When Slow Ventures announced that it would set aside $20 million to invest in individual creators, GP Sam Lessin responded to onlookers’ confusion with a memorable quip: “it’s def not indentured servitude.” Companies like Spotter and Jellysmack underwrite YouTubers’ back catalog in exchange for upfront cash, while Creative Juice will fund a creator in exchange for a cut of revenue over a set term. Mythical, the entertainment studio owned by YouTube stars Rhett and Link, launched a $5 million venture capital fund for creators in 2021.
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Lily AI matches online shoppers to the merchandise they’re looking for based on colloquial search terms, a welcome change for companies like Bloomingdale’s.
Geek Ventures is the latest venture capital firm to launch its first fund and has $23 million in capital commitments to invest in immigrant tech founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. Ihar Mahaniok founded the firm in 2021 after working for more than 20 years as a software engineer for companies, including Google, Facebook, WeWork and Lightning AI. An immigrant himself, growing up in Belarus, he saw how difficult it was for immigrant entrepreneurs to make connections within the U.S. venture capital ecosystem.
Unshackled Ventures, the only pre-seed venture capital fund that enables immigrant founders to start companies in the U.S., is pleased to announce the launch of Eighteen150, a first-of-its-kind founder-in-residence program, posed to support as many immigrant entrepreneurs as possible, regardless of their immigration status. Immigrants are not just a part of America; they embody a national advantage. The labor force participation rate of foreign-born adults was 65.7%, surprisingly highe.