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July, a new creator startup, recently raised a $2.3 million pre-seed.

July

  • The "creator economy" is catching the attention – and wallets — of notable VCs.
  • Creator-focused startups are raising millions of dollars.
  • Here are the pitch decks that 21 startups used in Series A, Seed, and pre-Seed rounds.

The phrase "creator economy" skyrocketed as a buzzword in 2021 as creators, VCs, and entrepreneurs rushed to cash in on a booming industry.

More than 70,000 people used the phrase online between January and September 2021, according to United Talent Agency's IQ department, which tracks influencer-industry trends.

Money spent by marketers in the influencer-marketing industry is estimated to exceed $4 billion in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence — but the creator economy now extends far beyond marketing.

Fueling this rapid growth is the millions of dollars being invested into startups like link-in-bio service Linktree (valued at $1.3 billion earlier this year) or affiliate marketing platform LTK (valued at $2 billion in late 2021). Creators themselves are getting investors, too, and groups — like esports team Faze Clan — are going public.

Here are 13 investors and VC firms funding innovative startups in the creator economy

In 2021, more than $5 billion was invested into creator-focused startups in the US, according to The Information.

And while investors may be looking at slightly different factors now that the greater market has cooled off, they are still looking for startups creating practical tools for creator businesses.

For instance, July — a creator economy startup with a mission to simplify the brand deal process — announced in December a $2.3 million pre-seed round led by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six fund.

So, how do creator economy startups land those investments? Often, it starts with a pitch deck. 

Lumanu, a creator-focused financial startup, uses a simple pitch deck that is more of a "conversation guider," cofounder and CEO Tony Tran told Insider.

"My pitch is always why, what, how, and why now?" Tran said. (Read the full pitch deck here.)

Skye, a career-coaching startup, had different decks depending on the type of investor or fund they were pitching to.

"I had two different versions, depending on the fund," said Jessica Wolf, Skye's CEO and cofounder. "If I knew a fund was more into pre-seed, all about the founder, I had one deck. But if I knew that they were a numbers person, I would use another one."

But every startup has a different approach.

Insider talked with founders who've pitched their startups to investors about their process. They broke down the pitch decks they used to secure millions of dollars in funding. 

Read the pitch decks that helped 21 creator-focused startups to fundraise millions of dollars:

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Read the pitch decks that helped 21 creator economy startups raise millions of …