Creator economy startups are seeing VC interest. Here’s why

On 17th May 2021, Naval Ravikant, the founder of startup investment and jobs platform AngelList tweeted: “Eventually, everybody will be in the creator economy.” In India, which has over 448 million active social media users and the highest data consumption per smartphone, this opportunity and its unique leverage are getting noticed.

In the last two years, the creator economy has seen blitzscale growth with unforeseen demand and user consumption trends. From being a social media-led phenomenon, the unexpected imperatives of the pandemic have pushed the creator economy up to the next level, where brands are aggressively leveraging these content creators to influence audiences into buying their products.

In the last six months alone, nearly every top venture capitalist in the country has made a bet on startup enablers in the creator economy space, taking cues from the success of companies such as Patreon, Mighty Networks and Grin in the US.

Technology investors such as Accel Partners, Elevation Capital, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, as well as gaming company and PubG maker Krafton, are betting big on this fast-growing sector. This is way beyond things like the boom in short-form video platforms following the TikTok ban in India in 2020; the opportunity has now moved towards businesses involved in creator monetisation, software to engage audiences, as well as content-to-commerce enablers.