Meet 16 VC firms investing in innovative creator economy startups like Substack, Whatnot, and Agentio

Business Insider

19 hours ago

Ishan Sinha doesn't think the creator economy is a fad.
"It's such a critical part of the internet," Sinha, a partner at Point72 Ventures, told Business Insider.
Still, the initial hype and attention on the creator industry have faded, he said.
According to a March Goldman Sachs report, funding of creator economy companies peaked in 2021, slowed between 2022 and 2023, and "reaccelerated" in 2024. An estimated $1.5 billion was invested in creator economy startups in 2024, per Goldman Sachs' analysis of PitchBook data.
Overall, Goldman Sachs projects the creator economy will be a $480 billion industry by 2027.
The creator economy has matured into a marketing layer that spans across industries, said Maya Bakhai, founder and general partner of Spice Capital.
"Every single company needs to have an attention strategy," she said.
So far in 2025, there's already been a handful of flashy fundraising rounds from creator startups. Investors are betting on startups that leverage creators to boost other industries like e-commerce or publishing.
Starting the year off, Whatnot, a live shopping app, raised a $265 million Series E funding round at a valuation of $4.9 billion. Later in January, ShopMy, a social shopping and affiliate marketing company, announced a $77.5 million Series B. And last month, Substack, a newsletter platform that's fueled a wave of creators, announced its $100 million Series C.
AI continues to be a hot subject.
Investors are particularly interested in AI-powered creative tools because they are positioned to help creators with what they do best: make content. Menlo Ventures invested in Flora, an AI tool for digital creatives, for example.
Sasha Kaletsky, managing partner at Creator Ventures, told BI that the firm is excited by startups that "empower the long tail of creators to be able to create the content that their audience loves faster, cheaper, better." The firm recently backed tools like Creatify, which generates ads using AI.
Some investors also see the creator economy as fitting into their focus on business-to-business (B2B) technology, or view creators as an intersection between consumers and businesses, which has fanned the flame for another VC buzzword: prosumer.
Haley Bryant, a principal at Hustle Fund, said she categorizes creators as small to medium businesses. The firm recently invested in Punchup Live, a ticketing marketplace for comedy creators.
Business Insider is highlighting 16 VC firms and their partners who are backing creator economy companies — and creators themselves. This list, our sixth annual, was compiled by BI's reporting and is focused on firms that have made recent investments in creator economy companies.
AlleyCorp thinks influencers will be important in an AI-first consumer tech landscape
Investors: Marshall Porter, general partner; Susannah Shipton, partner
AlleyCorp is a New York-based VC firm focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups in various categories, including consumer tech, enterprise software, AI, and robotics. The company said it incubated MongoDB, Zola, and Business Insider when the companies were startups. Porter and Shipton both work on consumer tech investments, among other categories.
Shipton, whose portfolio includes social-commerce app ShopMy and influencer-marketing platform Agentio, believes creators will continue to be influential in a world where AI agents drive consumer purchases.
"Agents will learn how to parse influencer taste just like we do, and they will be swayed by influencer content in both obvious and subtle ways we can't predict yet," she wrote in a July blog post.
Bain Capital Ventures has backed companies like Whop and ShopMy
Investors: Scott Friend, partner; Aaref Hilaly, partner; Merritt Hummer, partner
Bain Capital Ventures is the venture division of Bain Capital. The company has been funding startups at various stages of investment for over 20 years, ranging from seed rounds to growth-stage ones.
BCV partner Hummer said she looks to invest in companies that are the "critical infrastructure for the creator economy," similar to how Shopify became the backbone of many e-commerce businesses. BCV partner Friend said he looks for creator startups that provide tools for both creators and their business partners, like brands, while partner Hilaly said he's drawn to creator companies that are using AI to help automate tasks and develop new business models for the industry.
Fund size: BCV's latest funds total $1.9 billion, with more than $10 billion in assets under management, according to the firm.
Bond Capital recently invested in Substack's $100 million Series C
Investors: Mood Rowghani, general partner; Rob Scales, principal
Bond Capital is a global VC firm that invests in startups from early to growth stages.
Rowghani focuses on emerging technology companies and has led the firm's investments into creator economy startups like Whatnot and Substack. Rowghani also serves on the boards of Substack, Partiful, Carbon Robotics, and inDrive.
Scales, who joined the firm in 2022, co-leads Bond's investments in software, AI, fintech, and consumer internet categories.
A spokesperson for Bond told Business Insider its investors are looking for:
Full-stack platforms that empower creators to scale their businesses.
Content platforms that "align incentives between creators and their fans," as well as products that prioritize "quality and depth of engagement over optimizing for dopamine hits."
Founders who understand creators' needs.
Fund size: $2.4 billion, according to the firm.
Craft has backed marketplace model businesses like live-shopping platform Palmstreet
Investors: Bryan Rosenblatt, partner; Sean Whitney, principal; Jeff Fluhr, venture partner
Craft specializes in business-to-business technology investing, and comprises a team of former founders.
