Investor: Kevin Hartz, cofounder and general partner

A Star Capital, stylized as A* Capital, is a San Francisco-based VC firm that has invested in companies like PayPal, Airbnb, and Pinterest.

Prior to launching the firm, Hartz was a cofounder of Eventbrite and Xoom. When making investments, Hartz said he looks for “exceptional talent” and gets excited by startups that help people monetize their creativity on the internet.

A* primarily leads seed rounds.

Fund size: $315 million, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• Whop
• Munch
• EyeTell
• Krea

Investor: Susannah Shipton, partner; Marshall Porter, general partner

AlleyCorp is a New York-based firm that has made investments in companies across enterprise software, marketplaces, consumer tech, healthcare, and robotics. Shipton and Porter are the firm’s primary partners leading creator-economy investments.

Shipton works closely with AlleyCorp’s portfolio companies via the firm’s incubation support, which develops ideas and strategies for early-stage startups. She previously was the director of strategy and operations at Artsy, a fine-art marketplace.

Porter leads the firm’s early-stage investments and incubations, focusing on B2B and B2C marketplaces. Before joining AlleyCorp, Marshall was the US CEO of Gympass.

Typically, the firm cuts checks for pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds.

Fund size: $250 million, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• ShopMy
• Agentio

Investor: Jeff Becker, general partner

Becker arrived at early-stage VC firm Antler in 2022 after working as a general partner at Forum Ventures. Before his VC career, he founded an audio-earbud startup, Earhoox, and spent nine years in various roles at LinkedIn.

Becker said he looks for “maniacs” and resilient founders when identifying prospective investees in the creator economy. He talks to 30 to 40 founders a week in screening calls, testing out questions to see how he can learn the most about each entrepreneur.

Fund size: Between $500 million and $1 billion total assets under management across geographies, according to the firm.

Relevant investments:

• Agentio
• PerformVu
• Subbb

Investor: Rex Woodbury, managing partner

A newer firm in the mix, Daybreak Ventures, launched in late 2023 after Woodbury left Index Ventures, where he spearheaded investments in several creator-economy startups, including Creative Juice and Fanbase.

Daybreak invests in internet, software, and AI applications with “potential for viral adoption,” Woodbury said.

The firm cuts checks for pre-seed and seed rounds.

Fund size: $30 million, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• Flagship

Investor: Kamran Ali, principal

Ali joined Inspired Capital in 2020 and previously worked as an investor at Point72. He led influencer-marketing company ShopMy’s recent Series A round and has invested in creator startups like Deeptune, an AI-powered dubbing solution for creators.

Inspired Capital’s team has also invested in creator-economy startups like Creative Juice and Geneva, which were both acquired in the past year.

The firm leads pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, with checks between $1 million and $15 million.

Fund size: Recent fund is $330 million and $900 million in assets under management, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• ShopMy
• Winible
• Creative Juice
• Geneva

Investor: Hugo Amsellem and Etienne Boutan, cofounders and general partners

Another new firm, Intuition Capital, launched in April and has its eyes set on disruptive consumer-tech startups. Amsellem previously worked for creator-economy startup Jellysmack and was an angel investor in several companies, including Beehiiv, Creative Juice, and Popchew.

While the firm’s thesis is centered on consumer tech and loneliness, Amsellem told BI he is still looking at creator-economy companies to invest in — just with an “extended definition of creator to anyone making money online and the space as enabling solo entrepreneurship more than creators as entertainers or content-first only.”

Intuition plans to deploy 40 to 50 small checks over the next four years as it invests in early-stage startups.

Fund size: €15 million (about $16 million), according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• Argil AI

Investor: Jamie Seltzer, general partner

LightShed Ventures focuses on early-stage investments in the media, tech, and telecom spaces. Seltzer, a general partner at the firm, previously worked on early-to-mid-stage media investing at Waverley Capital. Before that, he was a founder and CEO at earbuds maker Alpha Audiotronics and worked in private equity and investment banking.

LightShed looks to invest in startups that are producing high-quality, differentiated content. The firm is interested in companies that have a loyal customer base and can make money outside of content through products or other services (akin to an influencer like Kim Kardashian launching a consumer brand like Skims).

Fund size: $80 million, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• WorkWeek

Investor: Marlon Nichols, cofounder and managing general partner

MaC Venture Capital has been on this list for the past three years and has expressed its continued interest in the creator economy. In addition to backing creator-economy companies like Brat TV and FaZe Clan, MaC Venture Capital has invested in emerging social networks like Spill and SWSH.

Nichols looks for startups that focus on transparency and fairness for creators, the firm said. He also seeks out companies that help creators be creative while relinquishing the worry of going unpaid or unrecognized for their work.

MaC focuses on seed-stage investments, per the firm.

Fund size: $203 million Fund II, and $500 million in AUM, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• Lost iN
• Take Back the Mic
• Spill

Investor: Julia Gudish Krieger, managing partner; Kyle Widrick, partner; and Dylan Whitman, partner

Pari Passu Venture Partners, or PPVP, is an early-stage VC firm and co-investment network that invests in seed and Series-A stage upstarts. The company has a particular focus on e-commerce in its co-investor cohort. E-commerce has become an increasingly central piece of how creators and platforms make money in 2024.

Managing partner Krieger, who was previously an investor at Insight Partners and founded luxury rental marketplace VillageLuxe, said she looks for founders who are “borderline obsessed in solving a gap they found in the market.”

Partner and investor Widrick, founder and CEO of retail platform Win Brands Group, said he focuses on software that helps creators connect with the brands that they actually care about.

Partner and investor Whitman, who cofounded Shopify merchant memberships platform BVA Commerce with Wildrick, said he looks for startups that reduce friction for brands and offer tools to help them scale campaigns with authenticity.

Fund size: Investment checks have typically been around $750,000 across its 23 investments to date, per the company.

Relevant investments:

• Carro
• Popchew

Investors: Josh Constine, venture partner; Wayne Hu, partner; Ilya Kirnos, partner and CTO

SignalFire is an early-stage VC firm with around $2.1 billion in assets under management, per the company. Constine, its venture partner, focuses on consumer upstarts that work on products for the creator economy and other categories like marketplaces and AI-powered services.

Constine looks for young companies that help creators control how their content is distributed. This includes upstarts that help creators reach fans without relying on unpredictable factors like platform algorithms. He’s also interested in companies that build tools that help creators perform tasks on their own that would normally require a team to accomplish.

Fund size: $900 million, according to the firm.

Relevant investments:

• Karat
• Nim

Investor: Larry Cheng, managing partner; Jim Ferry, partner; and Carolyn Woll, analyst

Volition Capital invests in growth-stage companies generating between $5 and $50 million in revenue annually. It seeks out companies that are bootstrapped, meaning they haven’t raised funding from institutional investors before.

Volition is interested in how the creator and gig economies have reshaped how individuals make money, changing the ways that products are sold and creators make content. It generally looks for passionate founders who are capital-efficient and seeking out a long-term partner.

Fund size: $675 million, according to the firm

Relevant investments:

• Chamberlain Coffee
• Mozaic