TenOneTen Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in start-ups that apply data and technology to disrupt existing industries.

TenOneTen Ventures

Acrew is a leading stage agnostic venture capital firm focused on investing in transformative companies, as well as diversifying the perspectives and cap tables of leading technology growth companies.

Acrew Capital

With offices in New York, Los Angeles, Charlottesville, Nashville, Atlanta, Bristol and London, Red Light Management is one of the most innovative artist management companies in the industry. Founded by Coran Capshaw in 1991 when he began managing the Dave Matthews Band, RLM’s roster now also includes Interpol, Phish, Ben Harper, Alabama Shakes, Pretty Lights and many more.  RLM is known for taking an entrepreneurial approach with its diverse roster of clients. Its managers are also at the forefront of defining the expanding role of personal management in the music business. The company’s capabilities include a broad expertise in artist development, touring, commerce, festivals, licensing, branded entertainment, artist driven philanthropy, and more.

Red Light Management

We Back Builders. Founded by @Jason  Team behind   This Week in Startups: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThisWeekIn  @twistartups    The LAUNCH Accelerator https://launchaccelerator.co/ @launchincubator    The Syndicate https://thesyndicate.com/ @thesyndicate415    Founder university: https://www.founder.university/ @founderuni    Remote Demo Day  https://remotedemoday.com/ @remotedemoday

LAUNCH

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. It invests in Alibaba Group, Beepi, BrightRoll, Betterment, Adore Me, and Earnest.

FJ Labs

Act One Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage fund that focuses on investing in business software. The firm leads pre-seed and seed rounds.  The team is made up of founders who understand the journey of building companies having founded and taken a company public. Alejandro Guerrero and Michael Silton formed the fund in Los Angeles, California in 2016. Act One Ventures has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider. Focus areas include e-commerce infrastructure software, Vertical SaaS and Fintech

Act One Ventures

Hex Capital

Palm Tree Crew operates and invests in companies at the intersection of consumer, entertainment, and technology.  Palm Tree Crew was co-founded by Kygo, alongside Myles Shear and Austin Criden.

Palm Tree Crew

Four Cities Capital is a global seed and series A investor. It feels strongly that the impact of technology and software on the global economy remains in its early stages. Major global industries and significant portions of humanity remain structurally unaffected by the digital revolution and the recent emergence of massively disruptive technologies based on biology, new materials, and artificial intelligence/unmanned systems.

Four Cities Capital

11:11 Media is a global media platform founded by Paris Hilton and Bruce Gersh. 11:11 Media has launched divisions across TV (Slivington Manor Entertainment), audio (London Audio), digital (11:11 Digital), licensing, impact, and more. 11:11 Media is stacked with an experienced management team with experience across Disney, Time Inc., ITV, Viacom, NBCU and more. Mission: To elevate creator brands and IP. Vision: To elevate with purpose and contribute to society by creating thought provoking, impactful, premium entertainment experiences and products. Key Advantage: Our understanding of creator-led brands with scale, authenticity and purpose.

11:11 Media

Blockchange Ventures is a venture capital firm investing exclusively in early-stage blockchain companies, protocols, and applications that are trying to make a dent in the universe.

Blockchange Ventures

Wave Digital Assets is a digital asset management organization that combines venture capital, funds, and wealth management. They also offer early-stage VC investment, asset management, treasury management, and strategic consulting in the crypto and blockchain ecosystems.

Wave Digital Assets

Afterparty

Afterparty is a technology company behind the new Web3 platform enabling creators to directly monetize and manage NFT collector relationships. The company's platform and community, creators can directly monetize and connect with their biggest fans and supporters by hosting token-gated experiences in the metaverse and in real life. Afterparty was launched in 2021 and is based in Los Angeles, California.

<div>Afterparty offers an NFT marketplace and streaming platform, along with creator tools to launch NFTs. Afterparty&rsquo;s community includes a number of prominent creators in the crypto and entertainment space, such as Sia, Nile Rogers, Josh Duhamel, Heidi Klum, Loren Gray, King Back, and Vinnie Hacker.</div>

Giving creators the power of content monetization and audience engagement.

