These 16 creator startups raised millions of dollars in 2023 despite a ‘brutal’ fundraising landscape

• Investor appetite has waned, making it a difficult year for creator-economy fundraising.
• Despite this, some creator upstarts received large raises this year, bucking the downward trend.
• Business Insider is highlighting 16 companies that raised funds despite significant challenges.

It’s been a difficult fundraising year for startups in the creator economy.

According to PitchBook data, the number of funding deals among North American upstarts in the category fell 48% in the first three quarters of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. This trend is consistent with a broader drop in venture capital deals across all sectors, with total investment cut in half for the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.

However, as with any story of adversity, there have been outliers. Despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, some creator upstarts raised millions of dollars in 2023.

Pietra, a marketplace for creators to launch products and e-commerce brands, raised a $16.1 million Series A round in March from investors such as Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Founders Fund, among others. Link-in-bio startup Hype announced in April that it had raised a $10 million Series A round.

For some founders, the ability to entice investors has centered on demonstrating the success of their products today rather than asking VCs to bet on an unproven future idea.

Kara Burney, chief marketing officer at music-tech startup Vault, which raised $5.8 million in a rolling Series A round in June, described the fundraising environment as “brutal.”

Burney’s blockchain-based company faced additional challenges as investor interest in Web3 and cryptocurrency technologies waned. She explained that the company was still able to successfully fundraise this year by demonstrating that it already had a tangible product with demand rather than promising something that hadn’t yet been built.

“The great thing about a bear market is seeing who actually has legs and can stick around,” she went on to say.

Other startup founders have used their prior experience in the creator economy and technology to raise funds in a difficult VC environment.

“We knew going in that we were going to be fundraising in arguably the most difficult fundraising environment in recent times,” said Arthur Leopold, cofounder of the creator-marketing platform Agentio and a former Cameo president. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and a general decline in seed funding, according to Leopold, have made the situation particularly difficult.

Nonetheless, Agentio received $4.25 million in a seed round from investors such as Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, and Antler, as well as Cameo CEO Steven Galanis and YouTuber Cody Ko.

“It would have been very challenging without our backgrounds and experiences,” Leopold said of the fundraising process. “Part of those backgrounds comes with us building great networks and deep trust through prior experiences with some of the best founders, creators, and marketers in the world.”

BI collaborated with PitchBook to compile a list of North American creator-focused startups that successfully funded in 2023 despite investors’ reduced risk appetite. One startup received funding ranging from a few million dollars to $70 million. To identify some of this year’s success stories, we also looked to our own reporting on creator-economy startups.

Here are 16 of those companies, listed in alphabetical order:

• Afterparty, a creator-fan engagement startup, announced a $5 million seed round in September from Acrew Capital, Act One Ventures, and Blockchange Ventures. The fundraising was announced alongside the startup’s latest project, Afterparty AI, which will allow creators to create AI versions of themselves for fans to interact with.
• Agentio announced a seed round of $4.25 million in November, with investors including Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, and Antler. The newly launched product by the company assists brands and marketers in automating the process of running creator-read ads on YouTube.
• Amaze, a creator-monetization startup, told BI that it raised $9.2 million this year in a Series A-3 round led by Tribe Capital. Amaze acquired merchandise startup Spring (formerly Teespring) in 2022.
• According to PitchBook, Beatclub, a marketplace for music creators to connect with record labels, publishers, brands, and other parties, raised $17.6 million in February from investors Cleveland Avenue and Hipgnosis Songs.
• Beehiiv, a newsletter platform, announced a $12.5 million Series A round in June from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Creator Ventures, and Blue Wire Capital.
• Captions, an AI-powered creative studio platform, raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Kleiner Perkins and including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel in June. According to a spokesperson, the startup intends to use its funding to expand its team and invest in product and proprietary models.
• In March, GigaStar, a company that allows YouTubers to raise funds by sharing future revenue with investors, raised $4.8 million in a seed round from investors including DV Crypto VC, Tomsic Holdings, Nameless Ventures, and Belvedere Strategic Capital. According to the company’s marketing chief, the funds will be used to invest in core products such as its crowdfunding tool, GigaStar Market, and GigaStar Portfolio.
• According to PitchBook, Harbour, a contract management platform, raised $17.2 million in a Series A round announced in August from investors including Jonathan Klein, Scribble Ventures, and The Palmer Company.
• Hype, formerly known as Pico, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by King River Capital in April, with participation from Bullpen Capital, Precursor Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta.
• Karat Financial, a creator-finance company that offers a payment card for influencers, told BI in June that it raised $70 million from investors including SignalFire, Union Square Ventures, CRV, and TriplePoint Capital in a $40 million Series B and $30 million debt financing round.
• Pietra, a startup that helps creators build e-commerce businesses, raised $16.1 million in Series A funding in March from investors such as Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Founders Fund. CEO Ronak Trivedi stated that the funds will be used to expand the company’s engineering and design teams, continue building the platform, and expand globally.
• According to PitchBook, Sunroom, a community platform for women and non-binary creators, raised $6.8 million in September from investors including Blackbird Ventures, Graph Ventures, and Green Bay Ventures.
• Vault, a blockchain-based marketplace where musicians can sell limited-edition drops of songs or albums, raised $5.8 million in a rolling Series A round in June from investors including AlleyCorp, Bullpen Capital, and Calm Ventures. The company stated that it intends to use the funds to invest in its product and develop a decentralized protocol for purchasing, playing, and sharing music.
• In July, Whop, a digital goods marketplace, announced a $17 million Series A round. Insight Partners led the round, which included Peter Thiel, Justin Mateen, The Chainsmokers, and creator-turned-VCs Josh Richards and Griffin Johnson.
• According to PitchBook, Wild.xyz, a marketplace for digital art and NFT creators, raised $7 million in a seed round in March from investors including Matrix Partners, Reid Hoffman, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
• Zarta, a video platform for exclusive pay-per-view content, announced a seed round of $5.7 million in May from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, AirAngels, and Dragonfly. Luba Yudasina, a content creator, founded the company.