Over $1 billion in venture capital funds were invested into the creator economy space last year. Outside of VC investments, the industry itself is worth more than $100 billion, with no plans of slowing down either.
Austin’s own SamCart, an e-commerce startup that helps content creators increase revenue streams and operate as established businesses, announced this week that it pulled in $82 million in a Series B round led by Eldridge. This brings the company’s total raise to date to $95 million, including its $10 million Series A round last year.
“We are thrilled to partner with this esteemed group of new and existing investors, who share our team’s passion for helping content creators build their businesses and brands,” Brian Moran, CEO and founder of SamCart, said in a statement.
Through its technology and product offerings, the company wants to help content creators showcase their work, gather an audience and produce multiple streams of revenue by converting audience members into paying customers.
With its fresh funding — which is over 8x the amount of its last raise — SamCart is continuing its hiring efforts and expanding platform features. By the end of the year, the startup expects to nearly double its 100-person team, a company representative told BuiltIn.
SamCart currently supports more than 30,000 businesses and has processed over $2.2 billion in sales to date, according to the company.
“Solopreneurs, emerging and established creators face many obstacles managing diverse channels while scaling their revenues. As the creator economy expands and revolutionizes more aspects of commerce, we are the trusted brand to provide a dedicated, creator-centric, digital commerce platform that can maximize and monetize creators’ success online,” Moran said in the statement.
Startups like NYC-based Creatively have also entered into what seems to be a boom of startups catering to content creators and helping them monetize their work. Just last month, Creatively pulled in an $8 million seed round from Rich Kleiman and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures to scale its same-day payment platform for freelancers and content creators.
