Substack

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.  The platform has a dedicated discovery section ranking the top newsletters, which are then promoted based on “internet points”. 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 ( November 2023, the capacity to publish video podcasts, create interactive AI-generated transcripts, and customize shareable video clips ), AI-powered audio transcription tools ( August 2023, featuring transcript generation and audiogram creation capabilities), Private Substacks ( January 2023, where readers can request to subscribe to read users posts) Substack Grow ( August 2021 , to help writers add paying subscribers in), Substack Local ( April 2021 , 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).  

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’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. 

Other notable events include the acquisition of subscription-based social networking app Cocoon in August 2021 , the acquisition of Australian public correspondence startup Letter in July 2021 and the funding of podcast network Booksmart Studio’s launch in July 2021 .

Funding and financials

The company’s most recent funding round was Series B funding worth USD 65 million in March 2021 . 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. 

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.