Creandum is a European early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on investing in innovative technology companies. The firm supports founders by providing not only capital but also operational expertise and a robust network built over years in the industry.

Creandum

Supernode Global is an early-stage VC that invests in companies whose technologies will fundamentally change the media landscape. The firm brings an exceptional understanding of media and has unparalleled access to the European and U.S. media ecosystem. SG invests at the earliest stage and aims to follow on into later rounds, providing successful companies with continuity of investment and strong signalling to the market, as well as financial security.  In addition, RNV is building a global community focused on media- tech innovation by connecting builders, funders, buyers, and partners, called Supernode. Through Supernode, RNV's portfolio companies will have direct access to our network of experts and partners, a diversified pool, investors across all stages of growth, peer-to-peer support, and a range of highly curated events.

Supernode Global

Sequoia is a venture capital focused on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. The firm helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. It spurs them to push the boundaries of what’s possible. The firm seeks to invest in all sectors with a focus on energy, financials and financial services, healthcare and healthcare services, Internet, mobile, outsourcing, and technology.

Sequoia Capital

big_bets is a fund that invests exclusively in software-intensive companies, that is, in companies built around code and data. There is a very important belief behind everything we do: we believe that the destiny of every atom is to become an electron. And precisely when an atom is turning into an electron is when the grand investment opportunities emerge.  Think about it, this occurred with media (all the money that once flowed into the atoms of magazines, newspapers, radios, and TVs is now in the electrons of social networks, search engines, e-commerces, etc.), with financial products (in the past, banks had a branch on every corner, but today there's a branch in everyone's pocket), with software (the older generation will recall buying software CDs at newsstands or having numerous servers within companies, today much of this is in the cloud), and with entertainment (no need to mention that books, music, and films have become apps on your phone) and so forth. It's precisely for this reason that our investment thesis is centered on identifying the largest industries currently transitioning from atoms to electrons and investing in and backing the entrepreneurs who are best equipped to accelerate this transformation. Therefore, our investments are highly agnostic, covering areas like financial services (Conta Simples, Ume, and Justos), identity (Unico), pharmaceutical industry (Menten AI and Pepper Bio), diagnostics (Huna), media (Festalab, Prota, and Newtail), primary education (Studdy), energy distribution (Lemon), devtools (Lazy AI, DataMilk, NuMind, Croct), among others.

big_bets

s16vc is an early-stage founder-centric angel fund. The fund focuses on early stage technology investments, operating globally in Europe, and the US. We have brought together more than 80 founders & operators to support early stage companies in their growth.  Fund partners are active founders and operators:  - Oleg Bibergan - Co-founder & Co-Managing Partner at s16vc, venture investor & corporate finance executive with 15 years of experience spanning early, growth, and late stage deals as equity investor with GS SSG, Kismet Capital Group, and personal angel portfolio - Aleks Shamis - Co-founder & Co-Managing Partner at s16vc. Ex-Deputy CEO at Borzodelivery.com (global on-demand delivery business, operating in 10 countries) - Mike Peregudov - Founder & CEO at Pivot.ws (EdTech startup in the US market), Food Party (exit to Yandex)   - Leo Batalov - Partner, Global Co-Head of Emerging Growth Companies & Venture Capital at DLA Piper, top international law firm - Egor Rudi - Founder & CEO at Profi.ru (leading services marketplace in Eastern Europe), Co-founder at Hands.ru (first Uber-like marketplace in home improvement market) - Tolya Marin - Founder at Payment systems (fintech company with profit per employee > PayPal & 20m installs/ 5m MAU) - Andrey Khusid - Founder and CEO of Miro, the world's most popular visual collaboration platform Being founders ourselves, we are confident that people succeed, not ideas, and feel immense respect for every founder who perseveres to the point of creating impact and monetizable value.  We invest in teams who share our values:  -  People succeed, not ideas - Community, not individual - Trust - Transparency - Intrinsic motivation to help - Pay forward - Beginner mindset

s16vc

Accel Ventures scout fund is an investment firm.

Accel Ventures scout fund

Passionfroot

Passionfroot provides a centralized location for creators and media companies to manage sponsorships, collaboration requests, bookings, and payments.

Passionfroot offers a suite of support tools for creators including a customizable storefront, project tracking interface, collaboration tools, a CRM solution, and cashflow management options. These tools specifically aim to support GenZ and millennial creators manage B2B monetization streams such as sponsorships and ad placements. As of January 2022, Passionfroot was in the early-access stage and was expected to be released for beta users soon after.

Giving creators the power of content monetization and audience engagement.

Creator Economy

Female-led Passionfroot raises $3.8M funding, launches AI-powered marketing platform to help creators grow

Passionfroot offers a suite of support tools for creators including a customizable storefront, project tracking interface, collaboration tools, a CRM solution, and cashflow management options. These tools specifically aim to support GenZ and millennial creators manage B2B monetization streams such as sponsorships and ad placements. As of January 2022, Passionfroot was in the early-access stage and was expected to be released for beta users soon after.In December 2021, Passionfroot raised EUR 3 million (approx. USD 3.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round led by Creandum with participation from a group of individual investors including Kristin Chen (Top.gg), Laura Lewandowski (Smart Chiefs), and Courtney Chin (Coinbase).

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’s request. Creators are offered three packages: Lite, Pro, and Premium. Lite offeirs 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.&nbsp;In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/36100">November 2024,</a> Patreon introduced new features allowing creators and fans to gift memberships and offer subscription discounts.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’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..Key Customers and partnershipsThe company has partnered with third-party services, including Vimeo (to host videos) and Discord (for community chats).&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Passionfroot, a B2B creator marketing platform, has raised USD 3.8 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Supernode Global, with contributions from Sequoia, Accel, and angel investors from Linktree, Hubspot, and Notion. This funding has increased the startup's total capital to over USD 7 million.
 The funds will be used to enhance the platform’s key features such as AI-driven recommendations, ROI analytics, a proprietary payment ledger, and team access structures. In terms of geographical expansion, Passionfroot intends to enlarge its US team to further speed up its growth trajectory.
 Alongside the funding announcement, the company launched Passionfroot 3.0. This version represents the first AI-powered B2B creator marketing platform dedicated to fostering brand-creator partnerships and maximizing campaign effectiveness.&nbsp;
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Passionfroot's previous major funding round, raised in <a href="https: 
//tech.eu/2021/12/15/helping-the-creator-economy-keep-on-keepin-on-berlins-passionfroot-raises-e3-million/"> December 2021 </a> , secured ~USD 3.2 million, earmarked for product development and workforce expansion.

Passionfroot

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