The creator economy is catching notable VCs’ attention — and their wallets.
Creator-focused startups are raising millions of dollars.
Here are the pitch decks that 38 startups used in Series A, seed, and pre-seed rounds.
The creator economy has bred a generation of startups — from influencer-marketing companies to new social-media experiences.
These startups have captured the attention and wallets of influential venture capitalists and angel investors over the last several years, giving rise to several unicorn valuations in the space.
Check out 11 VCs who are investing in innovative startups focused on the creator economy and influencers
Even as the economy has weathered changing tides and investments have cooled across industries, some startups in this sector are still raising money.
In 2024, three trends drove some of the largest deals in the creator economy: AI, social commerce, and newsletters. Several startups raised at least $10 million in new funding last year, such as AI startup Captions or newsletter platform Beehiiv.
Here are 17 creator-economy startups that raised more than $10 million in 2024
So, how do creator-economy startups land those investments? Often, it starts with a pitch deck.
Lumanu, a creator-focused financial startup, uses a simple pitch deck that’s more of a “conversation guider,” its cofounder and CEO, Tony Tran, told BI.
“My pitch is always why, what, how, and why now?” Tran said. (Read the full pitch deck here.)
Skye, a career-coaching startup, had different pitch decks depending on the type of investor or fund they pitched to.
“I had two different versions, depending on the fund,” said Jessica Wolf, Skye’s CEO and one of its cofounders. “If I knew a fund was more into pre-seed, all about the founder, I had one deck. But if I knew that they were a numbers person, I would use another one.”
Every startup has a different approach.
Some, such as Throne, even ditch the pitch deck altogether and opt for an email or Notion document.
Read the email template creator-economy startup Throne used to secure its seed investment.
BI talked with founders who’ve pitched their startups to investors about their process. They broke down the pitch decks they used to secure millions of dollars in funding.
Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round.
Restream, a livestreaming alternative to platforms like the Amazon-owned Twitch: $50 million Series A (14 pages)
ShopMy, an affiliate platform that lets creators earn commissions through shoppable landing pages: $26.5 million Series A (23 pages)
Posh, an IRL events startup: $22 million Series A (12 pages)
Pearpop, a creator-marketing platform: $18 million Series A (18 pages)
Spoon Radio, a social-audio startup: $17 million Series A (15 pages)
Kyra, a content studio, talent-management firm, and influencer-marketing platform: $15 million Series A (20 pages)
Allstar, a startup helping gamers become social-media creators: $12 million Series A (6 pages)
Lumanu, a business-solutions platform for creators: $12 million Series A (8 pages)
Hype, a platform for link-in-bio and other creator-monetization tools: $10 million Series A (13 pages)
Catch+Release, a startup that helps creators and everyday social-media users license their content to brands: $8.8 million Series A (12 pages)
Slip.stream, a music startup focused on gamers: $7.5 million Series A (13 pages)
Brag House, an esports startup: $5 million Series A (24 pages)
