Patreon will take membership to the following degree with $60M in funding

We raised $60M to take creator memberships to a complete new degree

I communicate for the entire Patreon group after I say how excited we’re to announce that Patreon raised a $60M Sequence D to proceed our mission to fund the inventive class via membership. We’re six years into constructing Patreon and it’s grow to be apparent to the world how essential creators are to society. How podcasters, video creators, musicians, players, and illustrators are actually creating a greater, smarter, extra inspiring future.

With this spherical of funding, we’re welcoming our first creator/artist traders — one thing we’ve wished to do for a very long time and are so tremendous pumped to see occur. Artists like Serj Tankian and Hannibal Buress have invested in Patreon. This implies we’ll have much more inventive minds and hearts behind our mission to fund the inventive class. Alongside Glade Brook Capital who led this spherical, we’re proud to welcome again traders like Thrive Capital, Initialized, Index Ventures, DFJ, Freestyle Capital, Charles River Ventures, and In any other case.

When Sam and I launched Patreon, it was in response to a damaged system the place inventive work on the web was getting used to funnel huge earnings to massive corporations with out valuing or rewarding the creators. This core drawback has solely intensified regardless of others launching Patreon-like membership options. But the elemental system stays damaged; different corporations nonetheless proceed to prioritize promoting {dollars} over creators. In the meantime, creators have many choices relating to sharing their work and cultivating a following on the web, however few alternatives to acquire and revel in constant earnings. Patreon fulfills a novel want for creators, leveraging the deep, private connections they’ve fostered with their followers to get them paid for the worth of their work. This isn’t a brand new idea; that is membership by Patreon. And it’s working.

By the tip of this yr, we’ll have the distinction to say we’ve paid out over $1 billion to creators worldwide, and this funding accelerates the following $10 billion paid out to creators!

Constructing a best-in-class international membership platform

This funding strikes us quicker towards constructing the world-class international membership platform that creators want. Creators throughout the globe are utilizing Patreon to nurture direct connections with their followers, construct supportive troll-free communities, and ship distinctive worth to patrons. We’ll assist this worldwide progress with new currencies, cost strategies, and languages. Moreover, we’ve began our international enlargement with an workplace in Porto, Portugal and are within the technique of exploring different places so we are able to greatest serve creators.

Followers love membership as a result of they get connection, entry, unique merch, and content material they’ll’t get anyplace else. We’re constructing higher methods for creators to ship digital advantages like safe audio, video, and picture galleries. And we’re ensuring these advantages are straightforward for patrons to seek out and revel in wherever they’re. To that finish, we’re rethinking our cell expertise to make connecting with creators and receiving advantages streamlined and handy. Our new Merch for Membership, which incorporates full-service achievement for creators, will broaden quicker and additional with worldwide delivery and extra gadgets to select from.

We’ll even be enhancing the connection between creators and patrons. First, we’re making the creator web page extra customizable so creators can inform their story, their manner, and make it simpler for his or her followers to grasp what’s distinctive about their membership program. We’ll additionally give creators and their patrons higher methods to have interaction, each one on one and as a neighborhood.

The most effective is but to come back

We envision a future the place inventive folks in every single place can do their greatest work with the assist of their largest followers, and the place creativity is valued for the enjoyment, inspiration, and connection it brings. We’re so grateful for the chance to construct this future as a thriving unbiased firm, along with creators and patrons.