What are the fundraising trends in the creator economy?
In our creator economy deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
We analyzed publicly disclosed equity rounds raised by pure-play creator economy companies in 2024, full-year 2025, and year-to-date 2026 through May 2026. The dataset only keeps disclosed equity rounds of at least $300K, applies a strict pure-play filter, and covers creator platforms, monetization tools, content production software, audience growth tools, commerce infrastructure, and talent management services.
The creator economy market had a breakout funding year in 2025, but the year-to-date 2026 market looks much smaller. Capital fell from about $807M across 11 deals in the comparable early-2025 period to about $58M across 9 deals in early 2026.
The decline is mostly a large-round problem, not a total collapse in company formation. Deal count is down only modestly, but average round size fell from about $73M to about $6.5M, and the median round fell from $23M to $4M.
Full-year 2025 was unusually strong for the creator economy market. Capital rose from about $459M in 2024 to about $1.67B in 2025, while deal count rose only from 25 to 29. That means the market expanded mainly because selected companies raised much larger rounds.
So far in 2026, the creator economy market has no qualifying $50M+ round. By contrast, full-year 2025 had 8 such rounds, and the early-2025 comparison period included large checks for Whatnot, Runway, ShopMy, and other scaled companies.
Monetization Tools and Commerce Infrastructure are the strongest current capital magnets. Together, they captured 71.3% of year-to-date 2026 capital while representing only one-third of deals, which shows investor preference for revenue capture, attribution, and transaction infrastructure.
Creator Platforms are the weakest capital-intensity category in the current dataset. They represent 22.2% of year-to-date 2026 deals but only 2.7% of capital, suggesting that new social, community, and fandom platforms still struggle to attract large checks without stronger proof of monetization.
Europe is unusually prominent in year-to-date 2026. It accounts for 6 of 9 deals and 61.4% of capital, while North America has only one qualifying deal. That is a sharp reversal from full-year 2025, when North America captured 91.2% of capital.
New startups are still entering the creator economy market. First financings represent 66.7% of year-to-date 2026 deals, far above 17.2% in full-year 2025 and 20.0% in full-year 2024. But those first financings only carry 22.0% of capital, so new entrants are mostly raising small early checks.
The creator economy market is becoming more selective. Investors still fund new experiments, but the largest checks go to companies that control economic layers such as fan monetization, creator commerce attribution, AI-native production workflow, campaign operations, or rights protection.
This chart, featured in our creator economy deck, illustrates the revenue mix across customer segments in the creator economy
Is more or less capital going into the creator economy market?
Less capital is going into the creator economy market so far in 2026, and the decline is severe. From January through May 2026, the market attracted about $58M across 9 disclosed equity deals, compared with about $807M across 11 deals over the same calendar period in 2025.
That means capital is down by roughly 93%, while deal count is down by only about 18%. The practical takeaway is that the creator economy market has not disappeared, but large-check funding has largely paused in the current year-to-date window.
This distinction matters because the 2026 market is still producing companies. What has changed is the size of the checks. Average round size fell from about $73M in the comparable 2025 period to about $6.5M in 2026, while median round size fell from $23M to $4M.
The full-year context explains why the decline feels so sharp. Full-year 2025 was a breakout year, with about $1.67B raised across 29 deals, up from about $459M across 25 deals in 2024. Early 2025 also included very large rounds for Whatnot, Runway, and ShopMy, so the comparison base was unusually inflated.
The honest interpretation is that the creator economy market is active but currently smaller, earlier, and more selective. The missing ingredient in 2026 is not founder activity; it is the megaround layer that made 2025 look like a scaled growth market.
Is creator economy funding driven by more deals or larger rounds?
Creator economy funding is driven by larger rounds in the strong periods, not by a broad surge in deal count. Full-year 2025 is the clearest example: deal count rose only from 25 to 29, but total capital jumped from about $459M to about $1.67B.
That is not mainly a “more startups got funded” story. It is a “larger checks went into selected companies” story, with average round size rising from about $18M in 2024 to about $58M in 2025 and median round size rising from about $12M to $32M.
The year-to-date 2026 comparison shows the same relationship in reverse. Deal count only slipped from 11 to 9 versus the comparable 2025 period, but capital collapsed from about $807M to about $58M. That means the market is far more sensitive to round size than to the number of announced financings.
So far in 2026, 6 of the 9 qualifying deals are below $5M, and there are no $50M+ rounds. The creator economy market is still producing financing events, but those events are mostly small seed and Series A checks rather than scale-up rounds.
For deeper analysis of creator economy deal sizes, medians, and concentration trends, see our creator economy market deck.
Is creator economy capital moving toward later-stage or earlier-stage companies?
Creator economy capital has moved sharply back toward earlier-stage companies so far in 2026, after moving heavily toward later-stage companies in 2025. From January through May 2026, Seed and Series A rounds captured about 70% of capital and 8 of the 9 deals.
That is a major reversal from the comparable 2025 period, when later-stage rounds, defined as Series B and beyond, captured about 87% of capital. In early 2025, the creator economy market was dominated by large later-stage checks for companies such as Whatnot, Runway, ShopMy, and Krea.
