It is the generation of the gig economy, and people are leaving full-time jobs for flexible, creative businesses. In today's digital world, where the creator economy is booming rapidly, the worlds of creators and entrepreneurs are beginning to merge. Creators and brands prefer a platform that streamlines payments, embedded financing, and collaborations. If you're a creator with the right tools to run your business efficiently, the world's your oyster. Dealing with payments of paid brand collaborations has become the biggest obstacle standing in the way of creators who're trying to monetize their digital content.
Operating the collaborations, creating invoices, waiting to get paid early, and tracking expenses are all the struggles of creative businesses that cost time and money. While the brands that work with creators and influencers also face difficulty in payments, content management, and influencer marketing. Luckily, Lumanu is a payment solution platform built for creators and brands they work with. Whether you're a creator or brand looking for a quick and seamless payment system, you should consider Lumanu.
Is Lumanu right for you? Keep reading and explore our in-depth 2022 Lumanu review. In this review, we'll discuss this tool in detail, including its introduction, key features, pros & cons, competitors, and many more.
Lumanu Overview
Lumanu is a platform that simplifies payment solutions and collaborations for creators and brands they work with. It is a venture-backed startup that targets two specific market sides: content creators and businesses. On the creator side, Lumanu is best for all types of creators, freelancers, influencers, musicians, artists, YouTubers, graphic designers, podcasters, and photographers. On the other side, in terms of brands and business, the platform serves managers, creative agencies, talent agencies, enterprises, brands, and media agencies.
Lumanu offers an innovative and complete solution that simplifies the creator and brand collaboration from start to finish. This way, the platform saves you time that you can invest in creating impactful content, reaching new audiences, engaging with them, increasing revenue, and much more. According to the company, thousands of creators and powerful businesses use Lumanu. They include big influencers such as Blake Michael (9 Million Followers on TikTok), Erika Kullberg (1 Million followers on Instagram), and Alex Warren (YouTuber with 2.6 Million Subscribers). In addition, they have well-known brand customers, including Everlane, Walmart, Revolve, Cameo, and Fashion Nova.
Lumanu was founded in 2017 by a creative team led by CEO and Founder Tony Tran. The company has raised $18 Million from leading investors like Origin Ventures. According to Lumanu, the company was founded on the mission that creators should be empowered to succeed on their own terms and manage the business. So, Lumanu is focused on helping creators and brands focus on their growth and creativity by controlling the other stuff- invoicing, payments, and cash flow. The platform is building the financial infrastructure in the creator economy that makes doing business fun, easy, and collaborative. It is a trusted payment platform that supports creators by giving them the tools they need to expand their businesses and thrive.
How does Lumanu works?
Lumanu allows creators to receive payments quickly from brands or customers. You can download the Lumanu mobile app and send professional invoices to anyone in seconds. Once the app is on your phone, you can use its free, fast payment features. Most importantly, you can get paid early within seconds without waiting 30 or 60 days for a brand to pay you through the EarlyPay feature.
EarlyPay is one of the best features of Lumanu for creators. Once you submit an invoice, you can request EarlyPay on the invoice. The team reviews the request to see the invoice eligibility and get in touch with your client to confirm the complete deliverables. Upon confirmation, Lumanu will pay out quickly for your completed work. From there, your client or brand will pay Lumanu according to the client's payment schedule.
Through this helpful feature, you will never have to wait for delayed payment again. The EarlyPay fee depends on the due date; however, the price begins at 2.9% for invoices with a due date of Net 30. The payment you receive will be deposited in your Lumanu wallet, and you can then transfer it to your bank account.
On the other hand, Lumanu serves brands and agencies by automating payments and compliance. Through the Lumanu platform, brands can onboard creators, manage communication, and pay them all in a single dashboard. Ideally, Lumanu allows them to pay international creators across 50+ countries with reasonable exchange rates.
Lumanu App
Lumanu built the business app especially for creators with everything they need. The Lumanu app is available internationally in various countries to help creators do business. You can download the app from Google Play Store and Apple Playstore in the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and several other European countries. The app is handy for creators, freelancers, and influencers to easily create and send invoices in seconds, just like text messages, and get paid fast.
Ideally, it is a free mobile app with an easy-to-use interface that allows you to get paid faster with zero fees. In addition, your client gets automated email reminders. So you don't need to chase or follow manually. This super-convenient app not only lets you track your payments in a single dashboard, but you can withdraw payments in your local currency. Lumanu aims to make your business easier & fun; therefore, they support international payments. So, you can make transactions to your local bank accounts in local currencies.
What makes Lumanu unique?
Now, this creator-focused platform supports international creators, freelancers, and influencers and integrates with Zapier, Bill, and Quickbooks. It means brands can preserve all accounting workflows. With the Lumanu app, creators can manage anything, feel empowered, and get back to creating without worrying about waiting months to get paid by the brand or chasing down payments.