As an early Figma team member, for instance, Whitney is interested in design tools that empower creatives, and invested in Cartwheel to redefine how 3D animation is produced.
Fluhr, the cofounder of StubHub, is keen on marketplace model businesses, he said, and wants to seize on how social media is changing shopping habits. Both peer-to-peer clothing rental app Pickle and live plant shopping platform Palmstreet caught his eye because they showed growing transaction volumes, loyal customers, community, and social buzz.
Fund size: Craft has over $3.3 billion in assets under management and "invests across early-stage venture and growth stage companies," the firm said. "Our two latest funds are our fourth venture fund, $712 million, and our second growth fund, $608 million."
Creator Ventures is a consumer-focused fund that's 'mega bullish' on creative tools
Investors: Sasha Kaletsky, managing partner; Caspar Lee, general partner
Kaletsky cofounded Creator Ventures in 2022 with Lee, a longtime YouTuber and entrepreneur. The two have been investing in startups together since 2019, while Kaletsky worked in private equity. The firm announced its most recent fund, Fund II, in April.
"We do consumer internet," Kaletsky said, listing apps, marketplaces, AI, and business-to-business (B2B) software that relates to the consumer.
"When we think about the creator economy, usually that's in our consumer adjacent B2B, or you can call it prosumer, bucket," he said.
Kaletsky said the firm is "mega bullish" on creative tools right now.
FirstMark is a New York-based firm and early investor in platforms like Pinterest and Discord
Investors: Derek Chu, principal; Rick Heitzmann, cofounder and partner; Kathryn Weinmann, principal
Heitzmann cofounded FirstMark Capital in 2008 and has backed major social media platforms, including Pinterest and Discord, that have shaped the creator economy.
The consumer-focused firm is based in New York.
Chu joined FirstMark in 2023 and previously worked at Airbnb and Menlo Ventures. He led FirstMark's investment in peer-to-peer rental platform Pickle and Posh, an events platform.
"We're really looking for marketplaces and AI products that empower creators," Chu said.
Weinmann joined FirstMark in 2024 and was previously at Norwest Venture Partners.
Fund size: $3.5 billion assets under management, according to the firm. FirstMark announced a $1.1 billion fund in 2022.
Investors: Haley Bryant, principal; Shiyan Koh, cofounder and general partner
Hustle Fund was founded in 2017 by Koh, Eric Bahn, and Elizabeth Yin.
Koh looks for tools that help creators enhance their relationships with their audiences, make content, and use first-party data.
Bryant, who joined the firm in 2022, previously was the COO of Animalz, a content marketing agency. Bryant said she's "excited about products serving a specific wedge of creators, or focused on a market that's growing as a result of the rise of the creator economy."
Hustle Fund primarily invests in pre-seed startups.
Fund size: $46 million (Fund III), according to the company.
Recent investments:
Paris-based firm Intuition thinks anyone can be a creator
Investor: Hugo Amsellem, cofounder
Amsellem, an investor based in Paris, cofounded Intuition, a consumer-focused VC firm, in 2024. Prior to launching the fund, he was an angel investor in several creator economy startups and previously worked at Jellysmack, a creator economy startup.
"The frontier between a consumer and a creator is now becoming very blurry," Amsellem said. "Right now, when you're building for consumers, you are building for people that are creating — some are creating at scale, some are not creating at scale — but anyone is actually a creator."
Intuition writes $150,000 checks into pre-seed startups, per the firm's website.
Menlo Ventures' Amy Wu Martin is backing startups that help creators build and monetize their audiences
Investor: Amy Wu Martin, partner
Martin leads Menlo's consumer technology and gaming investments. She focuses particularly on founders building emerging technology across AI, blockchain, and augmented reality. Before joining Menlo in 2023, she was a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and a founding partner at FTX Ventures.
When it comes to the creator economy, Martin has led Menlo's investments in categories like gaming and commerce, such as ShopMy.
She has also led Menlo's investment in several consumer and creator-related AI companies, including Alta, an AI-powered virtual try-on startup; Flora, a creative tools platform; and Higgsfield, a video AI startup.
Fund size: $7 billion assets under management, according to the firm. In 2024, Menlo launched its $100 million Anthology Fund in partnership with Anthropic.
Night's background in talent management helps it spot opportunities in media and entertainment
Investors: Ezra Cooperstein, general partner; Reed Duchscher, general partner; Ben Mathews, general partner
Night is a talent management firm with a venture studio that invests in and incubates startups and creator-led brands like MrBeast's Feastables.
The company looks for startups that are leveraging creators to build new businesses and acquire customers. As a venture studio, it offers its companies a mix of funding and sweat equity, helping upstarts get their businesses off the ground.
Cooperstein is the president of Night. Duchscher also runs Night's talent management firm. Mathews was previously at Bessemer Venture Partners.
The company incubated creator-oriented startups like Outtake, an AI tool to protect creators and brands from deepfakes, and Troveo, a startup that enables creators to license their content to AI companies for training purposes.
