Breef, a platform that allows brands to manage and service marketing agency projects, today announced that it raised $16 million in a Series A round (an undisclosed portion of which was debt) led by Greycroft with participation from BDMI, UTA.VC, Afterpay’s Touch Ventures and UC Berkeley’s The House Fund. The new capital brings Breef’s total raised to $21 million, which co-founder and CEO George Raptis says will be put toward continuing to develop the company’s product and growing the size of Breef’s workforce from 30 people to roughly 60 by 2024.“Breef’s latest funding will be used to continue to evolve the product offering — a new ‘from the ground up’ platform is being launched with the funding announcement — and grow its global team, announcing its first international bases in the U.K. and Australia,” Raptis told TechCrunch via email. “The company will also invest further in its payment infrastructure, allowing structured payments for brands looking to ‘grow now, pay later.'”Breef was co-founded in 2019 by Emily Bibb and Raptis. Bibb previously worked in marketing and in-house ad agencies as well as startups such as PopSugar and VSCO. Meanwhile, Raptis helped to launch Credible.com, the online loan marketplace that was acquired by Fox in 2019.Both Bibb and Raptis attribute their wanting to start Breef to a shift in the way of agency work

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With student loan debt squarely in the spotlight once again, employers are being tasked with guiding employees toward much-needed relief. To this end, workplace benefits leader Fidelity Investments® is teaming up with Summer, a certified B Corporation dedicated to serving student loan borrowers across the country, to dramatically simplify the process of applying for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through an automated software solution. The new solution, which will empower millions of nonprofit and public sector employees struggling with student loan debt to find much needed relief, is now available to help eligible individuals apply through a more efficient process. The Fidelity and Summer solution replaces a historically time-intensive and manual, paper-based procedure. Rather than going it alone, the automated offering provides access to technology and optional expert support to navigate through the student loan forgiveness application and help people check their eligibility, compare options, and then complete the process—all online in minutes. In alignment with Fidelity’s commitment to develop lifelong partnerships and offer customers of all backgrounds access to educational opportunities, Fidelity’s expanded list of tools and resources provides individuals a more holistic view of planning and paying for college