Slow Ventures raises $60 million seed fund for creators
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Slow Ventures began making seed-stage investments in creators three years ago, allocating around 10% of its flagship funds.
- Now it's raised more than $60 million for a dedicated creators fund that appears to be the first of its kind.
What they're saying: "In the early 2000s you had all these kids building apps, and professional VCs said, 'That's cute,'" explains Slow Ventures partner Sam Lessin. "When we go to VCs now about creators, they say the same thing. Which means they're going to miss out again."
How it works: The fund will focus on creators who've become authorities on niche areas, such as automotive or gardening, rather than on celebrities or athletes.
- It will invest for a 10% stake in a holding company, and has a right of first refusal to invest in spinout businesses (e.g., restaurants, merchandising, shows, etc.).
- The holdco receives all founder equity in any spinouts.
- The pitch for creators is that they can get investible capital to expand their businesses, in a way they can't necessarily do via social media revenue alone.
- Limited partners include MIT and the University of Michigan.
Zoom in: Slow scours YouTube for potential investments, believing it's the only serious platform for monetization. If a creator's focus is on TikTok or Instagram, it might work for them but likely becomes a filter for Slow.
- "We need to know that they're actually entrepreneurs, people with the sort of DNA who'd be going into Y Combinator if they weren't doing this," says Slow investor Megan Lightcap.
- "There's so much more data than we're used to on other sorts of seed investments," she adds. "These people have a public presence and you can actually see how they're engaged with their communities, and we can do Bain-style analysis on their verticals."
The bottom line: The creator economy will be venture capitalized.
