Bangalore: CreatorStack, a market network for digital creators, has raised a seed funding of US$ 2 million from Accel. The round also saw participation from On-Deck’s The Runway fund, PointOne Capital, Wekan alongside angels active in the media, entertainment, and future of work sectors, notably Kumar Akash (SVP Growth – Hotstar). The start-up will use these funds to continue building a world-class creator-centric platform.
CreatorStack, based in India and USA, runs a market network that helps digital creators to create content, engage with their fans, brands, and investors; and monetize their time. The company started its journey by acknowledging the fact that there is no effective, easy, and trusted way for creators in the passion economy to discover, manage relationships, collaborate, and transact with each other online. New technologies and business models enable more people to unlock economic value from their skills and passions, where they had previously been hampered by traditional intermediaries and unfavorable business models. The software has democratized such industries to great benefit in the last 25 years. For example, Shopify for e-commerce entrepreneurs, Angellist for tech startups. The company is convinced it’s inevitable that it will also happen in the creator ecosystem. Their decision to build a market network of creators involved in the passion economy is a manifestation of this conviction.
Deobrat Singh, Co-Founder CreatorStack said, “We are the beginning of a new world, where the content gatekeepers of yesterday will become irrelevant. There are different entities involved in a creator’s success – fans, teams, investors, brands. We can unlock huge monetary value by providing a trusted way for all these entities to authentically collaborate together through data and insights. We are starting by enabling creators to own their own audience by building their communities and engaging their audience in new and unique ways. Through this, we are creating authentic and new social graphs that aren’t easily duplicated or subsumed by platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. As a result of which the creators remain in control and have a direct relationship with their audience. We are privileged to have Accel, On-Deck’s The Runway fund, PointOne Capital, Wekan, and others on our captable”.
Dinesh Katiyar, the Partner, Accel, said, “With the rapid growth of the global creator economy, creators are emerging as small businesses, in need of sustainable monetization models. With its well-designed, innovative product and a great team for execution, Creatorstack is well-poised to leverage this macro-dynamic shift like no other existing platform.”
CreatorStack has also announced two key appointments to its leadership team:
Ankit Acharya joins as Director of Strategy & Business. He will lead the business development and creator partnerships worldwide, by focusing on building strong relationships with creators, brands, agencies, and influencers worldwide. In his earlier stint, Ankit led communications & founders’ office at Bounce.
Puneet Jain joins as Director of Product. Apart from leading core product initiatives, he will be instrumental in building a product that’s valuable and compelling to use. He comes from Cred where he firsthand experienced how gamification and growth were correlated.