In early 2026, there are no Series C, Series D+, or growth equity rounds in the qualifying set. The largest round is Fanvue’s $22M Series A, followed by Wishlink’s $17.5M Series B, which means capital is currently going into validation and expansion rather than late-stage scale.
The full-year comparison makes the change even clearer. In 2025, late-stage capital represented about 82% of total funding, compared with about 38% in 2024. So 2025 was a late-stage re-acceleration year, while 2026 so far is a seed-to-Series-B market.
The practical takeaway is that the creator economy market has not stopped funding new companies, but the late-stage capital engine that defined 2025 has not reappeared yet. Until it does, the market should be read as earlier-stage and more experimental.
This chart, included in our creator economy deck, compares the main business model options for creator monetization platforms
Is the creator economy market maturing or still experimental?
The creator economy market is maturing structurally, but the current 2026 financing window looks experimental again. The 2025 evidence points to maturity, while the year-to-date 2026 evidence points back toward new company formation and small-check testing.
In 2025, the creator economy market had larger median rounds, more late-stage capital, more tier-1 investors, and more megarounds. Content Production Software raised about $936M, or 56.1% of capital, while Commerce Infrastructure raised about $413M across only 3 deals. Those are maturity signals.
In 2026 so far, the picture is different. Seven of nine deals are seed rounds, six of nine are first financings, and the median round is only $4M. That looks much more like option creation than scaled deployment.
The better interpretation is that the creator economy market has a mature core and an experimental frontier. The mature core includes AI-native production software, creator commerce infrastructure, and proven monetization systems. The experimental frontier includes new creator platforms, fandom communities, and early creator operating layers.
Investors are still willing to test new ideas, but they are not writing large checks unless the company controls a clear economic layer. The creator economy market is mature where revenue, attribution, or workflow replacement is visible, and still experimental where the pitch depends mainly on engagement or community growth.
Are new startups still entering the creator economy market?
Yes, new startups are still entering the creator economy market, and the freshest 2026 evidence is unusually strong on company formation. So far in 2026, 6 of 9 qualifying deals are first financings, equal to about 66.7% of deals.
That is much higher than full-year 2025, when first financings were 17.2% of deals, and full-year 2024, when they were 20.0%. MITO AI, Luupli, Devotion, Deaku, Fanon, and Pickmybrain all appear as first financings in the 2026 period.
But the capital attached to new startup formation is modest. First financings are two-thirds of deals but only 22.0% of capital. That gap means new entry is real, but it is mostly small-check entry.
The median round in year-to-date 2026 is only $4M, and 6 of the 9 deals are below $5M. The creator economy market has not lost founder interest, but investors are mostly buying inexpensive options rather than pre-funding large-scale expansion.
For a broader view of new company formation, first financings, and category entry in the creator economy market, see our full creator economy market report.
Are more investors entering the creator economy market?
Investor participation in the creator economy market is lower so far in 2026 than it was in the comparable 2025 period, especially among top-tier investors. Year-to-date 2026 includes about 31 disclosed investor entities and 5 tier-1 investors, compared with about 33 disclosed investors and 17 tier-1 investors over the comparable 2025 window.
The number of disclosed investors is similar, but the quality and intensity of top investor participation is weaker. The creator economy market still has credible backers in 2026, including Lightspeed, Balderton, Vertex Ventures, Elevation Capital, and Kalaari Capital, but it does not have the same density of elite capital that appeared in early 2025.
The full-year comparison shows that 2025 was the stronger institutional year. Full-year 2025 had 30 unique tier-1 investors, up from 19 in 2024. That suggests 2025 brought more elite capital into the market, even if the total disclosed investor population did not expand dramatically.
So far in 2026, no disclosed investor appears in more than one qualifying deal. That fragmentation matters because repeat activity is often a sign that investors are building a thesis, not just backing isolated companies. The current market has scattered high-quality checks, not a concentrated investor campaign.
This chart, included in our creator economy deck, shows annual funding in creator economy startups
Are top investors getting more or less active in the creator economy market?
Top investors are getting less active in the creator economy market so far in 2026, after becoming much more active in 2025. The strongest current-year signal is that no disclosed investor appears in more than one qualifying creator economy deal from January through May 2026.
That is very different from full-year 2025, when Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures each appeared in 5 deals, while Bain Capital Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners each appeared in 3. In 2024, repeat activity was more muted, with a16z, Sequoia, AlleyCorp, and Kleiner Perkins each appearing in 2 deals.
The category placement of top investors also matters. In 2025, repeat top investors were attached to the market’s strongest themes: AI production, commerce infrastructure, monetization, and scaled platforms. In 2026, top-tier participation exists, but it is thinner and more scattered.
The practical takeaway is that the creator economy market is not currently being led by a tight group of repeat top investors. A marquee investor in a 2026 deal should be read as validation of that company, not as proof that the whole category has regained the broad elite-investor momentum it had in 2025.
Which creator economy subcategories are gaining momentum?
The creator economy subcategories gaining momentum are Commerce Infrastructure, Monetization Tools, and selected AI-native Content Production Software. The answer depends on the time window, because 2025 and 2026 show different types of strength.
Commerce Infrastructure is the cleanest sustained momentum story. It raised about $39M across 2 deals in 2024, about $413M across 3 deals in 2025, and $17.5M from one qualifying deal so far in 2026. Wishlink alone represents 30.0% of current-year capital, giving Commerce Infrastructure the highest capital share-to-deal share ratio in the 2026 dataset.
