From left to right: Anj Fayemi of Rivet, Anna Bofa of Crate, Tyler Denk and Beehiiv. — Creator economy startup executives from left to right: Anj Fayemi of Rivet, Anna Bofa of Crate, Tyler Denk of Beehiiv.

The creator economy buzz has simmered down but some startups are still catching investors' attention.
Insider asked over a dozen VCs and angel investors to share which startups are on their radar.
Here are 14 startups to watch in the creator economy as 2023 comes to a wrap.

Yes, the buzz around the creator economy has fizzled out and consolidation has swept through the industry, but some startups are still catching the attention of investors.

Insider asked more than a dozen venture capital and angel investors specializing in the creator economy, from firms including Hustle Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and MaC Venture Capital, about the creator startups they think are most promising this year. We asked each investor for one startup they've invested in and one they have no financial stake in.

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From Beehiiv, a newsletter platform founded by ex-Morning Brew staffers, to Whop, an e-commerce platform for digital goods, investors have their eyes on startups that are offering business-building and content-creation tools for creators.

Several investors also named startups that have been on Insider's previous lists. Here are the buzzworthy alums that received shoutouts:

Patreon, a very popular subscription and membership tool for creators
Karat, a financial institution focused on serving creators and known for its black card
Beacons, a link-in-bio platform
Spotter, which buys creators' YouTube back catalogs
Rella, a tool for streamlining content creation and business management founded by creator Natalie Barbu

To keep this list fresh, we excluded startups that have been featured in our previous lists.

Here are 14 more promising creator startups to watch in 2023 and beyond, listed in alphabetical order:

Beehiiv is a buzzy newsletter platform cofounded by ex-Morning Brew staffers.

The Beehiiv cofounders from left to right: Tyler Denk, Ben Hargett, and Jake Hurd.

Startup: Beehiiv

Recommended by: Paige Doherty, Behind Genius Ventures; Faraz Fatemi, Lightspeed Venture Partners; Ankur Nagpal, angel investor

Relationship: Doherty has no direct relationship with the startup; Fatemi and Nagpal are investors

Total funding: $16.7 million, per the company

What it does: Beehiiv is a newsletter platform cofounded by ex-Morning Brew staffers. The startup told Insider that its users send over 650 million emails each month. Beehiiv also offers creators tools to help propel growth and monetize their audience to scale their newsletter business. It's used by influencers including creator-duo Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry and Matt Navarra.

Why it's on the list: Doherty said "Beehiiv is crushing" and she's fascinated by its products that help creators grow — and the startup's investors agree. Nagpal described the startup as "likely the fastest growing company in the creator economy today" and "leaving behind incumbents like Substack and ConvertKit," he told to Insider. Fatemi, meanwhile, highlighted the startup's latest AI features and advertising network, particularly its recent acquisition of ad platform Swapstack.

Circle's features include private messaging and paid memberships.

Circle's cofounders from left to right: Sid Yadav, Rudy Santino, and Andrew Guttormsen.

Startup: Circle

Recommended by: Ankur Nagpal, angel investor

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $24 million, per the company

What it does: Circle is a community platform for creators, offering events and digital products for those looking to build an online community. Some of the features include group chat rooms, private messaging, paid memberships and recurring subscriptions.

The company was founded by Andrew Guttormsen and Sid Yadav, who were former Teachable employees, along with Rudy Santino. It closed in 2018 its first funding round and announced its Series A in November 2021.

Why it's on the list: The startup will go from $8 million in annual revenue at the start of the year to $16 million by the end of 2023, which caught Nagpal's eye.

"It's pretty impressive growth at this scale given how slow the creator economy is growing in general," he said.

He also highlights how quickly the range of products Circle offers has expanded, transitioning from community features to a full platform for creators.

CommunityOne helps creators manage and monetize their Discord communities.

CommunityOne's website.

Startup: CommunityOne

Recommended by: Haley Bryant, Hustle Fund

Relationship: No direct relationship

Total funding: Bootstrapped, per the company

What it does: For creators on Discord, managing a community can be daunting. CommunityOne is trying to alleviate that burden with an AI-powered community manager that helps creators "build their Discord communities," founder Louisa Lu told Insider. "Rather than spending 10 hours [a] day attending to a virtual community, it now takes them half an hour per day," Lu said. The platform also offers tools that help creators monetize their Discord communities.

Why it's on the list: CommunityOne isn't just on Bryant's radar because of how it is helping creators monetize Discord. She also said it was "founded by an exceptional team of hackers and creators." The startup's CTO, Bruno Alatriste, and its community manager, are former YouTube and Twitch creators.

Crate is bridging AI and content creation.

Anna Bofa is the founder and CEO of Crate.

