These 13 Creator Economy Startups Raised Nearly $2 Billion This Year

The creator economy is reaching an AI-powered peak.

In 2025, eight startups developing artificial intelligence tools to automate the content creation process have each announced funding of at least $50 million – a total of $1.2 billion – from venture capital and private equity investors.

Synthesia, a London-based generative AI video startup, confirmed its $180 million funding round in January, while ElevenLabs, a text-to-speech startup, closed a $180 million Series C round. Other AI startups, like Moonvalley, Krea, and Higgsfield, have also announced significant investments this year.

Even though AI dominates investor interest, the topic still causes friction within the creator economy. Some of these AI startups, which offer features such as human-like avatars, run the risk of posing a threat to the content creators themselves. Influencer marketing, which remains the main financial driver of the creator economy, has not yet found a consensus on how and when AI should be used.

The best creators aren’t sitting idly by while AI takes over. YouTuber MrBeast and his team initially sought to raise $200 million earlier this year at a valuation of $5 billion, according to investor documents viewed by Business Insider. The MrBeast team declined to comment on the fundraiser.

It’s not just AI that’s attracting giant checks from venture capital firms.

Social commerce startups building live shopping and affiliate marketing platforms also raises funds. Anyway, a platform where people sell streaming in categories like fashion and collectibles, like Pokémon Cards Or Laboubusraised a total of $490 million in two subsequent rounds this year. The social shopping platform was recently valued at $11.5 billion.

In the meantime, ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platformcontinues to gain market share in the influencer marketing space. The startup has raised a total of $147.5 million this year.

Social commerce sales in the United States are expected to exceed $100 billion next year, according to estimates COMMERCIALISTsister company of Business Insider. The category is gaining momentum in the United States, fueled in part by the growth of TikTok Store.

This year’s fundraising campaign for AI and social commerce startups follows similar buzz for the categories in 2024 when investors threw away money in startups like Captions, Returnand OpusClip. Several startups in these business areas, including ElevenLabs and ShopMy, have raised funds two years in a row.

Business Insider analyzed 2025 fundraising data from PitchBook and other industry sources to highlight the biggest creative industry investment cycles of the year. We highlight 13 startups that have raised $50 million or more in 2025; In total, their funding exceeded $1.9 billion. We focused on companies whose products have a significant impact on the content creation activities and processes of creators and their partners.

Here are 13 creative economy startups that have raised some of the biggest rounds of funding in 2025, in alphabetical order:

• Animation is an animation company that distributes to YouTube and other kid-friendly platforms and uses generative AI to speed up production time. He announced a $85 million financing cycle in June led by HarbourView Equity Partners and Bpifrance Large Venture, with participation from other investors including JP Morgan and Marquee Ventures.

• ElevenLabs is a text-to-speech AI startup that started the year with a $180 million Series C round. In September, it announced a $100 million tender offer at a valuation of $6.6 billion.

• Fixed is a talent management company that has raised $62.8 million in two parts this year, according to the company.

• Higgsfielda generative AI video startup, announced that it had raised a $50 million Series A round in September. The investment, led by GFT Ventures, will help the startup expand its enterprise offerings and accelerate its “global engineering and go-to-market momentum,” according to the company.

• Createda creative AI toolkit for video and image editing, announced in April that it had raised $83 million to date, including its latest Series B round from investor Bain Capital Ventures and a Series A with investment from Andreessen Horowitz.

• Lots of discussionswhich automates SMS and social media DM marketing for brands, has raised a $140 million growth capital round led this year by private equity firm Summit Partners. The funding will help the social commerce and marketing startup expand its global presence and further develop its agentic AI tools.

• Valley of the Moon is building AI Video Tools for Hollywood and raised a $84 million round led by General Catalyst, which included support from the industry, including talent agency CAA.

• PixVerse, an AI video creation platform, announced in September that it had raised a 60 million dollars Series B round led by Alibaba with participation from Antler.

• BuyMyan affiliate marketing platform, announced two investment rounds this year. In January, ShopMy revealed that it had raised a $77.5 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Later in October, the startup announced that it had raised an additional $70 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, bringing the total raised by the company in 2025 to $147.5 million.

• Newsletter platform Substack raised a 100 million dollars Series C round led by BOND and The Chernin Group. The platform was valued at $1.1 billion, making the startup a unicorn.

• The generative AI music platform Suno announced in November a $250 million Series C round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from NVentures and Nvidia’s Lightspeed, among other investors.

• Synthesisa generative AI platform capable of transforming text into videos and creating AI avatars and voiceovers, confirmed in January to have raised a $180 million round led by NEA, with participation from World Innovation Lab and Atlassian Ventures, among other investors. The company declined to comment on an October report Forbes Report that he had raised an additional $200 million.

• Shelfa social shopping platform that has gained momentum as the US market prepares for live shopping, has raised a total of $490 million investors this year. The company announced a $265 million Series E round in January, and by October had closed another $225 million Series F round at a valuation of $11.5 billion, double its valuation from January.