Discover 16 venture capital firms backing groundbreaking startups in the creator economy such as Substack, Whatnot, and Agentio. While AI startups are popular among investors, they are also placing their bets on the potential of human creators. This year, creator economy startups have attracted significant investments from various backers.
Business Insider is shedding light on 16 VC firms that are supporting the next generation of creator companies. Ishan Sinha, a partner at Point72 Ventures, firmly believes that the creator economy is not just a passing trend but an essential component of the internet landscape. According to Sinha, while the initial excitement around the creator industry may have waned, funding for creator economy companies saw a peak in 2021, slowed down from 2022 to 2023, and then picked up pace again in 2024.
An analysis by Goldman Sachs using PitchBook data revealed that approximately $1.5 billion was invested in creator economy startups in 2024. The overall outlook from Goldman Sachs suggests that the creator economy could grow into a $480 billion industry by 2027. Maya Bakhai, founder and general partner of Spice Capital, views the creator economy as a marketing layer that has expanded across various sectors. She emphasized the importance for every company to have a strategy to capture attention in today’s competitive landscape.
In 2025, there have already been notable fundraising rounds by creator startups. Investors are keen on supporting startups that harness creators to drive growth in industries like e-commerce and publishing. For instance, Whatnot secured a $265 million Series E funding round earlier this year. The momentum continued with ShopMy announcing a $77.5 million Series B round in January and Substack revealing its $100 million Series C funding last month.
AI remains a hot topic among investors, especially AI-powered tools aimed at assisting creators in their content creation process. Menlo Ventures’ investment in Flora, an AI tool for digital creatives, exemplifies this trend. Sasha Kaletsky from Creator Ventures expressed enthusiasm for startups enabling a broader range of creators to produce content more efficiently using tools like Creatify.
Some investors perceive the creator economy as part of their focus on business-to-business (B2B) technology or as an intersection between consumers and businesses – giving rise to the concept of “prosumer.” Haley Bryant from Hustle Fund considers creators akin to small to medium businesses and has recently backed Punchup Live, a ticketing marketplace catering to comedy creators.
The list compiled by Business Insider features venture capital firms like AlleyCorp, Bain Capital Ventures, Bond, Craft, Creator Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Hustle Fund, Intuition, Menlo Ventures, Night, Patron, Point72 Ventures, Precursor Ventures,…