CreatorDAO, a Santa Monica-based company that invests in creators by providing capital, technology, and operational support, announced on August 9 that it raised $20M in a seed funding round led by a16z crypto and Initialized Capital, along with participation from Liquid 2 Ventures, M13, Audacious Ventures, 6th Man Ventures and Abstract Ventures, to name a few. Other high-profile investors included Paris Hilton, The Chainsmokers, Michael Ovtiz and Liam Payne.
CreatorDAO – DAO stands for decentralized autonomous organization – invests in creators in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. The DAO structure allows investment decisions to be crowdsourced, and contributions to the organization such as mentorship and collaboration to be rewarded.
With the rise of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, DAOs have spiked in popularity over the past year. Members of said organizations usually share a common interest ranging from investing to collecting. A DAO has access to specific funding and as a community chooses how the money should be utilized or distributed. For example, a collector DAO could choose what NFTs to purchase, sell or trade as a group and proceeds are shared amongst the members.
Top creators like Olympian Shawn Johnson and engineer and YouTube creator Joma Tech have already signed on to share their time with the creatorDAO community.
“Over $300 billion of venture capital dollars (were) invested in technology startups in 2021; less than $100 million of investment dollars was invested in creators. Creators today are businesses, but no one’s figured out how to help them realize their growth potential,” said Michael Ma, chief executive and co-founder, with Jonathan Wald, of CreatorDAO in a statement. “It’s an investment vacuum similar to the one that Y Combinator and angel investors filled for tech entrepreneurs 17 years ago.”