Fund size: The company doesn't have a set fund, but invests between $500,000 and $2 million in startups and creator-led brands.
Patron has deep ties to the gaming industry and is backing startups across community, commerce, and media
Investors: Amber Atherton, partner; Brian Cho, general partner; Jason Yeh, general partner
Patron was founded in 2021 by Cho and Yeh, both former Riot Games executives. The firm invests in seed-stage consumer startups across several categories.
Prior to launching Patron, Cho was an investor at A16z and led Riot's business and corporate development arms. He focuses on consumer startups across gaming, fitness, and health.
Yeh started his career at FirstMark Capital and left to join Riot Games. He focuses on media, entertainment, and commerce.
Atherton joined the firm full-time in 2023 and was previously the founder of Zyper, a community platform that was acquired by Discord. She primarily focuses on startups building tools for community and commerce.
Patron recently backed SweatPals, which offers tools for fitness creators to monetize their communities with tools like memberships or events.
Fund size: $100 million fund that closed at the end of 2024, according to the firm.
Point72 Ventures sees creators as a 'critical part' of the internet
Investor: Ishan Sinha, partner
Sinha invests in early and growth-stage companies across consumer tech. He was previously an investor at Human Capital and an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
When making investments in the creator economy, Sinha typically looks for startups solving problems for both creators and consumers, as well as teams with strong go-to-market backgrounds. The firm has previously backed creator economy companies such as Range Media Partners, a talent management company.
For Point72, the creator economy umbrella is broad.
"It's anything sort of related to the internet economy and people living and breathing and creating an income for themselves on the internet," Sinha said.
Recent investments:
Precursor Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage firm that closed a new fund in April
Investor: Charles Hudson, founder and managing partner
In 2015, Hudson founded Precursor Ventures, an early-stage, generalist fund.
Precursor announced that it closed its fifth fund at $66 million in April. At the time, Hudson said in a LinkedIn post that the firm had "a strong affinity for first-time founders whose potential has not been correctly understood by those looking for more traditional quality signals."
He told BI that he is eyeing three categories in the creator economy space:
Creator tools that help with business infrastructure, like revenue management or taxes.
Scalable AI tools for tailored fan experiences.
Community monetization "platforms for exclusive access and micro-communities."
Fund size: $66 million, according to the firm.
Recent investments:
Bindery Books, a platform for book content creators
Weights, an AI creative tool
Slow Ventures looks for creators with 'deep authority' in a particular niche
Investor: Sam Lessin, general partner; Megan Lightcap, partner; Billy Parks, venture partner
Slow Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that operates a $60 million fund for investing in content creators. The company finds influencers who have authority in a particular content niche and invests between $1 million and $3 million for a roughly 10% stake in their overall businesses. That means the firm can get a return on a creator's media assets, like YouTube and brand deals, and also spin-off businesses they may launch, such as a food creator launching a cookbook.
Slow is particularly drawn to creators who are looking to move beyond social media, Lightcap told Business Insider in February.
"They look at the media not as the end, but as the means to an end, and think of their content and community, really, as this strategic asset on which they can launch other types of companies," she said.
Fund size: $60 million, according to the company.
Recent investments: The company writes checks ranging from $1 million to $3 million directly to creators, including woodworking creator Jonathan Katz-Moses.
Spice Capital sees creators as the next generation of small businesses
Investor: Maya Bakhai, founder and general partner
Spice Capital launched in 2021 and now has over 50 portfolio companies across AI, the blockchain, and consumer, Bakhai said. It invests in founders who are capitalizing on new behaviors and cultural shifts.
Prior to launching Spice, Bakhai worked at Kevin Durant's VC firm Thirty Five Ventures and amassed capital as an angel investor through profits from her bet on Crocs.
"Everyone is a creator, whether your viral video became a meme, whether you are publishing your résumé on LinkedIn, writing as an independent journalist, or a startup looking for distribution edge," she said. "Everyone is competing in the same attention economy where the best narratives earn spotlight and a premium in valuation."
Fund size: Fund II is a $25 million fund specializing in pre-seed, Bakhai said.
Recent investments:
Beehiiv, a newsletter platform
Dirt, a newsletter company with five brands across entertainment, books, design, tennis, and news
Hype, an app for trading memecoins
MUBI, a streaming service, production company, and distributor for curated films
Upside Ventures uses social media marketing to help boost its portfolio companies
Investors: Jamie Elliott, general partner; Sam Uwins, general partner
Upside Ventures is a London-based VC firm that focuses on seed-stage investments in consumer startups. The firm has roots in the creator economy.
Uwins, a general partner, works with YouTube creators The Sidemen. He's helped them develop businesses like the vodka product XIX and a fried-chicken restaurant chain called Sides. Upside said its ties to media properties like YouTube help it boost brand visibility for its portfolio companies.
Fund size: $25 million, according to the company.
Recent investments:
Ceartas, a content detection tool for creators that tracks down stolen content, fake profiles, and deepfakes
ChatBCC, a group chat platform for creators