Startup: Crate

Recommended by: Charles Hudson, Precursor Ventures

Relationship: No direct relationship

Total funding: $6 million, per the company

What it does: Crate launched this summer as a new AI platform aimed at helping creators streamline the creative process. Founded by Anna Bofa, a former Pinterest and Facebook staffer, Crate offers tools like image generation and content clustering. The Information described the new platform as an "AI-fueled version of Pinterest."

Everyday internet users can also use Crate to organize their favorite content and sift through content they've saved — from which the platform's AI learns their "content personality."

Why it's on the list: "I'm really excited about Anna Bofa from Crate," Hudson told Insider. "She's a super experienced person building some really interesting things at the intersection of creator economy and generative AI." Before launching Crate, Bofa worked at Facebook, managing community partnerships for about four years, according to her LinkedIn. Prior to Facebook, Bofa worked at other tech giants including Pinterest, Dropbox, and Google.

Creator.co has a formidable database of over 200 million creators.

Creator.co's website.

Startup: Creator.co

Recommended by: Julius Dein, angel investor

Relationship: No direct relationship

Total funding: $3 million, per the company

What it does: Creator.co is an influencer marketing platform for brands and aspiring influencers. It offers tailored and fully managed campaigns, influencer recruitment, and detailed campaign reviews. Founded in 2013 by Vinod Varma, the company has raised $3 million in funding over two rounds.

Why it's on the list: Dein, who is also a creator, said Creator.co stands out to him because it's doubled its annual revenue in the last two years. He also finds its large database of over 200 million creators to be unique. He likes how Creator.co is flexible for creators; they can choose between differently priced self-serve options for influencer marketing campaigns, for instance. He also loves that the company has access to first-party data from influencer posts, which he said its competitors, like Grin, don't.

"Their comprehensive approach is majorly reshaping the influencer marketing landscape," he told Insider.

Komi's link-in-bio offerings are expanding into commerce.

Komi's cofounders from left to right: Olly Hadden-Paton, Lewis Crosbie, and Ben Deigman.

Startup: Komi

Recommended by: Sven Ahrens, angel investor; Julius Dein, angel investor

Relationship: Ahrens and Dein are investors

Total funding: $18 million, per the company

What it does: Komi is one of many link-in-bio solutions for creators, who often rely on a single website to funnel fans to their various platforms and businesses. Founded by Lewis Crosbie and Olly Hadden-Paton, Komi launched in 2021 and began working with creators, musicians, and celebrities on an invite-only basis. After closing its Series A earlier this year, the startup has focused on promoting its commerce tools, such as an on-page checkout feature. Musicians use Komi to promote new music or sell tickets, while creators promote their YouTube videos or market their paid offerings for fans, such as a fitness program.

Why it's on the list: Ahrens, who is the director of global growth at Spotify, said Komi enables creators to "unify fan data and revenues in a simple way" that is platform agnostic. "If there's one thing that I have learned over my nearly eight years at Spotify, this is where most aspiring and even professional creators fail to create lasting impact on their 'business,'" Ahrens said.

Midjourney has one of the most popular communities on Discord.

Midjourney's website.

Startup: Midjourney

Recommended by: Faraz Fatemi, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: Bootstrapped, per the company

What it does: Midjourney is a generative AI model and content creator platform, where users can create different images directly on its Discord server. It's processed 70 million images so far, and creators choose different pricing models according to their content needs, with features including image remixing, upscaling, and inpainting.

Why it's on the list: Fatemi said Midjourney stands out to him because of its incredible distribution; the platform had the largest Discord server as of May, with just under 16 million users. He also highlighted that the company is fully bootstrapped, and is expecting to bring in $200 million in annual revenue by the end of this year.

Passes, an exclusive content platform, acquired competitor Fanhouse this summer.

Passes CEO Lucy Guo.

Startup: Passes

Recommended by: Brent Murri, M13

Relationship: No direct relationship

Total funding: $9 million, per the company

What it does: Passes is a platform that lets creators charge fans for exclusive interactions and content, competing with other incumbents like Patreon and OnlyFans. During the summer, Passes acquired Fanhouse, another platform for exclusive content. Passes was founded by CEO Lucy Guo, who previously cofounded Scale AI and worked as a product manager at Snapchat. Guo is also an angel investor.

Why it's on the list: Sometimes, it's the founder that gets investors most excited about a startup. Guo is a big reason Murri is keeping close tabs on Passes. "Founder Lucy Guo brings an extensive product background into helping millions of creators across the world get paid for their creative abilities," he said.

Passionfroot is an all-in-one platform helping creators manage their sponsorships.

Passionfroot's Jennifer Phan and Jens Mannanal.

Startup: Passionfroot

Recommended by: Sven Ahrens, angel investor

Relationship: No direct relationship

Total funding: $3.4 million, according to the company

What it does: Founded in December 2021 by Jennifer Phan and Jens Mannanal, Passionfroot is a platform for creators and media companies to grow their sponsorships.

Passionfroot offers a number of services, including the ability to build a storefront, land brand partnerships, and manage payments.

