Viola Ventures (formerly Carmel Ventures) is a venture capital firm that invests in Israeli-related early stage companies with significant ideas that can lead to transformational companies. Founded in 2000 by [Avi Zeevi](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/avi-zeevi) and [Shlomo Dovrat](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/shlomo-dovrat), Viola Ventures manages over $1.2B across six funds, and is the only Israel-based VC fund with seven investing partners solely dedicated to early-stage tech investments. This allows for unique depth and diversification that spans across a wide range of backgrounds and verticals. With over 20-year legacy in Israel’s vibrant technology ecosystem, Viola Ventures is known for repeatedly backing global tech companies and unicorns, such as ironSource, Payoneer, Lightricks, Redis Labs, and Outbrain. The fund holds a substantial share of Israel’s significant exits, including Actimize, RedBend, ECI, Samanage, Perfecto, Tapingo, and more. Viola Ventures invests in exceptional teams with a strong focus on AI technologies looking to transform traditional markets, the semiconductors and deeptech industries, and consumer facing products.

Viola Ventures

Insight Partners is a global software investor that partners with growth-stage technology and software companies. Insight has a deep focus in Fintech, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, DevOps, and Healthcare sectors. Across their people and their portfolio, they encourage a culture around a core belief growth equals opportunity. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO.

Insight Partners

Claltech is an investment firm that focuses on the segments of the internet, e-commerce, and financial technology industry. It was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

ClalTech

As part of the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, GS Growth is the firm’s investment platform dedicated to providing preferred equity and mezzanine capital to high-growth companies. As of June 2019, Goldman Sachs' investing groups (Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Principal Strategic Investments, and Private Capital Investing) have combined to form the GS Growth team. The team targets investments of $20-250 million.

GS Growth

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. provides investment banking, securities, and investment management services, as well as financial services to corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high-net-worth individuals worldwide. Its Investment Banking segment offers financial advisory services, including advisory assignments concerning mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense, risk management, and restructurings and spin-offs; and underwriting services comprising public offerings and private placements of a range of securities, loans, and other financial instruments, and derivative transactions. The company’s Institutional Client Services segment provides client execution services, such as fixed income, currency, and commodities client execution related to making markets in interest rate products, credit products, mortgages, currencies, and commodities; and equities related to making markets in equity products, as well as executes and clears institutional client transactions on stock, options, and futures exchanges. This segment also engages in the securities services business providing financing, securities lending, and other brokerage services to institutional clients, including hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, and foundations. Its Investing and Lending segment originates longer-term loans; and invests in debt securities, loans, public and private equity securities, real estate, consolidated investment entities, distressed assets, currencies, commodities, and power generation facilities. The company’s investment management segment provides investment products and services, as well as offers wealth advisory services, including portfolio management and financial counseling, and brokerage and other transaction services.

Goldman Sachs

Greycroft is a venture capital firm that focuses on technology start-ups and investments in the Internet and mobile markets. With offices in two of the most important business hubs in the world, New York and Los Angeles Greycroft uniquely positioned to serve entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners. The firm leverages an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships, bring their products to market, and build successful businesses.  Greycroft manages in excess of $1 billion and has made over 200 investments since its inception in leading companies including Acorns, App Annie, Bird, Botkeeper, Bright Health, Boxed, Braintree, Buddy Media, Everything But The House, Extreme Reach, Huffington Post, Icertis, JW Player, Maker Studios, Plated, Scopely, Shipt, TheRealReal, Thrive Market, Trunk Club, Venmo, WideOrbit, and Yeahka. Greycroft has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Greycroft

Left Lane Capital is a venture capital and seed-growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses that are fundamental to the human condition and spirit – where customers maintain a long-term relationship with the product, platform, or service.

Left Lane Capital

Hanaco Venture Capital is a technology company with visionary and passionate entrepreneurs. Hanaco was founded by Alon Lifshitz, Lior Prosor, and Pasha Romanovski in 2017 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hanaco Venture Capital

The Altshuler Shaham Group is a leading Israeli firm in the field of asset management. Since 1990, it has specialized  in the management of portfolios, and mutual, provident, and pension funds. The Group currently manages approximately 16 billion NIS, and provides a wide range of services to its institutional and private investors.  Altshuler Shaham`s creative, professional, and cautious approach, coupled with an innovative investment strategy, has established Altshuler Shaham as a leading asset management brand in the Israeli market.

Altshuler Shaham

Migdal Group provides a wide variety of insurance, pension, and financial assets management services products. Migdal Group and its subsidiaries serve over one million and a half individual and business customers. It was founded in 1934 and headquartered in Petah Tikwah, HaMerkaz.

Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings

Shavit Capital Fund is a private equity fund investing primarily in Israeli related companies with a clear path to an IPO (mezzanine rounds) and public companies traded in the US, Israel or other international markets (PIPE/secondary offerings).  The Fund seeks investment opportunities in successful, small to medium-sized companies with strong management teams and demonstrated growth potential

Shavit Capital

Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services provide comprehensive financial and insurance solutions. The firm seeks to provide agents and customers with simpler, faster, and more personal service. It was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Harel Insurance and Financial

Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides institutional and individual investors with investment and advisory solutions, with strategies spanning asset classes, industries, and geographies.  They seek to build long-term relationships based on conviction, sustainable outcomes, and shared success over time. It was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in New York, United States.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Lightricks

Ozone develops an AI-powered video editing platform that allows users to collaborate remotely. It also enables editing high-definition footage, creating video mockups in seconds, color-correcting footage with a pinch of a color wheel, and seeing what the end result will look like before exporting it.

Lightricks develops creativity tools that enable its users to craft and share visual content on mobile devices. Lightricks integrates advanced technologies from computer vision, computer graphics, and image processing into mobile products. Lightricks' products include Facetune, Facetune 2, Enlight, Enlight Photofox, Enlight Videoleap, and Enlight Quickshot. Lightricks was founded in January 2013 by five entrepreneurs with comprehensive knowledge in the fields of computer graphics, image processing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, who left promising careers in order to realize their dream.

<div>Lightricks develops video and image editing apps such as Facetune, Beatleap, Filtertune, and Videoleap for content creators. As of March 2022, Lightricks&rsquo; apps have been installed over 600 million times worldwide and it has a monthly active user base of ~24 million, which includes ~ 5.2 million paying subscribers.</div>

Giving creators the power of content monetization and audience engagement.

Creator Economy

Lightricks’ LTX Studio, the AI Visual Storytelling Platform, Now Open to All

Ozone

Y Combinator

Dropbox

General Catalyst

Tinder

Soma Capital

Olive Tree Capital

Pioneer Fund

Polymath Capital

Bluewatch Ventures

LGVP

Snap

Today, Snapchat is rolling out a new Creative Kit for content creators that features direct integrations with Lightricks apps Beatleap and Videoleap. The new partnership with Snap is part of Lightricks’s larger mission to provide tools and resources that help maximize joy in the content creation process while minimizing friction, so that anyone with an idea can experience the magic of bringing it to life and express themselves to the world. The Snap-Lightricks partnership unites Lightricks’s user-friendly creator tools with the Snapchat ecosystem to remove friction from content sharing. And because the product integration is built to maximize reach on the Snapchat app’s new Spotlight feed interface, it’s designed to help creators expand their audience beyond their existing followers.

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

<div>
 
 Lightricks develops video and image editing apps such as Facetune, Beatleap, Filtertune, and Videoleap for content creators. As of March 2022, Lightricks&rsquo; apps have been installed over 600 million times worldwide and it has a monthly active user base of ~24 million, which includes ~ 5.2 million paying subscribers.
 
 
 In February 2024, Lightricks launched an AI-based filmmaking tool called 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27090">
 &quot;LTX Studio&quot;
 </a>
 to help creators visualize and develop short AI-generated clips for their story ideas.
 
 
 The company acquired Popular Plays (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9488">
 March 2022
 </a>
 ), a platform that enables brands to use its network of 60,000+ content creators for influencer marketing and content creation. As of March 2022, Popular Plays has facilitated the creation of over 100,000 pieces of sponsored content and over 40,000 creator-brand partnerships. The acquisition is expected to enable creators to use Lightricks to monetize their audience by engaging with brands such as Kraft-Heinz for content collaborations. 
 
 
 Funding and financials 
 
 
 In its latest funding round, Lightricks raised USD 130 million in Series D funding co-led by Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital. New investors Migdal Insurance, Altshuler Shaham, Shavit Capital, and existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Claltech, Harel Insurance and Finance, and Greycroft also participated. The round valued the company at USD 1.8 billion. The fresh funds will be used to expand headcount and invest in M&amp;A activity.
 
</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’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.

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

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Lightricks, a prominent software developer known for its image and video editing apps, has announced the launch of SafeCollab, a new tool designed to aid brands in the evaluation of content creators. The tool will be made accessible to all users from November 10, 2024.
 SafeCollab utilizes LLMs for the analysis of creator content across a myriad of formats such as video, image, audio, and text. The tool offers services like real-time monitoring of posts, comprehensive analysis of historical data, and immediate alerts for any problematic content. It will soon introduce customizable brand risk assessments, enabling brands to set specific content parameters.
</div>

Lightricks

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