Gigapay: alleviating the headache of creator payments

What if you could pay your creators — anywhere in the world — instantly and without all the messy admin that goes with it? In 2019, creator payment solution Gigapay set out to solve the complexities of paying creators, UGC producers and freelancers across different markets. Today the solution is available in more than 40 markets, and integrated into Europe’s leading influencer marketing platform Kolsquare, simplifying payments and admin for thousands of brands and agencies. In this interview, Gigapay co-founder Raiha Buchanan explains why simplifying creator payments is crucial to the sustained and healthy growth of influencer marketing.  

What is the key challenge for brands and agencies when it comes to paying creators in a timely and efficient manner?

Many markets have different rules depending on where the funds originate from and where they are received. The challenge isn't just about moving money or the transaction. It’s about the complexity that goes with it. That means vendor onboarding, tax reporting, compliance, the legal status of the recipient. Our platform handles all of that—collecting necessary legal and tax data, managing payouts, and ensuring everything is done compliantly across more than 40 markets.

Why are influencer payments becoming such a headache for brands?

As brands scale their influencer marketing, they often work with a wide range of creators—some represented by agencies, others self-managed, and many who don’t even have a registered company yet. Each new creator introduces operational complexity: vendor onboarding, purchase order generation, invoice handling, payment terms, and compliance for every single creator they work with. It’s the operational heavy work.

Brands also need to ensure they meet the creators’ expectations in terms of payment terms, delivery time, etc.

This complexity scales linearly. Paying ten creators might be manageable manually, but paying hundreds each month across multiple countries becomes overwhelming.

What are the main administrative pain points for brands managing payments for scaled-up campaigns?

Assuming brands choose to manage everything in-house rather than working with an agency or a platform—the process becomes pretty complex.

First, the creator usually needs to go through vendor onboarding via the brand’s procurement team; this is especially the case for larger companies. A fee is agreed upon between the creator and the influence manager for the work to be delivered. Once the brand approves the work, a purchase order is issued.

After that, the creator submits an invoice according to the brand’s payment terms, which can be anywhere between 30 to 90 days—meaning we’re looking at a potential three-month delay before payment. Then the accounts payable team steps in to either approve the invoice or reach back out to the creator or the influencer manager for clarification. That clarification can be anything from a wrong reference number to missing or incorrect VAT. This back-and-forth can really slow things down.

Even once everything is clarified, payment still has to go through internal approvals—so overall, it can take several weeks, sometimes months, for an influencer to get paid.

And that’s just the operational part. When it comes to tax and legal obligations, things get even more complicated. Large multinational brands often work with creators through their local entities in different countries. That means they also become subject to the legal and tax rules of those local jurisdictions.

For example, in the UAE, brands must ensure that influencers have the proper certifications before they can legally participate in campaigns. In Estonia, creators can't receive payment unless they’re registered as a company or sole trader.

So once you start scaling and working with creators globally, it’s no longer just about transferring money—it becomes about managing multiple layers of compliance, legal risk, and administrative overhead.