalize VC and several operators with backgrounds at DoorDash. The infusion lifts the company’s cumulative funding to $7.2 million and will be deployed to broaden product functionality and add headcount across engineering, sales and creator‑success teams.
Background
Founded in 2025 by Diego Kafie, Stu Feldt and Nic Weber, Noise grew out of the founders’ experience building the mobile‑game app Playbite. They discovered that ordinary users could be coached to generate high‑impact social content, a tactic that drove app installs at a fraction of traditional influencer costs. Leveraging that insight, they launched a marketplace where any smartphone user can join, complete creator‑training modules and earn per‑view payments for brand‑sponsored videos on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Noise now hosts roughly 1.5 million creators and positions itself as a low‑cost alternative to conventional influencer campaigns. Brands upload briefs, set budgets and the platform automates creator matching, content delivery and payment processing. Recent product updates include an “Organic‑to‑Ads” feature that lets brands amplify creator‑generated videos with paid media spend on Meta and TikTok, extending reach without additional creator effort.
The seed round arrives as the influencer economy continues to expand, with 57 % of Gen‑Z respondents and over 40 % of U.S. adults expressing interest in becoming paid creators. Noise joins a nascent cohort of creator‑infrastructure startups such as Billo and JoinBrands, all vying to capture a share of the $XX billion creator‑marketing spend (exact market size not disclosed).
Why It Matters
Noise’s capital raise equips the company to scale its creator‑sourcing engine and deepen its product stack, potentially accelerating its move from early‑stage mobile‑app marketers to larger enterprises with bigger media budgets. For incumbents like Billo and JoinBrands, the influx of seed capital intensifies competition for creator supply and brand spend, pressuring them to differentiate on automation, pricing or data insights.
The addition of operators from DoorDash signals a strategic interest in applying Noise’s creator‑distribution model to on‑demand and marketplace verticals, where user‑generated content can drive acquisition at scale. If Noise can prove its cost‑per‑acquisition advantage, it may become a go‑to SaaS layer for brands seeking to outsource influencer workflows without the overhead of traditional agency contracts.
Key Points
- Noise raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Capital Midwest, M25 and Grishin Robotics
- Total funding for Noise now stands at $7.2 million
- The round included Capitalize VC and operators from DoorDash
- Noise reports 1.5 million creators on its platform
- New "Organic‑to‑Ads" feature lets brands amplify creator videos with paid media
Analysis
The seed round does not disclose a post‑money valuation, so any ARR multiple analysis is unavailable. Nonetheless, the $5.5 million raise underscores investor confidence in a SaaS model that monetizes the creator economy through per‑view fees rather than flat influencer contracts. As brands scramble for scalable, performance‑based media, platforms that can automate creator recruitment, content production and payment at low cost are poised for rapid adoption. Noise’s focus on everyday users expands the addressable creator pool, potentially driving higher net revenue retention as creators graduate to higher‑paid campaigns. For investors, the deal highlights continued appetite for early‑stage B2B growth tools that unlock new acquisition channels, especially those that can be bundled into existing marketing stacks. Operators should watch how Noise’s Organic‑to‑Ads capability influences cost‑per‑lead metrics and whether the model can sustain margin as creator volumes increase.