Karat | Union Square Ventures

Across multiple verticals, independent workers often lack predictable income, which presents an opportunity for lending. Early products in this space include Patreon Capital (merchant cash advances for Patreon creators), Shopify Capital, as well as horizontal creator business platforms Karat and Stir.

Donnelly, like many of the creators who make their living on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch, has long felt shunned by institutions that don’t understand that his lifestyle is also his business. That makes him the target market for Karat, a new startup offering financial services to the influencer set.

Karat’s founders hope to do something similar with their card. Like Brex, Karat doesn’t require a personal guarantee. And like Brex, Karat hopes that it can turn its underserved market into a gold mine.

The influencer market will be, by some estimates, worth close to $15 billion in just a few years, with hundreds of thousands of people earning sizable income from viral videos and social posts. By Karat’s own count, there are over a million professional full-time creators globally who earn at least $80,000 a year—but many of them have trouble acces... See more

-By introducing new programmable economic models that spread wealth -across the creator landscape

"Pioneering the financial instruments to support creators’ needs is a central concern of the industry. This could unlock a flywheel that could grow the creator economy 100x, fueling the next generation of creators with top talent & investors. "