Creator Startups Have Already Raised as Much Money This Year as in All of 2023
創業者在今年已經籌集的資金與整個 2023 年相同

Investment levels remain far from their peak three years ago. Still, the rebound reflects venture capitalists’ confidence that startups can take advantage of generative artificial intelligence to develop tools and services creators want.
投資水平仍遠低於三年前的高峰。儘管如此，反彈反映了風險投資家對初創企業能夠利用生成式人工智慧開發創作者想要的工具和服務的信心。

“New creator platforms have the added advantage of being able to leverage AI to make what they do bigger and better,” said Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Michael Mignano, who has backed companies including Pika Labs, which generates video from text descriptions, and Suno, which turns a text description into a professional-quality song, while at the VC firm.
「新的創作者平台具有額外的優勢，可以利用人工智慧使他們所做的事情更加龐大和更好，」Lightspeed Venture Partners 合夥人 Michael Mignano 表示。他支持的公司包括 Pika Labs，該公司可以從文字描述生成視頻，以及 Suno，該公司可以將文字描述轉換為專業質量的歌曲，而這些都是在風險投資公司進行的。

“We still believe there’s going to be more opportunity there,” he said.
「我們仍然相信那裡會有更多機會，」他說。

Three large U.S. deals accounted for more than half of the second-quarter total, indicating that venture capitalists are making bigger bets on fewer companies than they were a year ago.
三筆大型美國交易佔第二季度總額的一半以上，表明風險投資家對比起一年前，現在更願意在較少的公司上下更大的賭注。

Create Music Group, which operates an independent music distribution service and a TikTok-focused creative studio called Flighthouse Media, raised $165 million in a round led by private equity firm Flexpoint Ford at a $1 billion valuation.
Create Music Group 是一家經營獨立音樂發行服務和以 TikTok 為焦點的創意工作室 Flighthouse Media 的公司，最近由私募股權公司 Flexpoint Ford 領投，籌集了 1.65 億美元，估值達到 10 億美元。

Flip, a social shopping app with a scrollable feed of videos from creators recommending and reviewing products, raised $144 million from Streamlined Ventures, also at a $1 billion valuation. And Suno raised $125 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $500 million valuation. Collectively, those three companies raised $434 million.
Flip 是一個社交購物應用程式，其中包含來自創作者的視頻，推薦和評論產品，從 Streamlined Ventures 籌集了 1.44 億美元，估值達 10 億美元。Suno 由 Lightspeed Venture Partners 領投，籌集了 1.25 億美元，估值達 5 億美元。這三家公司總共籌集了 4.34 億美元。

AI was a bigger driver this quarter in the U.S. with seven deals, compared with just one during the first quarter. Pika Labs and HeyGen, which allow users to quickly generate videos from text, led the pack, raising $80 million and $60 million this quarter, respectively.
AI 在美國這個季度是一個更大的推動力，與第一季度僅有一筆交易相比，這個季度有七筆交易。Pika Labs 和 HeyGen 兩家公司允許用戶從文本快速生成視頻，分別在這個季度籌集了 8000 萬美元和 6000 萬美元。

In the past month or so, high-profile investors—Bond’s Mary Meeker and Social Capital’s Chamath Palihapitiya—have both given a vote of confidence to the creator economy in separate reports. Top influencers are “leading to a shift in how demand is generated for products,” wrote Palihapitiya.
在過去的一個月左右，知名投資者——Bond 的 Mary Meeker 和 Social Capital 的 Chamath Palihapitiya——在不同的報告中都對創作者經濟表示了信心。Palihapitiya 寫道，頂尖的意見領袖正在「引領需求如何產生的轉變」。