Monetization Tools are the strongest current-year capital magnet. Fanvue and Pickmybrain together raised about $24M, giving the category 41.3% of year-to-date 2026 capital from only 22.2% of deals. That suggests investor attention has shifted toward direct fan monetization, paid expertise, and revenue capture.
Content Production Software remains structurally important, but its momentum is less intense than in 2025. In 2025, it dominated the creator economy market with about $936M and 56.1% of capital. So far in 2026, it has 2 deals and about $10.5M, which is meaningful activity but not a repeat of the large AI-video and AI-audio checks that powered 2025.
We cover these category shifts in more detail in our deeper analysis of the creator economy market.
Which creator economy subcategories are losing momentum?
The creator economy subcategories losing momentum are Creator Platforms, Audience Growth Tools in capital terms, and late-stage AI Content Production Software relative to 2025. Creator Platforms are the clearest weak category so far in 2026.
Creator Platforms account for 22.2% of year-to-date 2026 deals but only 2.7% of capital. That means founders are still trying to build new creator and fandom platforms, but investors are not backing them with large checks.
The longer trend is also unfavorable. Creator Platforms raised about $94M in 2024, or 20.4% of capital, then about $109M in 2025, but their share fell to only 6.5% because the overall market grew so much. So far in 2026, they have raised just $1.6M across 2 deals.
Audience Growth Tools remain active by deal count but undercapitalized. They had 6 deals in 2025 but only 4.1% of capital, and so far in 2026 they again show deal activity but only 7.9% of capital. That suggests investors see value in creator discovery and campaign workflows, but remain cautious about defensibility and platform scale.
Content Production Software is not losing structural relevance, but it is losing funding intensity versus 2025. The current-year decline mostly reflects the absence of Runway-scale and Krea-scale rounds, not a disappearance of founder activity.
This chart, included in our creator economy deck, breaks down beehiiv’s strategy in the creator economy
Which regions are gaining momentum in creator economy funding?
Europe and Asia-Pacific are gaining momentum in creator economy funding so far in 2026, while North America has lost share sharply in the strict year-to-date qualifying set. Europe accounts for 6 of 9 deals and about $36M, equal to 61.4% of capital.
Europe’s 2026 momentum is broad by count. The region produced activity across Monetization Tools, Content Production Software, Creator Platforms, Audience Growth Tools, and AI expertise monetization, including Fanvue, MITO AI, Mozart AI, Luupli, Deaku, and Pickmybrain.
Asia-Pacific has fewer deals but a strong capital signal. With only 2 deals, the region captured 31.7% of current-year capital, mostly because Wishlink gives investors a commerce-backed way to underwrite creator monetization in India.
This is a striking reversal from the comparable 2025 period, when North America captured 100% of qualifying capital and 100% of qualifying deals. The better interpretation is that Europe is gaining breadth, while Asia-Pacific is gaining credibility through creator commerce.
For ongoing regional tracking across Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, and other regions, see our creator economy market report covering regional momentum.
Which regions are losing momentum in creator economy funding?
North America is losing momentum so far in 2026, at least in the strict qualifying creator economy market. North America went from 100% of capital and 100% of deals over the comparable 2025 period to only 6.9% of capital and 11.1% of deals in year-to-date 2026.
This conclusion needs a caveat. North America is not structurally weak in the creator economy market. Full-year 2025 shows the opposite, with North America capturing about $1.52B, or 91.2% of all capital, and 22 of 29 deals.
The likely explanation is category and stage mix. The huge 2025 North American rounds were in scaled companies such as Whatnot, Runway, ShopMy, Substack, Suno, and related AI production, commerce, and creator platform businesses. So far in 2026, the qualifying set does not include similar North American megarounds.
The only North American qualifying deal in the current 2026 period is Devotion’s $4M seed round. That makes North America look weak because the large late-stage layer is absent, not necessarily because the underlying ecosystem has lost relevance.
Is the creator economy market becoming more global or more regionally concentrated?
The creator economy market is becoming more global by deal formation so far in 2026, but it remains regionally concentrated when measured over the more reliable full-year 2025 period. The freshest evidence shows Europe with 66.7% of deals, Asia-Pacific with 22.2%, and North America with 11.1%.
That is a dramatic change from early 2025, when North America had all qualifying year-to-date deals. It suggests new company formation and small-to-mid-sized creator economy rounds are becoming more international.
However, full-year 2025 shows that large capital pools were still overwhelmingly North American. North America captured 91.2% of capital and 75.9% of deals in 2025, which was more concentrated than 2024, when North America captured 73.4% of capital and 72.0% of deals.
Both signals can be true at once. The creator economy market can globalize at the seed layer while remaining concentrated at the scale-up layer. So far in 2026, Europe has breadth, Asia-Pacific has a strong commerce signal, and North America still has the deepest historical capital base.
This chart, included in our creator economy deck, shows how platform monetization has driven growth in the creator economy over time
Is creator economy capital moving toward proven winners or new opportunities?
