• Spotter, a creator financing platform through licensing deals, has raised USD 200 million in a Series D funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round brings Spotter’s valuation to USD 1.7 billion and total funding to USD 755 million.

• The fresh capital will be used for its plans to invest USD 1 billion to license existing and/or new YouTube creator content by mid-2023, out of which USD 500 million is planned to be spent in 2022. Spotter also plans to enhance its analytic offerings to provide creators with production and best practices recommendations to improve future content performance.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Notably, the creator content promotional company Jellysmack also announced last month plans to earmark USD 500 million for its new venture to license YouTube creator content. </ul>

• Founded in 2019, Spotter provides upfront funding for creators in exchange for licensing rights of their existing and/or new content. Creators can use the funding for new content production or for any other purpose of their choosing; however, deals are only offered to YouTubers who have posted frequently during the last 12 months, have 500,000+ subscribers, and 1 million+ monthly views. The company also offers statistics and insights on creators’ libraries to help them improve the performance of future uploads. Spotter’s content portfolio currently has a reach of over 1.2 billion subscribers and has over 40 billion monthly watch minutes. Spotter has struck deals with over 200 creators, including the likes of Mr. Beast and Deestroying.