Investment group Slow Ventures says it has amassed $60m, which it is looking to invest in creator-led businesses. Distributed via a vehicle called the Slow Ventures Creator Fund, the company is looking to back digital-first talent that combines creative prowess with the commercial skills to scale up their businesses.
An established player in the digital-first ecosystem, Slow Ventures is aiming to support around 20 creators with investments in the $1m-3m range. The new fund is overseen by Slow Ventures co-founder Sam Lessin, a former Facebook VP.
The fund is looking to back creators that have built strong followings in specialist areas like automotive or gardening, rather than creator-celebrities. It says the fund is “betting on a new generation of founders who’ve built their community first and their business afterward – an inversion of the traditional VC-backed founder”. In return for their investment, Slow Ventures typically looks for a 10% stake in the business.
Explaining its business model, Slow says: “We partner with creators who are best-in-class within their vertical, pursuing serious business building amplified and supported by their content, media, personal brand, and community. We are flexible on vertical, category, and investment construction but we are steadfast in what our money is used for and how we work with creators. Our capital funds experimentation and expansion with significant, demonstrable results. We help our creators by giving them money, advice, and access. We are not a services business. We don’t have a platform or portfolio operations team. We don’t play pretend as part-time executives.”
Slow favours YouTube creators, reasoning that this is the best platform for scalable monetisation. But it will consider partnering TikTok or Instagram talent if it sees a business case worth supporting. Outlining its promise to creators, the company says: “We’ll tell you the truth and do what we think is best and right, even if it means going at it alone. We take the strategic risk others can’t or won’t, providing early capital to creators to be used to invest in novel hypotheses that can yield something important if we get it right. We use our skill set and perspective to be creators’ ‘first mate’ and help navigate ever-choppier, more complex business opportunities.”