Creator economy capital moved decisively toward proven winners in 2025, but so far in 2026 the market has shifted toward new opportunities in deal-count terms while still reserving larger checks for more proven companies. The answer depends on whether you weight by deals or dollars.
Full-year 2025 was clearly a proven-winner year. First financings were only 17.2% of deals and 3.9% of capital, while late-stage rounds captured more than 82% of capital. The top 10 rounds captured nearly 79% of all capital.
So far in 2026, the creator economy market looks more open to new opportunities. First financings are 66.7% of deals, Seed rounds are 77.8% of deals, and the current-year list includes new or early-stage companies such as MITO AI, Luupli, Devotion, Deaku, Fanon, and Pickmybrain.
But capital still favors more proven companies even in the current year. First financings are 66.7% of deals but only 22.0% of capital, while the largest 3 rounds account for 78.0% of all disclosed capital. Two of those top three are follow-ons.
Our full market view on creator economy winners and new entrants tracks this split between option creation and scaled capital allocation.
Is the creator economy market becoming winner-takes-most?
Yes, the creator economy market is becoming more winner-takes-most in capital allocation, especially when measured by the full-year 2025 comparison. In 2025, the top 3 deals captured about 49.3% of total capital, the top 5 captured 60.4%, and the top 10 captured 78.8%.
The bottom half of 2025 deals captured only 9.2% of capital. That is a highly concentrated funding structure, and it became more concentrated than 2024, when the top 3 deals captured 39.2% and the bottom half captured 15.2%.
The year-to-date 2026 evidence reinforces the same pattern, though the sample is small. The top 3 deals account for 78.0% of capital, while the bottom half accounts for only 7.4%. A few additional mid-sized rounds could soften that concentration, but the current signal is very skewed.
The real signal is that investors are funding many small options while directing most dollars to a few companies with the strongest proof. In the creator economy market, that proof usually comes from AI production scale, commerce liquidity, subscription networks, direct monetization control points, or measurable campaign infrastructure.
Is the next wave of creator economy winners becoming visible?
Yes, the next wave of creator economy winners is becoming visible, but the signal is clearer by category than by individual company in 2026. The visible winner profiles are companies that control economic layers rather than companies that merely aggregate attention.
The strongest profiles include AI-native content production, creator commerce attribution, direct fan or expertise monetization, creator-led advertising operations, and rights or likeness protection. These categories give investors something measurable: production throughput, transactions, subscription revenue, ad budgets, licensing, or creator earnings.
In 2025, the individual winner signal was much clearer because companies such as Whatnot, Runway, ShopMy, Substack, Suno, and Agentio attracted larger rounds. In 2026, the market is earlier-stage, so the signal is more about where investors are placing options than about which companies have already broken out.
A reliable filter is to ask what economic control point the company owns. Fanvue controls fan monetization, Wishlink controls transaction attribution, Devotion controls campaign operations, and Pickmybrain controls paid expertise packaging. Those control points are stronger than generic community engagement.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our creator economy deck, search interest in becoming a creator has grown significantly
Is the creator economy funding landscape fragmenting or consolidating?
The creator economy funding landscape is fragmenting at the investor and company-formation level, while consolidating at the capital-allocation level. So far in 2026, no disclosed investor appears more than once, and the 9 deals are spread across 5 active categories and 3 regions.
That looks fragmented. There is no current repeat investor cluster, no single geography with all the activity, and no single category with all the deal count. Monetization Tools, Content Production Software, Audience Growth Tools, and Creator Platforms each have 2 deals.
But capital is still concentrated. The top 3 deals account for 78.0% of year-to-date 2026 dollars, and the bottom half of deals accounts for only 7.4%. That means the surrounding ecosystem is broad, but the actual dollars are narrow.
The right way to describe the creator economy market is asymmetric. It is fragmenting in experiments, geographies, and investor logos, but consolidating around a small number of companies and business models that control monetization, commerce, production, or workflow infrastructure.
Where is investor attention shifting in the creator economy market?
Investor attention in the creator economy market is shifting toward companies that turn creator activity into measurable economics. The strongest current themes are monetization tools, creator commerce, production workflow, campaign operations, and rights or expertise monetization.
This is a shift away from the older “help creators grow an audience” framing. Audience growth still matters, but investors appear more willing to pay for tools that connect to GMV, subscriptions, ad budgets, licensing, production cost reduction, or creator business operations.
AI remains important, but generic AI is not enough. The funded AI companies that qualify are tied to concrete creator workflows such as video creation, music production, likeness protection, paid expertise, campaign automation, or operating-layer consolidation.
The broader read is that the creator economy market is being judged by budget adjacency. Startups attached to brand budgets, commerce budgets, media production budgets, consumer subscription budgets, or rights budgets receive stronger validation than startups dependent on vague creator willingness to pay.
For real-time tracking of where investor attention is shifting across monetization, commerce, AI production, audience growth, creator platforms, and talent management, see our market report covering creator economy investor attention.
All the funding deals in the creator economy market from 2024 to April 2026
The table below lists every disclosed funding deal in the supplied creator economy dataset from January 2024 through April 2026, covering creator platforms, monetization tools, commerce infrastructure, audience growth tools, content production software, and talent management services.
