Mavely is a Social Commerce platform that unlocks trust between your brand and its target audience. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Mavely co-founder Evan Wray to learn more about the company.
Evan Wray’s Background
What is Evan Wray’s background? Wray said:
“I’m the co-founder and CEO of Mavely, a social commerce platform that empowers everyday people to earn money by sharing and recommending products they love. Mavely was recently acquired by Later, whose leadership team I will be joining as we work together to shape the future of our company. Prior to Mavely, I co-founded Swyft Media, a mobile messaging startup that was later acquired by Monotype Imaging. My background is in entrepreneurship, technology, and business development, and scaling companies in the digital space. At Mavely my focus is on driving growth and fostering a community-driven approach to e-commerce.”
Formation Of Mavely
How did the idea for Mavely come together? Wray shared:
“Mavely’s vision has evolved quite a bit since it was first founded. It started as a place for moms to share product recommendations with their friends and family and has evolved into a collaborative space for creators and entrepreneurs of the future to interact online, make a living, and grow. At Mavely, we see these creators and entrepreneurs as this generation’s small and medium-sized businesses who have the opportunity to deliver impressive outcomes for brands. Today our mission is to build growth opportunities for millions of brands by fostering the relationship between brands and their advocates.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Wray reflected:
“My favorite memory is when we first started reaching out to our creators and hearing their stories of how Mavely had changed their lives. Learning that Mavely helped creators accomplish their goals, like having the ability to buy their first house, stop working two jobs, or take their kids to Disney World, was impactful to me personally and really crystalized the impact Mavely will have globally.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Wray explained:
“In a nutshell, Mavely provides easy-to-use technology that empowers influencers to create shoppable SmartLinks to share products from thousands of the world’s most shopped brands. Creators on our platform stack their earnings from a variety of sources: commission on sales they drive, a monthly bonus program, referral commission, contests, and free access to popular marketing tools. Our aim is to help creators maximize their social commerce earnings in the least amount of time. Coupled with a performance-driven approach to influencer marketing, Mavely’s network of creators drives hundreds of millions of dollars each year in sales for brand partners across diverse niches and platforms, with attributable data from post to purchase.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Wray and the team faced in building the company? Wray acknowledged:
“It can be easy to look at others and assume their success came in overnight, but the reality is that every company faces its own unique challenges within their industry. Now years into our journey at Mavely, I know that we wouldn’t have gotten to where we are without the challenges along the way. The first several years at Mavely were challenging as we worked to make our product fit in an industry that wasn’t as easily defined at the time. In recent years, there is a better collective understanding of the influencer and creator economy, and it’s easier for people to see the value of influencer and creator work in real-time. However, since the landscape evolves so rapidly, we’re always working toward the next thing we can do to meet our creators where it matters most. Like any entrepreneurial journey, we had times where we were wondering how the business would work, but having great investors, advisors, mentors, and team members are the key to giving your company the best chance for success.”
Evolution Of Mavely’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Wray noted:
“What began as an app for moms to share their favorite products has evolved into a powerful all-in-one platform for 120,000+ Everyday Influencers. We’re continuously evolving our creator tools to help people maximize their social commerce earnings with ease.”
Some enhancements over the years include:
– More ways for creators to make and share links, including an intuitive mobile app, mobile share extension, a web app, and a Google-featured browser extension. These tools help creators make shoppable SmartLinks with a single click.
– Mavely partnerships and integrations that give creators free access to popular creator tools all through our app, for example Bitly and LinkDM, with more on the horizon.
– Powerful real-time analytics that let creators see exactly how their links are performing, so they can make informed decisions about where they spend their time. Mavely creators can see clicks, conversions, and sales at-a-glance within the app.
– Reliable, dynamic and scalable ecosystem that, for one thing, means that our app can accommodate an influx of new creators, link creation, and shopping activity. This is especially relevant around the holidays when we see a surge in activity.
– Growth in our brand and retail library, to give creators more choices on the brands they promote across diverse niches, and more information around those brands, so creators can make informed decisions about their promotion. This allows creators to stay compliant with clearly stated brand standards.
– In-app resource feeds featuring information for trending brands, time-sensitive promotions, and educational content to streamline what to promote and how to be successful when promoting.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Wray cited:
“In August 2024, we announced one of our most significant milestones to date, including achieving a gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate of more than $675M, an over 175% growth from the previous period. With more than 15.4 million influencer-driven purchases in 2024, Mavely continues to elevate the influencer marketing landscape. In 2024 alone we welcomed more than 460 new brands including ELEMIS, Etsy and Samsung, adding to a growing roster of more than 1,400 brand partners that include renowned retailers like Old Navy and QVC, further enriching the platform’s diverse offerings.