Lumanu's free and seamless invoicing tools allow creators and influencers to spend more time creating and less time managing the boring stuff. Also, you can get your earned income instantly through the EarlyPay feature. You do not have to share banking information with your clients because you can receive money in your wallet. Besides, Lumanu offers valuable tools to brands and agencies that streamline payments, collaboration, tax paperwork, and influencer campaigns. Marketers and accounting teams use these tools in big and small companies.
Lumanu's Key Features
Here are the Lumanu top features for creators:
- Manage all your collaborations in one place
- Send a professional-looking invoice and get paid instantly with EarlyPay
- No need to spend crazy fees for processing payments
- Send unlimited invoices and payments
- User-friendly business app with valuable tools for iOS and Android devices
- 24/7 premium support
Here are the Lumanu top features for Brands:
- Quick and seamless payment system to pay creators and freelancers
- Manage all content of your influencers in a dashboard
- Schedule payments and split payments automatically
- Reduce tax paperwork obligation
- SmartBoost for influential media that is integrated with Facebook Ads manager to automate and launch brand campaigns
Lumanu Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy-to-use platform
- Great payment management
- No fees for creators and influencers
- Helps in processing tax paperwork
- Supports international creators and influencers
Cons
- The free package is only for small creators and influencers.
- More features are on the way to be added.
- Have to go for personalized onboarding to get setup
Lumanu Pricing
Lumanu has three packages- one is free, which is for creators, influencers, and freelancers, and two Business packages for brands, talent managers, and agencies. The free package allows creators to send unlimited invoicing, get instant cash with EarlyPay, and enjoy zero processing fees and exclusive business content. Here are the Business plans and features they offer.
Business Lite: $99/month
- Send unlimited invoicing
- Accept unlimited payments
- Manage payments quickly in one click
- Skip tax documentation and vendor setup
- 24/7 customer support
Business Pro: $299/ month
- All features of Business Lite
- Give payments to creators and freelancers with a single click
- Support payments in 38+ countries
- Seamlessly integration with Zapier and Quickbooks
- Cash advances with EarlyPay
Lumanu Competitors
In addition to Lumanu, other financial platforms work well for creators and businesses. If you're not convinced about Lumanu, here are a few Lumanu competitors that are worth considering.
Willa
Willa is also a financial app that helps creators by simplifying the invoicing process. This platform is built for creators and freelancers, which they use to get paid instantly after sending the invoice. Unlike Lumanu, Willa is used by micro creators, as it is more economical. This free-to-use platform allows creators to track their invoices and accept superfast payments.
Here are the features that Willa offers:
- Free to download
- Professionally drafted invoices
- Provides a variety of payment methods
- Simplifies payment and invoicing
- 2.9% fee for instant transaction
- Get paid in less than 30 minutes
If you want to read our review of Willa, you can read it here. Or you can read our full side by side comparison here.
Peblo
Peblo is another platform that allows users to get stress-free payments quickly. Founded in 2021, Peblo is a young tool and is not well-known like Lumanu and Willa. Creators, managers, or talent agencies can use this financial platform. But it seems like an exciting product due to the features it offers. Let's take a quick look at Peblo key features:
- Get paid immediately on your invoices
- Keep track of your brand deals and talent's income on one platform
- Pay your talent quickly
- Access it anywhere
- Improve cash flow
- Provides bank-level security
Stripe
Stripe is a popular payment processing solution for creators and businesses of all sizes. This valuable platform has millions of customers and is valued at about $35 billion. It offers the complete solution for the creator economy. Its financing solutions are robust enough to handle transactions and services, making it a leading platform and giving it an edge over its competitors. Stripe comes with great features such as:
- Get paid quickly
- Payout creators worldwide
- A seamless dashboard for creators to track payments
- Offers a wide range of payment options
- Excellent range of marketplace tools
- Advanced reporting tools
- No monthly fee
- Supports international payments
Final Thoughts on Lumanu
Lumanu is a payment and financing solution for creators, agencies, and brands. This software is a solid financial infrastructure that saves creators and businesses significant time and money. Lumanu helps creators and businesses unlock cash flow, move money, and expand the business without dealing with tax compliance, payments, vendor onboarding, and hefty exchange fees. The platform manages the creator's workflow by handling invoices and collaboration management.
Thousands of individual creators, top brands, and agencies use Lumanu. Also, the company is acknowledged as one of the top 14 creator economy startups of 2022 by Business Insider and one of the top 10 innovative social media companies of 2022 by Fast Company. This value-driven startup is genuinely made for creators by creators to simplify the process of collaboration and payment. Creators can use this free and valuable platform to stay organized, quickly accept payment with zero fees, feel empowered, and not worry about late payments.