Each row shows the company, the fundraising date, what the company does, its category, the funding stage, the round size, the region, whether it was a first financing or a follow-on, the tier-1 investor if any, and the announcement source. For the broader investability view, see our creator economy market deck.
| Company | Date | What they do | Category | Stage | Deal size | Region | First/Follow-on | Tier 1 investor(s) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickmybrain | Apr 2026 | AI-powered “Digital Brains” for experts, celebrities, and public figures to monetize expertise through AI advisors and asynchronous video. | Monetization Tools | Seed | $2.1M | Europe | First financing | None clearly tier-1 | EU-Startups |
| Fanon | Mar 2026 | Fandom storytelling and social community platform where fans create alternate storylines, episodes, videos, and comics, with planned creator monetization tools. | Creator Platforms | Seed | $1M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Kalaari Capital | Economic Times |
| Deaku | Mar 2026 | Intelligent workspace for creator-led businesses, combining strategy, analytics, collaboration, communication, and AI in one creator-economy operating layer. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $0.61M | Europe | First financing | None clearly tier-1 | Fuel Ventures |
| Devotion | Mar 2026 | AI-enabled influencer marketing platform that helps large brands discover, manage, analyze, pay, and scale creator programs. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $4M | North America | First financing | None clearly tier-1 | TechCrunch |
| Wishlink | Feb 2026 | Creator commerce platform connecting creators, consumers, and ecommerce brands; enables creators to recommend products and monetize content-driven purchases. | Commerce Infrastructure | Series B | $17.5M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Vertex Ventures; Elevation Capital | Economic Times |
| Luupli | Feb 2026 | Creator-first social platform for co-creation, ownership, discovery, direct monetization, and collaboration. | Creator Platforms | Seed | $0.6M | Europe | First financing | None disclosed | PR Fire |
| Mozart AI | Feb 2026 | Generative Audio Workstation for AI-assisted music composition, production, remixing, short music videos, and export to streaming platforms. | Content Production Software | Seed | $6M | Europe | Follow-on | Balderton Capital | Startup Mag |
| MITO AI | Jan 2026 | Collaborative AI-native video creation platform for filmmakers, designers, creative teams, commercials, films, and music videos. | Content Production Software | Seed | $4.5M | Europe | First financing | Lightspeed Venture Partners; Sequoia and A16Z scouts are tier-1-adjacent but not the firms directly | Business Wire |
| Fanvue | Jan 2026 | AI-powered direct-to-fan creator monetization platform for creators to monetize audiences, content, and fan relationships. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $22M | Europe | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 as lead; Inner Circle is notable but not a standard tier-1 VC label | Business Wire |
| Humanz | Dec 2025 | AI platform for creator-economy influencer marketing, creator campaigns, and creator-led growth. | Audience Growth Tools | Unknown | $15M | Middle East | Follow-on | None disclosed | PR Newswire |
| Fixated | Dec 2025 | Creator-first talent management, content, distribution, and creator infrastructure company. | Talent Management Services | Growth Equity | $50M | North America | Follow-on | Eldridge Industries | PR Newswire |
| Mirelo | Dec 2025 | AI sound-effects platform generating synchronized audio for video, games, and creator media. | Content Production Software | Seed | $41M | Europe | First financing | Index Ventures; Andreessen Horowitz | Mirelo |
| Palo AI | Nov 2025 | AI ideation, analytics, and optimization platform for short-form video creators. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $3.8M | North America | First financing | Peak XV; NFX | Wilson Sonsini |
| Suno | Nov 2025 | AI music creation platform for casual creators and professional/commercial music creators. | Content Production Software | Series C | $250M | North America | Follow-on | Menlo Ventures; NVIDIA/NVentures; Lightspeed; Matrix | Suno |
| Agentio | Nov 2025 | AI-native creator-led advertising marketplace and workflow platform for brands and creators. | Audience Growth Tools | Series B | $40M | North America | Follow-on | Forerunner; Benchmark; Craft Ventures | PR Newswire |
| Mantayay | Nov 2025 | TikTok-first creator-economy and digital-media company providing creator networks, KOL marketing, account management, and live selling. | Talent Management Services | Series A | $5M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | None identified | Digital News Asia |
| Wonder Studios | Oct 2025 | AI-native creative studio and creator/IP development platform for AI-assisted entertainment production. | Content Production Software | Seed | $12M | Europe | First financing | Atomico; LocalGlobe; Adobe Ventures | TechCrunch |
| ShopMy | Oct 2025 | Curated-commerce infrastructure for creator-led discovery, affiliate commerce, and brand/tastemaker partnerships. | Commerce Infrastructure | Growth Equity | $70M | North America | Follow-on | Avenir; Bain Capital Ventures; Bessemer; Menlo Ventures | PR Newswire |
| CreatorDB | Sep 2025 | Influencer/creator data, discovery, measurement, and campaign-intelligence platform. | Audience Growth Tools | Series A | $4.67M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified | Business Wire |
| PixVerse | Sep 2025 | AI video platform enabling creators, businesses, and everyday users to generate videos quickly. | Content Production Software | Series B | $60M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Alibaba; Antler | PixVerse |