We kicked off 2025 with an enormous milestone, an M&A deal with Later valued at $250 million, with strategic investment from Summit Partners. This partnership not only speaks to the tremendous growth potential of this industry but will help us drive full funnel campaigns as we reinvent how marketers and creators work together. My co-founder, Sean O’Brien, and I will be joining Later’s leadership team to help shape the future of the company and the industry at large.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Wray about customer success stories, Wray highlighted:
“On the creator side, we hear from many people how Mavely has changed their lives. From people who had been struggling to keep the lights on and now are first-time homeowners, to those who have transitioned to full-time influencers and can be more present with their families by working from home on their own schedules. A few specific examples include:
– Lourdes Quintanar left the workforce as a full-time daycare instructor when she was diagnosed with cancer. After beating cancer, she struggled with how to rejoin the workforce and contribute to household income. Now as a full-time Mavely creator, she has built a successful business as an influencer and even took her extended family of 12 to Disney World, funded completely by her Mavely earnings.
– Karen Ponce, the person behind Cupones Gratis, helps her 1.7 million followers save money by sharing deals through popular shop-along videos. She’s used Mavely to drive more than 225,000 sales for Mavely retail partners among her predominantly Spanish-speaking audience.
On the brand side, we are helping retailers connect with consumers through relatable influencers at scale, with significant business results. For example, Mavely worked with Shop Premium Outlets to drive more than 100,000 influencer-driven sales in 2023, in a campaign that increased average order value by 30%. We help our brand partners both increase their reach — in Shop Premium Outlet’s case, 3,700 Mavely influencers have promoted their products, driving more than 5 million visits to their retail site — and also realize attributable influencer sales. Over the course of the campaign, Shop Premium Outlets saw a 500% increase in influencer-driven GMV in a single quarter.”
Funding/Commissions
When asking Wray about the company’s funding and commission metrics, he revealed:
“From January to July 2024, Mavely paid out over $16M in commissions and other earnings to creators. We now have paid out nearly $40M to creators. Similar to other platforms where individuals can choose how much work they take on, earnings vary by influencer. Initially Mavely raised $2M in funding and was acquired by Rhyz Enterprises in 2021. In 2025, we were acquired by Later for $250 million with investment from global growth equity investor Summit Partners. Moving forward, we will continue to operate Mavely as Later’s creator-facing ecosystem.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Wray affirmed:
“Mavely operates in a sweet spot between creators and brands, which means we’re constantly looking at the industry from all angles. We’re more than a tech platform; we’re more than a tool for creators. We strive to build a community for creators through things like Mavely Meetup events, Mavely University influencer education, and also through our Account Management program that pairs influencers with dedicated coaches to help them succeed.
– From the brand perspective, we are fundamentally focused on return on ad spend / performance marketing through everyday, authentic people. This is fundamentally different from most influencer platforms that only focus on top-of-funnel metrics such as likes and comments from larger follower count influencers. Our Creator Performance Network drives full-funnel marketing, with data from post to purchase. We drive tangible sales results for brands through our network of Everyday Influencers and Creators.
– From the creator perspective, we are focused on the Everyday Influencer & Creator, regardless of the size of their following. This larger, untapped market of creators feature folks who have built trust with their audiences, have a wide variety of follower counts, and just want a refreshing community feel welcome, heard and supported. Ultimately, this ends up driving more genuine recommendations and sales for our brand partners, which means more earnings for our creators. We aim to elevate real people and give them the education and technology to build their personal businesses while driving sales for Mavely brand partners. There’s no application or follower minimum to start using Mavely, we only require compliance with FTC and brand guidelines.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Wray pointed out:
“Ultimately, we are building towards the Mavely Creator Performance Network. We want customers to be able to engage with Everyday Influencers and Creators wherever they are making purchasing decisions. Leveraging our hundreds of millions of purchase journeys, creator tools, community enablement and 1,400+ of the world’s top retailers, we can fundamentally power the future of social commerce and retail.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Wray concluded:
“In the next few years, we believe that brands will recognize that everyday people and creators can be more impactful than top tier celebrities and influencers when it comes to conversion of sales and brand affinity. In a world inundated with blue check marks and follower counts, consumers are in constant search for authenticity from creators they can see themselves in and are easily deterred from creators who are not perceived to be genuine. At Mavely we see this trend growing; as smaller creators are becoming the new ‘word of mouth’ and align themselves with brands that suit their lifestyle and interests. We see our role as a connector in these natural pairings between brands and creators for a mutually beneficial partnership, and offer a support network for creators of all platform sizes.”
“From a brand perspective, we see creators as the future of retail, not just ecommerce, which is why we are excited about what we’re building. In the next few years investments will shift from traditional search, social and other media budgets to performance influencer marketing. We are looking forward to the years to come, where performance, authenticity and relatability is what will drive consumer and brand actions. Everyday Influencers will become the future of how consumer decisions are made. As this becomes the norm, we see CMOs prioritizing a search budget, a paid social budget, and a paid influencer budget. Mavely aims to power that paid influencer budget.”
