Patreon, the membership platform that allows podcasters and other content creators to monetize their work with fans, has raised $155 million in a financing round that values the company at $4 billion. That is three-times bigger than its valuation six months ago. The investment comes as the number of creators continues to increase worldwide, with Patreon seeing the pandemic as a catalyst for the growth of the creator economy.
The Series F financing round was led by new investor Tiger Global Management. They believe Patreon can be a “transformative, culture-defining company” according to Tiger Global partner Evan Feinberg. "The world is shifting toward a creator economy, of which Patreon has been a long-standing champion, and the opportunity for the team to continue spearheading this movement is significant," he said in the announcement.
Existing investors including Wellington Management, Lone Pine Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Glade Brook Capital, and DFJ Growth also invested more into Patreon.
The company says it plans to use the additional funds to accelerate its progress on the initiatives identified in September when it announced it had raised $90 million. That list includes enhanced creator and fan experiences on both desktop and mobile, expanding internationally, and supporting new content consumption tools. The financing also allows Patreon to explore potential acquisitions to further expand its talent and product capabilities.
“We're starting with content and community capabilities, but over the next decade we're setting out to build the creator infrastructure that supports a second Renaissance,” said CEO Jack Conte. He said their goal of “collapsing the gap” between the impact that creators have in the world and their paychecks is “quickly becoming a reality.”
Conte, a YouTube star, co-founded Patreon in 2013 with Sam Yam. Through the years it has signed more than 200,000 creators who have earned more than $2 billion. Patreon says the coronavirus pandemic has been a catalyst for the growth of the creator economy as creators of all types – from podcast, video, music, visual arts, and gaming – have expanded their earnings on Patreon considerably over the past year and today are earning over $100 million per month from seven million patrons.