| Higgsfield | Sep 2025 | AI-native “click-to-video” creation engine for social-media video and creator-style synthetic media. | Content Production Software | Series A | $50M | North America | Follow-on | Menlo Ventures | PR Newswire |
| STAN | Jul 2025 | Mobile-first social gaming platform connecting gamers, creators, communities, and publishers with monetization features. | Creator Platforms | Series A | $8.5M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Google; General Catalyst; Bandai Namco; Square Enix | TechCrunch |
| Substack | Jul 2025 | Publishing and subscription platform for independent writers, podcasters, and media creators. | Creator Platforms | Series C | $100M | North America | Follow-on | BOND; The Chernin Group; Andreessen Horowitz | TechCrunch |
| Moonvalley | Jul 2025 | AI video tools for filmmakers and creative professionals, with licensed/proprietary content training emphasis. | Content Production Software | Unknown | $84M | North America | Follow-on | General Catalyst; CAA; Comcast Ventures; Khosla Ventures; Y Combinator | Business Insider |
| Delphi | Jun 2025 | AI “digital minds” that let creators, experts, coaches, and educators turn knowledge into interactive paid experiences. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $16M | North America | Follow-on | Sequoia; Menlo Ventures | Delphi |
| FanBasis | May 2025 | Full-stack monetization and operating infrastructure for creators, internet entrepreneurs, and digital businesses. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $20M | North America | Follow-on | Left Lane Capital | PR Newswire |
| Hedra | May 2025 | AI video generation platform for lifelike digital characters used by creators, marketers, and media teams. | Content Production Software | Series A | $32M | North America | Follow-on | Andreessen Horowitz; Index Ventures | TechCrunch |
| Capsule | Apr 2025 | AI video editing and motion-design-system software for scalable branded video creation. | Content Production Software | Series A | $12M | North America | Follow-on | Innovation Endeavors | TechCrunch |
| Loti AI | Apr 2025 | Likeness-protection technology helping creators, celebrities, and public figures detect impersonation and unauthorized AI content. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $16.2M | North America | Follow-on | Khosla Ventures | Business Wire |
| Krea | Apr 2025 | Unified generative-AI creative workflow for designers, visual creators, and creative teams. | Content Production Software | Series B | $47M | North America | Follow-on | Bain Capital Ventures; Andreessen Horowitz | TechCrunch |
| Runway | Apr 2025 | Generative AI media and video creation software used for creative production. | Content Production Software | Series D+ | $308M | North America | Follow-on | General Atlantic; Fidelity; Baillie Gifford; NVIDIA; SoftBank | Runway |
| Streamforge | Mar 2025 | AI business-intelligence and audience-analysis platform for influencer marketing and creator-economy campaigns. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $1.2M | North America | Follow-on | None identified | PRWeb |
| Daisy | Mar 2025 | Creator-powered engagement platform that pays influencers to boost brand content across social platforms. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $3.9M | North America | First financing | None identified | Business Insider |
| Fixated | Mar 2025 | Digital talent management, creator representation, monetization, content, gaming, and creator-led entertainment platform. | Talent Management Services | Unknown | $12.8M | North America | Follow-on | Eldridge Industries | Yahoo Finance |
| ShopMy | Jan 2025 | Creator marketing and affiliate-commerce infrastructure connecting brands with creators and tastemakers. | Commerce Infrastructure | Series B | $77.5M | North America | Follow-on | Bessemer; Bain Capital Ventures; Menlo Ventures | PR Newswire |
| Music AI | Jan 2025 | AI music/audio tools for musicians, producers, content creators, and businesses; company behind Moises. | Content Production Software | Series A | $40M | North America | Follow-on | NEA/CAA via Connect Ventures; Samsung Next | Music AI |
| Whatnot | Jan 2025 | Livestream shopping marketplace where sellers and creators sell collectibles and other goods through live video. | Commerce Infrastructure | Series D+ | $265M | North America | Follow-on | DST Global; Andreessen Horowitz; Lightspeed; Y Combinator | TechCrunch |
| Rembrand | Jan 2025 | AI-powered in-scene media and virtual product placement for video creators, brands, and media owners. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $23M | North America | Follow-on | The Trade Desk; Greycroft | Rembrand |
| ProRata.ai | Dec 2024 | Attribution and monetization platform that compensates creators and content owners when generative AI systems use their content. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $30M | North America | First financing | Mayfield Fund | Mayfield |
| Argil | Nov 2024 | AI video creation platform for creators, educators, and businesses, including AI video clone workflows. | Content Production Software | Seed | $5.2M | Europe | Follow-on | EQT Ventures; Seedcamp | Seedcamp |
| Levanta | Nov 2024 | Affiliate marketing platform connecting Amazon sellers with creators and affiliates. | Commerce Infrastructure | Series A | $20M | North America | Follow-on | Volition Capital | PR Newswire |
| Agentio | Nov 2024 | Programmatic creator-led advertising marketplace for YouTube and creator content ads. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $12M | North America | Follow-on | Benchmark | PR Newswire |
| Influur | Nov 2024 | Professional network and monetization platform for influencers, with creator-brand campaign tools and AI campaign prediction. | Audience Growth Tools | Series A | $10M | North America | Follow-on | Point72 Ventures | PR Newswire |