Passionfroot works with creators across categories like education, marketing, AI, and finance, and across platforms including newsletters, podcasts, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube. The company plans to release a brand marketplace to connect companies with creators.

The company is backed by content creators including YouTube stars Marina Mogilko and Ali Abdaal, who are among its investors.

Why it's on the list: "Passionfroot helps creators to track and manage their inbound collaborations, but also provide effective tools to creators to create new partnerships with the right companies," Ahrens said, adding that they have well-known knowledge creators and media companies on the platform.

Rivet is a marketing startup for musicians and creators cofounded by MIT grads.

Rivet cofounders from left to right: Nafim Rahman, Anj Fayemi, and Simran Pabla.

Startup: Rivet

Recommended by: Haley Bryant, Hustle Fund; Allison Byers, angel investor

Relationship: Bryant and Byers are investors

Total funding: $800,000, per the company

What it does: Rivet is a marketing tool for musicians and creators to help activate their fanbases. Cofounded by three MIT graduates — including Anj Fayemi, who is a musician — Rivet uses machine learning and AI to help creatives understand their fans through data, and offers solutions to engage with that community.

Fayemi said talent-management teams for artists like Smino and Adekunle Gold use Rivet as a way to pinpoint their biggest fans through the platform's machine learning. Then, musicians and creators leverage that data to interact with those fans with messages, rewards, or discounts.

Why it's on the list: While creators have learned how to grow an audience, not all creators have cracked how to activate, manage, or "nurture fan relationships," as Bryant said. She also highlighted the platform's leveraging of AI tools.

Spill is a text-based platform built by former Twitter employees.

Spill cofounders Alphonzo Terrell and DeVaris Brown.

Startup: Spill

Recommended by: Marlon Nichols, managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $4.95 million, according to the company

What it does: Spill is a text-based platform that was founded by former Twitter employees.

The app, which is currently in beta, is working to develop a creator-advertiser ecosystem to drive creator rewards and monetization. The beta is currently invite-only for users on iOS devices.

Why it's on the list: "Spill is founded by Black ex-Twitter executives who are using blockchain technology to redefine how all creators — especially those from underrepresented communities — are not only recognized online, but fairly compensated," Nichols said.

Statusphere vets both creators and brands before making them available on the platform.

Statusphere

Startup: Statusphere

Recommended by: Paige Doherty, Behind Genius Ventures

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: Undisclosed

What it does: Statusphere is an online micro-influencer marketing platform that helps connect brands with creators. Both brands and creators alike are vetted and approved based on certain criteria, and the platform uses more than 250 first-party data points to match brands with their ideal creators. The company was founded in 2018 by Kristen Wiley.

Why it's on the list: Doherty believes in the company because of Wiley, highlighting how she was an influencer and the marketing chief of an agency that ran social-media campaigns. "She deeply understands the space," she said, adding the company has worked with over 400 brands including eltaMD, Fossil, Hearst, OPI, and Unilever.

Whop is a Brooklyn-based e-commerce startup for digital goods.

Whop's cofounders, from left to right: Jack Sharkey (CTO), Steven Schwartz (CEO), and Cameron Zoub (CPO).

Startup: Whop

Recommended by: Dylann Sands and Marshall Sandman, Animal Capital

Relationship: Investors

Total funding: $17 million, per the company

What it does: Whop is a digital goods marketplace that lets users buy and sell everything from private communities to courses to custom software like analytics platforms. The Brooklyn-based startup employs 25 staffers and describes itself as an "app store for the internet" or an "Amazon for digital."

Why it's on the list: Riding the wave of its July Series A, Animal Capital's Sands and Sandman expect the next several months to shape the success of Whop as the startup rolls out features that will let it compete with the likes of Patreon, Fiverr, and Shopify. "They're focused on building an entire ecosystem for all current and future internet entrepreneurs, and in the past month have processed more than $14M in [gross merchandise value]," Sands told Insider in an email. "We believe in the power of what the founders are building and believe that the next few months are going to show as a testament to their dedication and innovation in shaping the future of digital entrepreneurship."

Fintech startup WorkMade offers business banking services for freelancers and creators.

WorkMade's founder and CEO Nick Simpson.

Startup: WorkMade

Recommended by: Brent Murri, partner at M13

Relationship: Investor

Total funding: $7.5 million, according to the company

What it does: WorkMade is a fintech startup that provides business banking tools to freelancers and creators to help them keep track of their earnings and pay taxes.

A long-time freelancer, Nick Simpson founded WorkMade in 2022 after encountering a stressful tax season. Simpson has since scaled the startup to 12 employees. The platform uses AI to automate business processes, from starting a business to planning for tax season.

Why it's on the list: "WorkMade is dramatically improving the financial operating system for creators, starting with simplifying the payment and tracking of taxes and write-offs," said Murri. "WorkMade lets them focus on their creative abilities."