Creator Economy

Afterparty adds $5M, debuts AI to ‘infinitely scale fan interactions’

<div>
 
 Afterparty offers an NFT marketplace and streaming platform, along with creator tools to launch NFTs. Afterparty&rsquo;s community includes a number of prominent creators in the crypto and entertainment space, such as Sia, Nile Rogers, Josh Duhamel, Heidi Klum, Loren Gray, King Back, and Vinnie Hacker.
 
 
 Funding and 
 financials
 
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22034">
 September 2023,
 </a>
 the company raised 
 USD 5 million in a strategic growth round led by Blockchange Ventures. It planned to use the funds for product development, particularly the launch of Afterparty AI, which is expected to enable creators to scale personalized fan interactions through AI voice, photo, and video messaging. The round followed its USD 4 million
 unsolicited funding from a group of over 25 investors, including Paris Hilton&rsquo;s 11:11 Media, Spencer Rascoff (Zillow), Jason Calacanis (The Syndicate), David Friedberg (The Production Board), Acrew Capital, and TenOneTen Ventures, in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9910">
 April 2022
 </a>
 . The funds will be used to accelerate platform development, including its newly announced NFT ticketing platform, which enables artists to use NFTs as a tool to offer their fans access to interactive real-world experiences, such as creative festivals and artist events. In March 2022, the company demonstrated the NFT ticketing concept with its first NFT-gated music and art festival in Las Vegas, headlined by The Chainsmokers and The Kid LAROI and participated by over 6,000 attendees.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Patreon provides a platform for creators to offer numerous types of content (videos, text, podcasts, images, etc.) for which fans can subscribe to a monthly membership without any ads or algorithms. Patrons (Patreon subscribers) can pay monthly or per post for content access, in addition to the pay-what-you-want option. Creators are paid monthly or for every new post uploaded. They can offer rewards for different tiers, including meeting patrons or custom work upon the patron&rsquo;s request. Creators are offered three packages: Lite, Pro, and Premium. Lite offers basic creator tools for a membership business with no tiers for fans; Pro offers additional tools and perks (e.g., workshops) with unlimited membership tiers; Premium caters to established companies with a large following, earning a monthly income of USD 5,000 or more, offering Pro services in addition to advanced features and Dedicated Partner Manager services. Creators can start for free and are charged a monthly commission based on their plan when they start earning: 5% (Lite), 8% (Pro), and 12% (Premium), as well as payment processing fees. 
 
 
 The company revealed in November 2021 that it is building a video hosting platform with a native player to eliminate the reliance of third-party video hosting platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo for creators to share video content with their patrons.
 
 
 Memberful, a Patreon-owned membership software platform for independent creators, launched a newsletter feature in October 2021, allowing creators to send news emails to their subscribers. In the future, creators will be able to make posts publicly viewable and schedule and send targeted emails to specific groups of subscribers. Notably, Memberful&rsquo;s paid plans (charged monthly) retain 4.9% of creator revenue, while competitor Substack retains 10%.
 
 
 Patreon acquired tech recruiting firm, Clear Talent, in August 2021 to scale up talent and build its engineering, product, and design team. The company seeks to accelerate the introduction of new features and platform capabilities and double the total monthly revenue its creators earn to around USD 200 million. In October 2023, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22877">
 acquired Moment,
 </a>
 a digital events platform, to strengthen event management solutions for creators.
 
 
 Key 
 customers
 and partnerships
 
 
 As of August 2022, Patreon had more than 250,000 creators, over 8.5 million active subscribers, and had paid out more than USD 3.5 billion to creators. 
 
 
 In June 2021, Patreon partnered with shesaid.so, an international community of women and gender minorities, to co-present the Alternative Power 100 Music List 2021 (#AltList) with the theme &ldquo;The New Creative Economy.&rdquo; Patreon and shesaid.so aim to make the music industry more inclusive and will co-host a series of virtual and physical events (including panel discussions and creator networking). The company has also partnered with third-party services, including Vimeo (to host videos) and Discord (for community chats).
 
 
 Funding
 
 and
 financials
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s most recent funding round was a Series F round worth USD 155 million in April 2021, led by new investor Tiger Global Management. This round triples Patreon&rsquo;s valuation to USD 4 billion. The funds are to be used to further develop its platform for mobile and desktop, increase content consumption tools, and accelerate its international footprint.
 