| Substack | Nov 2024 | Newsletter, paid subscription, and publishing platform for independent writers and creators. | Creator Platforms | Unknown | $10M | North America | Follow-on | Naval Ravikant, if counting high-signal angel/platform investor; otherwise none | Axios |
| Troveo | Nov 2024 | Platform helping creators, filmmakers, and content owners license content to AI companies while retaining ownership and monetizing data/content. | Monetization Tools | Seed | $4.5M | North America | First financing | Seven Seven Six | WebWire |
| Modash | Oct 2024 | Creator partnerships and influencer discovery platform helping brands find and pay long-tail creators. | Audience Growth Tools | Series A | $11.8M | Europe | Follow-on | None | EU-Startups |
| Hummingbirds | Oct 2024 | Platform connecting hyperlocal creators with local brand campaigns. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $5.4M | North America | Follow-on | None disclosed | TechCrunch |
| Ramdam | Oct 2024 | AI-powered creator ad platform for brands to discover creators and produce UGC-style social video ads. | Audience Growth Tools | Seed | $3.15M | Europe | First financing | None | Business Wire |
| Passionfroot | Oct 2024 | Marketplace and workflow platform for business-focused creators to manage brand partnerships, sponsorships, and payments. | Monetization Tools | Seed | $3.8M | Europe | Follow-on | Sequoia Scout Fund; Accel Scout Fund | TechCrunch |
| Spotter | Sep 2024 | Creator financing and AI tools platform that underwrites YouTube creators and supports creator business growth. | Monetization Tools | Unknown | $7.4M | North America | Follow-on | None disclosed | TechCrunch |
| OpusClip | Aug 2024 | AI video repurposing platform that converts long-form videos into short clips for social platforms. | Content Production Software | Series A | $30M | North America | Follow-on | DCM Ventures; Samsung Next | OpusClip |
| Beeble AI | Jul 2024 | Virtual production platform for indie filmmakers and creators. | Content Production Software | Seed | $4.75M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | None | TechCrunch |
| Captions | Jul 2024 | Generative AI video creation and editing platform for creators and media workflows. | Content Production Software | Series C | $60M | North America | Follow-on | Index Ventures; Kleiner Perkins; a16z; Sequoia Capital | Captions |
| Slushy | Jun 2024 | Adult creator monetization platform for creator communities, paid content, discoverability, and fan interaction. | Creator Platforms | Seed | $10.2M | North America | Follow-on | None | PR Newswire |
| Workweek | Jun 2024 | Creator-centric business newsletter and professional community company built around niche business creators and audiences. | Creator Platforms | Series A | $12.5M | North America | Follow-on | None | Axios |
| Slingshot | May 2024 | Financial services platform for artists and creatives, simplifying money management and back-office financial workflows. | Monetization Tools | Seed | $2.2M | North America | First financing | None | TechCrunch |
| beehiiv | Apr 2024 | Newsletter and email platform for writers, creators, and publishers to build audiences and monetize through newsletters and ads. | Creator Platforms | Series B | $33M | North America | Follow-on | NEA; Lightspeed Venture Partners | Business Wire |
| Bump | Apr 2024 | Wealthtech/fintech platform helping creators track income, market value, payments, and creator-business finances. | Monetization Tools | Seed | $3M | North America | Follow-on | None | PRWeb |
| Cameo | Mar 2024 | Marketplace where celebrities and creators sell personalized video messages and brand-facing promotional creator content. | Creator Platforms | Unknown | $28M | North America | Follow-on | Kleiner Perkins | Business Insider |
| ShopMy | Mar 2024 | Affiliate and influencer-marketing platform helping creators monetize product recommendations and brands run creator commerce campaigns. | Commerce Infrastructure | Series A | $18.5M | North America | Follow-on | None clearly disclosed | TechCrunch |
| Passes | Feb 2024 | Creator monetization platform for paid memberships, exclusive content, tips, live streaming, fan calls, and paid posts/DMs. | Monetization Tools | Series A | $40M | North America | Follow-on | Bond Capital | Passes |
| Podcastle | Feb 2024 | AI-powered podcast and audio/video creation platform for podcasters and creators. | Content Production Software | Series A | $13.5M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Mosaic Ventures | TechCrunch |
| ElevenLabs | Jan 2024 | AI voice generation and audio production tools used for dubbing, narration, and creator/media audio workflows. | Content Production Software | Series B | $80M | Europe | Follow-on | a16z; Sequoia Capital; SV Angel | ElevenLabs |
INSIGHTS
The insights below come from reviewing disclosed creator economy equity rounds in 2024, full-year 2025, and year-to-date 2026 through May 2026 under a strict pure-play, disclosed-amount, $300K+ methodology.
- The creator economy market is not shrinking evenly; it is losing the large-check layer first. Deal count is down only modestly so far in 2026, but capital is down roughly 93% versus the comparable period in 2025, which means the biggest change is round size rather than founder activity.
- The most reliable structural read is that 2025 was an exceptional funding year, not a normal baseline. Capital rose more than 3.5x from 2024 to 2025, while deal count rose only 16%, so any comparison against 2025 is really a comparison against a megaround-heavy year.
- The creator economy market has a barbell structure: many small experimental seed rounds at one end and a few large category-defining rounds at the other. The middle is thinner than the headline capital totals suggest.
