“I’ve acquired a reasonably wild story to let you know,” the early YouTube star Caspar Lee says in a TikTok.
He goes on to inform the story of how a startup founder slid into his LinkedIn DMs with a pitch about an eco-friendly deodorant known as Wild. He ignored the message at first, however his cousin Sasha Kaletsky, then a Bridgepoint investor, requested Lee if he and another creators needed to get in on the seed spherical. This April, about 5 and a half years later, Wild offered to Unilever for £233 million, or round $286 million.
Wild can be simply the tip of the iceberg for Kaletsky and Lee. In 2019, they shaped Creator Ventures, a seed and pre-seed enterprise capital fund targeted on client web firms. Now, Creator Ventures is launching its second fund with $45 million, greater than double its earlier $20 million fund.
Creator Ventures already has a observe file of constructing some strong bets on seed-stage startups. Eleven Labs, an AI audio firm now valued at over $3.3 billion, was a part of Creator Ventures’ Fund I. Quickly after Unilever acquired Wild, one other Creator Ventures-backed firm, Runna, exited to working app Strava. The agency has additionally invested in buzzy publication platform Beehiiv, and it led AI language studying app Praktika‘s seed spherical.
After six years working with its first fund, the Creator Ventures Fund II will proceed investing in consumer-facing firms, however with a better eye on AI — that’s not a shock to listen to in 2025.
“There’s a trillion {dollars} of spend that goes by way of the iOS and Android app shops yearly, and if even a small proportion of that turns into taken by client AI apps, that’s going to be an entire lot of unicorns,” Kaletsky instructed TechCrunch.
Apart from the curiosity in AI, Kaletsky sees another burgeoning tendencies within the client web area. He’s notably inquisitive about microdrama streaming apps, which have lengthy been common in Asian markets, however have began making an actual dent within the U.S.
“The loopy half about ReelShort, which is fascinating, is the pricing,” Kaletsky stated. “Individuals generally don’t understand they’re charging $20 every week… it’s far dearer than Netflix.”
Up to now this yr, in keeping with app retailer knowledge supplier Appfigures, the microdrama apps DramaBox and ReelShort have made $99 million and $152 million from in-app purchases within the U.S., respectively. These figures mirror a 203% and a 233% year-over-year development from the identical timeframe in 2024.
A few of Creator Ventures’ bets are a bit extra speculative. Kaletsky and Lee are additionally enthusiastic about an app of their portfolio known as Standing, a social network-like app the place customers submit updates to an viewers of AI bots, which means that nobody truly sees what they submit. The bots would possibly love your posts or cancel you. The corporate markets itself as “Sims however social media.”
These AI bot-filled social community startups have been cropping up during the last yr, although to a skeptic, the enchantment of AI-only social experiences could appear doubtful. However in keeping with Creator Ventures, Standing has over 1 million world customers after launching earlier this yr.
Although Creator Ventures isn’t essentially a creator economic system fund, the entrepreneurial parallels between startup founders and content material creators like Lee stay on the middle of the agency’s imaginative and prescient.
“A whole lot of client web founders discover that the actual thrilling go-to-market technique is round social,” Lee stated. “A whole lot of these founders have gotten creators in their very own proper… and that’s one thing I like to become involved in as somebody who comes from that world.”
Fund II is propped up by Degree, Cendana, Classic, Isomer Capital, Sequoia, and different companions. Kaletsky stated that among the Fund II backers hadn’t invested in consumer-dedicated funds in over ten years.
“I feel, hopefully, persons are beginning to see the potential of client on this period,” Kaletsky stated.
Lee added, “It’s good for us to have the ability to put money into issues that our family and friends can come throughout.”
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