Dovetale

What Dovetale does

Dovetale was a New York-based influencer marketing technology company that connected e-commerce brands with content creators and influencers for paid partnership and affiliate marketing campaigns. Founded in 2015, the platform served two primary user groups: online retailers seeking authentic creator partnerships, and social media creators looking to monetise their audiences through brand collaborations on commerce-enabled storefronts. Its core capabilities centred on creator discovery, authenticity verification, and brand-creator relationship management, with affiliate workflow tooling and campaign measurement built around Shopify's commerce infrastructure.

The underlying technology was an SaaS platform for creator-brand matching and partnership management, monetised through a recurring subscription model. Pre-acquisition, Dovetale raised modest disclosed capital (approximately $500,000 from Expa in 2016, plus a Talent Resources Ventures round in 2021), operated with 11–50 employees, and was led by founders including Chris Barnes (VP Engineering), Matt Schmidt, Mike Schmidt, and Navied Shoushtarian (CTO). Pricing and ARR were not publicly disclosed.

In 2022, Shopify acquired Dovetale as part of its strategy to expand creator economy and influencer marketing capabilities on the Shopify platform. Post-acquisition, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke elevated Dovetale's founders into core operations via direct Slack consultation. Dovetale's technology was subsequently integrated into Shopify Collabs, Shopify's dedicated creator collaboration product serving both creators (collabs.shopify.com) and brands (shopify.com/collabs/find-influencers). The standalone Dovetale brand has effectively ceased independent operation, with its capabilities continuing under Shopify's commerce ecosystem.

Name

Dovetale

Website

https://dovetale.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Dovetale was a New York-based influencer marketing platform connecting e-commerce brands with content creators for partnership and affiliate campaigns. Following Shopify's 2022 acquisition, its technology was integrated into Shopify Collabs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Influencer Marketing Software

NAICS

Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (519290), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Influencer/Creator Marketplaces & Brand Deal Platforms (MPACABAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Influencer Discovery, Vetting & Due Diligence Services (BPAFAHAE), Social Commerce & Affiliate Influencer Programs (MPAAAHAE)

Keywords

• Influencer marketing platform
• Creator collaboration tools
• Affiliate marketing software
• Brand partnership management
• E-commerce creator economy

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Platform/SaaS Revenue: As part of Shopify's broader ecosystem, Dovetale (now integrated into Shopify Collabs) generates revenue through facilitating influencer marketing campaigns and affiliate partnerships between brands and creators on the Shopify platform.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Dovetale is an influencer marketing and creator collaboration platform that helps e-commerce brands discover, recruit, manage, and grow partnerships with content creators and influencers. The platform provides creator discovery, authenticity verification, affiliate tracking, and campaign measurement capabilities, and was acquired by Shopify in 2022 with its technology integrated into the Shopify Collabs offering.

Product overview

Dovetale operates as an influencer marketing technology platform focused on creator discovery and brand partnerships. As a Shopify acquisition from 2022, it appears to be integrated into Shopify's broader creator commerce ecosystem (Shopify Collabs), enabling brands to discover and collaborate with influencers directly on the Shopify platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dovetale (Shopify Collabs)

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ShopifyflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Dovetale was acquired by Shopify in 2022 as part of Shopify's strategy to enhance its creator and influencer marketing capabilities. Following the acquisition, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke elevated Dovetale's founder by making them more visible and consulting them directly through a dedicated Slack channel, integrating them meaningfully into Shopify's operations rather than assigning them to peripheral 'skunk work' teams.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• LTK: LTK (formerly rewardStyle) is a large creator commerce platform connecting influencers to brands with shoppable content and affiliate tools, comparable to Dovetale's creator-side monetization focus.
• impact.com: impact.com is a broad partner and affiliate marketing platform with creator and influencer capabilities that overlap with Dovetale's affiliate partnership offering, though it serves a wider performance marketing mandate.

Direct peers

• Upfluence: Upfluence provides influencer search, outreach, and affiliate marketing tools for e-commerce brands, addressing the same brand-creator matchmaking workflow as Dovetale.
• Refersion: Refersion is an affiliate and influencer marketing platform built natively for Shopify merchants, directly competing with Dovetale/Shopify Collabs in the Shopify app ecosystem.
• CreatorIQ: CreatorIQ is an enterprise creator marketing platform offering creator discovery, vetting, and campaign analytics that overlap directly with Dovetale's core capabilities, serving brand marketers.
• Klear (Meltwater): Klear, now part of Meltwater, is an influencer marketing platform offering creator discovery and analytics, comparable to Dovetale's creator discovery and authenticity verification features.
• Grin: Grin is a creator management platform purpose-built for e-commerce, offering creator discovery, relationship management, and affiliate tracking comparable to Dovetale's feature set.
• Aspire: Aspire is an end-to-end influencer marketing platform for e-commerce and DTC brands, directly competing with Dovetale in creator discovery, campaign management, and affiliate workflows for online retailers.

Emerging players

• Yotpo: Yotpo offers UGC, reviews, and creator-driven content tools for e-commerce brands, providing overlapping creator content and affiliate-adjacent capabilities to Dovetale's offering.

Others

• Shopify Collabs: Shopify Collabs is the direct product successor to Dovetale within Shopify's ecosystem, serving the same brand-creator collaboration use case for Shopify merchants.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/dovetale
• Facebookfacebook.com/dovetale
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/dovetale

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dovetale