- The absence of $50M+ qualifying rounds so far in 2026 is the cleanest current-year signal. Without megarounds, the creator economy market looks like a small early-stage market even though the same market looked like a scaled growth market in 2025.
- Creator Platforms are losing capital relevance even when they remain visible in deal count. Their capital share fell from 20.4% in 2024 to 6.5% in 2025 and 2.7% so far in 2026, which suggests investors have cooled on new audience-destination formation.
- Commerce Infrastructure has the strongest capital efficiency across the evidence. It has relatively few deals, but high capital share-to-deal share ratios, which means investors are willing to pay up when creator activity converts into measurable transactions.
- The investor hierarchy increasingly rewards revenue proof over audience promise. Creator startups tied to GMV, subscriptions, advertising spend, licensing, or production cost reduction attract larger checks than startups promising engagement alone.
- Content Production Software is where the creator economy market overlaps most clearly with the larger AI infrastructure cycle. That overlap explains why the category can attract hundreds of millions while more creator-native categories remain capital-light.
- The 2025 boom was not a democratic creator economy recovery. The top 3 deals captured nearly half of all capital, and the bottom half captured less than 10%, so capital abundance was concentrated among a small set of winners.
- The 2026 market is more founder-active than capital-rich. First financings are two-thirds of deals but only about one-fifth of capital, which means investors are buying options rather than aggressively scaling new entrants.
- Talent Management Services remain structurally difficult for venture unless they look like infrastructure, consolidation, or scaled creator-business systems. Traditional service-heavy creator representation does not appear to command consistent venture interest.
- Audience Growth Tools are numerous but undercapitalized, which implies defensibility concerns. Investors seem to believe creator discovery and campaign workflow matter, but they are less convinced that every analytics or campaign tool becomes a large platform.
- The market’s center of gravity has shifted from “help creators grow” to “help creators earn, transact, produce, or protect value.” This favors monetization, commerce, production, rights, and workflow automation over social discovery.
- Europe’s 2026 strength is broad but early-stage. Europe has most current-year deals and capital, but the median European round is only about $3.3M, so Europe’s momentum is real but not yet proven at late-stage scale.
- Asia-Pacific’s 2026 signal is narrower but more capital-productive. Two deals captured nearly one-third of capital, mostly because Wishlink gives investors a transaction-backed creator commerce model.
- North America remains the structural capital center despite its weak 2026 year-to-date showing. Full-year 2025 gave North America more than 90% of capital, so the current drop should be treated as a timing and megaround issue before being treated as an ecosystem decline.
- The market is becoming more global at company-formation level but not yet at large-check level. Europe and Asia-Pacific are producing more visible qualifying rounds in 2026, but the largest 2025 checks were still overwhelmingly North American.
- Repeat investor activity is a useful maturity signal, and that signal weakened in 2026. No investor appears more than once so far in 2026, whereas 2025 had multiple repeat top investors, including a16z and Menlo Ventures.
- The creator economy market’s strongest companies increasingly look like infrastructure businesses, not creator brands. The winning wedge is often hidden under creator workflows but monetized through software, payments, commerce, ads, or media production.
- The average round size is often misleading in this market because top rounds distort the mean. The median round size is usually the better indicator of the typical financing environment, especially in 2025 and early 2026.
- The best current rule for evaluating creator economy startups is to ask what economic control point the company owns. Fan monetization, transaction attribution, campaign operations, production workflow, and rights protection are stronger control points than generic community engagement.
- The market’s capital allocation suggests investors are skeptical of creator supply as a standalone moat. Creators are abundant; the scarce asset is measurable monetization, differentiated workflow data, defensible technology, or transaction control.
- The market’s future direction depends less on whether creators keep creating and more on whether startups can prove durable monetization infrastructure. Creator activity is not the bottleneck; repeatable revenue capture, attribution, workflow ownership, and defensible distribution are the bottlenecks.
This chart, included in our creator economy deck, shows how audience growth distribution tool technology has evolved over time
OUR METHODOLOGY TO BUILD THIS TRACKER
We built this creator economy funding tracker by reviewing publicly disclosed equity rounds raised by pure-play creator economy companies in 2024, full-year 2025, and year-to-date 2026 through May 2026. A company counts as pure-play when more than 80% of its activity is dedicated to audience-first creators or to the platforms, tools, and services that help creators create, grow, monetize, transact, manage, or protect their work.
We applied four filters to build the dataset. First, we only included equity rounds, so grants, debt, structured financings, acquisitions, SPAC transactions, business combinations, fund vehicles, and unclear non-equity financings are excluded. Second, we only counted rounds of $300K or more. Third, we only kept pure-play creator economy companies, which means we excluded traditional media companies, gig-work companies, generic commerce businesses, broad enterprise software, and creator-adjacent companies that did not satisfy the 80% creator-economy activity rule. And fourth, every entry had to be confirmed by a direct company announcement, a press release, a tier-1 media report, a specialized industry source, or a relevant regional publication.
Undisclosed-amount rounds are excluded because including them would distort dollar-based metrics such as total capital, average round size, median round size, category share, stage share, and concentration ratios. We also kept disclosed-amount deals when the stage was unknown, because the amount and source-backed financing event were still usable for market sizing. The final dataset is therefore a public, disclosed-equity sample rather than a complete record of every private financing that may have occurred.
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