 
 The total cumulative payouts to creators via the platform surpassed USD 2 billion as of September 2020, and the company expects annual payouts to pass USD 1 billion in 2021. 
 
</div>

Patreon

<div>
 
 Substack offers a publishing platform that encompasses design, analytics, and payment infrastructure to assist newsletter subscriptions. The platform enables writers to focus on content creation and monetization via subscriptions. Writers can build their own paid newsletter subscription businesses and may choose to start with free newsletters for lead generation. Newsletters can be published to the web in addition to individual email addresses and its mobile app.&nbsp; The platform has a dedicated discovery section ranking the top newsletters, which are then promoted based on &ldquo;internet points&rdquo;. The platform supports podcasting by allowing writers to embed MP3s into their newsletters.
 
 
 The company launched multiple product improvements over the years, including video creation and editing features (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24569">
 November 2023,
 </a>
 the capacity to publish video podcasts, create interactive AI-generated transcripts, and customize shareable video clips
 ), AI-powered audio transcription tools (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21412">
 August 2023,
 </a>
 featuring transcript generation and audiogram creation capabilities), Private Substacks (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15987">
 January 2023,
 </a>
 where readers can request to subscribe to read users posts) Substack Grow (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4243">
 August 2021
 </a>
 , to help writers add paying subscribers in), Substack Local (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/3163">
 April 2021
 </a>
 , an initiative to support the local news ecosystem), Substack Pro (to offer advance payments for certain writers), Substack Defender (July 2020, to offer legal support to writers in).&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 Writers have to bring in their own readers, and once they start earning (at a minimum of USD 3 per month), a commission of 10% (plus the Stripe payment processing fee) will be charged on the writer&rsquo;s income. Additionally, Substack stated that it has no plans to include advertisements as an additional revenue stream within the platform. By July 2021, the company reported its top 10 publishers bring in more than USD 20 million per year in combined subscription revenue. Moreover, the company has attracted famous journalists such as Andrew Sullivan, Casey Newton, and Edith Zimmerman. Substack had more than 500,000 paid subscribers as of March 2021.&nbsp;
 
 
 Other notable events include the acquisition of subscription-based social networking app Cocoon in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5113">
 August 2021
 </a>
 , the acquisition of Australian public correspondence startup Letter in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4601">
 July 2021
 </a>
 and the funding of podcast network Booksmart Studio&rsquo;s launch in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4390">
 July 2021
 </a>
 .
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s most recent funding round was Series B funding worth USD 65 million in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/3156">
 March 2021
 </a>
 . The round was led by return investor Andreessen Horowitz, valuing Substack at approximately USD 650 million. The funds are to be utilized to rapidly expand the Substack Pro program alongside the implementation of other features.&nbsp;
 
 
 Substack reported a net loss of USD 22.9 million in 2021, having grown from a net loss of USD 2.3 million in 2020.
 
</div>

Substack

<div>
 
 Cameo offers a platform where creators, such as influencers, celebrities, athletes, artists, and musicians, can provide personalized videos and shout-outs to fans as per their request, charging for each video from USD 5 to as high as USD 2,500. Creators who have a minimum of 20,000 Instagram followers are automatically admitted onto the platform, where they set their own price and can choose to accept a fan request or not within seven days. The creator must fulfill the request within a week, which the fan can download and share. Additionally, Cameo provides a messaging option for less expensive creator/fan interactions. Cameo takes a 25% commission on each transaction on the platform.
 
 
 As of September 2020, Cameo had more than 30,000 creators across multiple industries. Cameo reported that it generated around USD 100 million in video transactions in 2020, with more than 2 million video messages being shared on its platform since launch, of which 80% were gifts for others. Furthermore, the company reported its creators and fans are based in 138 and 178 countries, respectively, with almost 20% of Cameos being purchased from outside of the US as of March 2021. For example, Cameo entered into a commercial partnership (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8576">
 February 2022
 </a>
 ) with Softbank, an existing investor of Cameo, to add more Japanese creators and expand its platform in Japan as a culturally fluent localized version.
 
