The creator economy is riding an AI-fueled high.
In 2025, eight startups building artificial intelligence tools to automate the content creation process each announced at least $50 million in funding — a combined $1.2 billion — from venture capital and private equity investors.
Synthesia, a generative AI video startup based in London, confirmed its $180 million funding round in January, while ElevenLabs, a text-to-voice startup, closed a $180 million Series C round. Other AI startups, like Moonvalley, Krea, and Higgsfield, also announced sizable investments this year.
While AI is dominating investor interest, the topic still carries 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 content creators themselves. Influencer marketing, still the primary financial engine of the creator economy, has yet to reach a consensus on how and when AI should be utilized.
Top creators aren’t sitting by idly for AI to take over. YouTuber MrBeast and his team initially sought to raise $200 million earlier this year at a $5 billion valuation, according to investor materials viewed by Business Insider. The MrBeast team declined to comment on the fundraise.
It’s not just AI that’s attracting giant checks from VCs.
Social commerce startups building live shopping and affiliate marketing platforms are also raking in funding. Whatnot, a platform where people sell on stream in categories like fashion and collectibles, such as Pokémon Cards or Labubus, raised a total of $490 million across two later-stage rounds this year. The social shopping platform was most recently valued at $11.5 billion.
Meanwhile, ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platform, continues to gain market share in the influencer marketing space. The startup raised a total of $147.5 million in funding this year.
US social commerce sales are expected to cross $100 billion next year, according to estimates from EMARKETER, Business Insider’s sister company. The category is gaining steam in the US, fueled in part by the growth of TikTok Shop.
This year’s fundraising blitz for creator AI and social commerce startups follows similar buzz for the categories in 2024 when investors threw money at startups like Captions, Flip, and OpusClip. Several startups in those business areas, including ElevenLabs and ShopMy, raised money two years in a row.
Business Insider analyzed 2025 fundraising data from PitchBook and other industry sources to highlight the biggest creator industry investment rounds from the year. We’re highlighting 13 startups that raised $50 million or more in 2025; combined, their funding crossed $1.9 billion. We focused on companies whose products significantly impact the businesses and content creation processes of creators and their partners.
Here are 13 creator economy startups that raised some of the largest rounds in 2025, in alphabetical order:
- Animaj is an animation company that distributes on YouTube and other kid-friendly platforms, and uses generative AI to speed up production time. It announced an $85 million funding round 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-voice AI startup that began the year with a $180 million Series C funding round. In September, it announced a $100 million employee tender offer at a valuation of $6.6 billion.
- Fixated is a talent-management firm that raised $62.8 million in a two-part round this year, according to the company.
- Higgsfield, a 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,” per the company.
- Krea, an AI creative tool kit for video and image editing, announced in April that it had raised $83 million to date, including its most recent Series B round from investor Bain Capital Ventures and a Series A with investment from Andreessen Horowitz.
- Manychat, which automates SMS and social media DM marketing for brands, raised a $140 million growth capital round this year led by private equity firm Summit Partners. The funding will help the social commerce and marketing startup expand its global presence and further build its agentic AI tools.
- Moonvalley is building AI video tools for Hollywood and raised an $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 raised a $60 million Series B round led by Alibaba with participation from Antler.
- ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platform, announced two investment rounds this year. In January, ShopMy disclosed that it raised a $77.5 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Later in October, the startup announced it raised an additional $70 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, bringing the company’s total raised in 2025 to $147.5 million.
- Newsletter platform Substack raised a $100 million Series C round led by BOND and The Chernin Group. The platform was valued at $1.1 billion, minting the startup as a unicorn.
- The generative AI music platform Suno announced in November a $250 million Series C round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Nvidia’s NVentures and Lightspeed, among other investors.
- Synthesia, a generative AI platform that can turn text into videos and create AI avatars and voiceovers, confirmed in January that it had 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 Forbes report that it had raised an additional $200 million.
- Whatnot, a social shopping platform that’s gained momentum as the US market warms to live shopping, raised a total of $490 million from 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 — doubling its valuation from January.
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