Patreon is an eight-year-old creator-economy platform that enables artists and creators to be directly funded by fans. The company charges creators a 5–12% fee depending on which services they use. Patreon saw renewed attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as creators pushed more of their work online, and the platform added more than 30,000 creators in the first weeks of March 2020. Its business model is transaction- and subscription-focused, with revenue driven by fees on creator payments. Financially, Patreon completed a $155 million funding round that values the company at $4 billion, up from a $1.2 billion valuation after a $90 million round in September. The company has an extensive creator network and faces increased competition in the creator payments space. Patreon provides a platform that enables creators—including video makers, podcasters, musicians, writers and game developers—to earn money from fans via subscriptions. The company is led by CEO Jack Conte and is based in San Francisco, CA. Patreon has more than 200k creators who have collectively earned approximately $2 billion from about 6 million subscribers. The company raised $90m in a Series E round to expand internationally, enhance the user experience, and develop additional tools for creators and fans. The round brought total funding to date to $255m and valued the company at $1.2 billion. Patreon provides a platform for creators to run paid membership communities, offering CRM, payment processing, and gating of exclusive content and discussion groups. The company serves more than 100,000 creators and takes a percentage cut of creators’ monthly membership revenue (tiered at 5%, 8%, and 12% plus payment processing fees). Patreon expects to process more than $500 million in payments during 2019 and has paid out over $1 billion to creators since founding; roughly 40% of payments are international and average monthly fan spend is $12. Current product priorities include deeper benefits functionality via the Patreon API, expanded premium features for Pro and Premium tiers, greater page customization, expanded merchandising and international shipping, and broader international payment and language support. Patreon plans to staff new offices including one in Porto and is open to acquisitions if the opportunity aligns with its mission. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in San Francisco. Patreon is a creator-focused subscription platform founded by Jack Conte in 2013 that enables illustrators, musicians, comedians and other creators to sell monthly access to exclusive content. The platform reports about 50,000 creators and 1 million subscribers paying an average of $12 per month. Patreon is on track to pay out roughly $150 million to creators in 2017 while retaining a 5% fee, which implies it will earn about $7.5 million in 2017 despite recently doubling in size. The company plans to use new capital for marketing and to build additional creator tools and revenue streams (examples mentioned include event ticketing, merchandise, and analytics/communication features). Patreon’s relatively permissive content policies attract creators barred from ad-based platforms, but also raise moderation and PR risks. Improving discovery of creators on the platform is identified as a major growth opportunity and product challenge. Patreon is a subscription-based platform that enables fans to financially support artists through recurring payments. Founded in 2013 by Jack Conte and Sam Yam, the company has grown to nearly 50 employees working mostly out of a SOMA warehouse in San Francisco. Patreon hosts more than 17,000 artists across 15 categories, with photography, animation, and crafts growing over 80% in 2015. Conte said the company will use new funds to hire more engineers and product staff, develop a mobile app and new creator tools, and get a handle on its expanding office. Patreon recently closed a $30 million Series B to support that growth, bringing total capital raised to $47.1 million. Conte views larger platforms such as YouTube Red as complementary rather than direct competitors for creator subscriptions.

Total raised

$412M

Funding rounds

7

Latest round

Series F

Latest activity

Apr 2021