 
 Cameo acquired marketing and merch company Represent (October 2021) whose clients include Jennifer Lopez, Ed Sheeran, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matthew McConaughey, among others. The acquiring company will onboard the Represent team as well as Represent&rsquo;s existing client relationships. In the near term, Cameo plans to allow fans to purchase &ldquo;gift bundles&rdquo; that pair a Cameo video with related merchandise from the creator. The company hopes to introduce new forms of creator-fan engagement, establish new creator revenue opportunities, and offer non-profit organizations a new way to raise funds.
 
 
 Funding and financials 
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s most recent funding round was Series C funding worth USD 100 million in March 2021, which valued the company at over USD 1 billion, achieving unicorn status. The funds are to be utilized to enhance the Core Cameo experience and capabilities, create new creator-fan engagement products (including Fan Clubs and Cameo Calls), and develop Cameo's B2B business. The company also plans to continue its international expansion.
 
</div>

Cameo

<div>
 
 Buttondown offers a publishing platform for writers to create and distribute newsletters on a subscription basis (price set by the writer) or for free. The platform does not charge writers until they reach 1,000 subscribers, after which they are charged a monthly fee of USD 5 per thousand subscribers. Buttondown also offers advanced features for professionals at a monthly fee of USD 29. Writers can send multiple separate newsletters from the same account, catering to different audiences by maintaining separate mailing lists.
 
 
 The platform also provides writers with user-specific analytics and insights, including features such as side-by-side comparisons of multiple emails. Buttondown has integrated with numerous third-party providers, Ghost and Medium (blogging platforms), Squarespace and Weebly (website building and hosting service providers), and web application integrator, Zapier.  As of December 2020, the company is run entirely by the CEO and founder, Justin Duke, and reported to have a monthly cost base of around USD 1,100. Furthermore, the CEO has made a commitment to donate at least 10% of profits to the software that enables it.
 
</div>

Buttondown

<div>
 
 Disciple Media, headquartered in the UK, offers bespoke community media apps for creators to privately share and own their content while having control, especially regarding monetization. Creators can use the platform to promote their brand, increase reach and engagement with fans, and monetize by charging fans a monthly subscription for access in addition to in-app purchases, sponsorship, and advertising. The company claims that the app-creating process had been reduced to 10 minutes since 2017.
 
 
 The company reported 200% revenue growth and recurring revenue growth of 160% in 2020. As of July 2021, the platform has reached over 500 global communities (up from 200 in May 2020) with 2 million members using the platform. The company claims that the growth of recurring revenue by more than 850% in 2019 was driven by monthly growth of 15% in new communities and 20% in members.
 
 
 Disciple Media raised USD 6 million in a Series A funding round in July 2021, led by previous investors including Nick Mason (Pink Floyd drummer) and Rob Pierre (founder and CEO of Jellyfish), among others. In addition to the company&rsquo;s fundraising, Eirik Svendsen&mdash;an expert in online marketplaces, SaaS, and the publishing and media industry&mdash;has come on as Chairman of the Board.
 
</div>

Disciple Media

Platforms that allow creators to share several types of content. Some platforms also offer fan engagement/ interactions with the creative artist via videos/ live streams.

Platforms that offer exclusive content to signed up members.

Platforms that allow creators to share their written works and blogs.

Platforms that provide tools to discover relevant analytics, produce content, engage with the audience, and help with the overall process.

Platforms that allow creators to share one of either videography, live streams, photos, music or audio podcasts with fan engagement capabilities.

Blockchain-based Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) allow creators to transfer ownership of their content via platforms that share proceeds with buyers, sellers, creators, and platforms via smart contracts.

Web3 enables creator monetization by providing decentralized platforms for creators to engage with their audience

NFT platforms segment uses metaverse concepts

Afterparty, an NFT platform and community, has raised $5 million in a strategic growth round, led by Blockchange Ventures. Existing investors Acrew Capital and Act One Ventures also participated, along with new investors Wilson Sonsini and Vinny Lingham. The funding brings Afterparty's total funding to $12 million. The company plans to use the funds for product development, specifically the launch of Afterparty AI. This AI technology is expected to allow creators to scale personalized fan interactions through AI voice, photo, and video messaging. Afterparty's successful funding rounds highlight its appeal and investor confidence, validating its strategic vision and execution. The additional capital will support its focus on NFTs and community building, with a particular focus on developing Afterparty AI.

Afterparty

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