VC appetite for the sector still has a long way to go from its heyday. Three years ago, during peak excitement for backing creator-related businesses, U.S. startups raised about $3.5 billion in the first six months of the year. During the first half of 2024, they’ve raised about $1.03 billion, about the same as for all of 2023.
领域的風險投資者對該行業的熱情仍有很長的路要走，距離其鼎盛時期還有很遠。三年前，在支持與創作者相關的企業最為興奮的高峰期，美國初創企業在當年上半年籌集了約 35 億美元。到 2024 年上半年，他們籌集了約 10.3 億美元，與整個 2023 年的籌款金額大致相同。

Investors “are cautious about too many [creator] companies that are too niche,” said Rex Woodbury, managing partner and founder of early-stage VC firm Daybreak. “Everyone is a lot more disciplined. We will see fewer creator Series A [rounds] emerge, not necessarily because fewer companies are worthy of a Series A, but because the quality bar has gone up.”
投資者“對於太多過於專注的[創作者]公司持謹慎態度，”早期風險投資公司 Daybreak 的管理合夥人兼創始人雷克斯·伍德伯里表示。“每個人都更加有紀律性。我們將看到更少的創作者 A 輪出現，不一定是因為較少的公司值得進行 A 輪，而是因為質量標準已提高。”

Sales and Shutdowns 銷售和關閉

Since 2021, at least 25 creator economy startups have shut down, including three early-stage startups during the most recent quarter, such as Andreessen Horowitz–backed Post, a Twitter alternative, which said its service wasn’t “growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform.”
自 2021 年以來，至少有 25 家創作者經濟初創公司倒閉，其中包括最近一季的三家早期初創公司，如安德森·霍洛威支持的 Twitter 替代品 Post，該公司表示其服務“增長速度不夠快，無法成為一個真正的業務或重要平台”。

As more founders look for exits, mergers and acquisitions activity has also picked up slightly compared to the beginning of the year. Six creator-related companies were acquired during the second quarter. These included photo-sharing app BeReal, which Voodoo bought for €500 million ($541 million) last month. BeReal had expanded into featuring public figures, bringing on creators such as Dixie D’Amelio, but lost much of its early momentum with users.
隨著越來越多創辦人尋求退出，與年初相比，併購活動也略有增加。第二季度共有六家與創作者相關的公司被收購。其中包括照片分享應用程式 BeReal，上個月被 Voodoo 以 5 億歐元（5.41 億美元）收購。BeReal 已擴展至展示公眾人物，吸引了像 Dixie D'Amelio 這樣的創作者，但失去了早期用戶的大部分動力。

And Bumble acquired Geneva, a group chat app favored by Gen Z women as well as creators who used it to connect with fans, for an undisclosed sum in May. (See The Information’s list of creator economy startups that could be for sale this year.)
Bumble 在 5 月份以未公開金額收購了 Geneva，這是一個受到 Z 世代女性喜愛的群聊應用程式，也是創作者們用來與粉絲聯繫的平台。(請參閱 The Information 列出的可能在今年出售的創作者經濟初創公司名單。)

Some unexpected acquirers also emerged: Alta Global Group, a publicly traded martial arts and combat sports company, bought Hype, a startup previously called Pico that sold tools to creators and small businesses for making money from their social media audiences.
一些意想不到的收購者也出現了：上市的武術和格鬥運動公司 Alta Global Group 收購了 Hype，這是一家之前名為 Pico 的初創公司，為創作者和小型企業提供工具，讓他們從社交媒體受眾中賺錢。

At the same time, individual creators have multiplied their follower counts and expanded their businesses. Top personalities such as MrBeast, Logan Paul and Alex Cooper have started ventures outside social media, including chocolate bars, energy drinks and podcast production.
與此同時，個人創作者們的追隨者數量增加，業務也擴展了。像 MrBeast、Logan Paul 和 Alex Cooper 等頂尖名人已經開始在社交媒體之外創業，包括巧克力棒、能量飲料和播客製作。

“These single people are the new institutions or companies, and they’re building empires around themselves,” Woodbury said.
“這些單身人士就像是新的機構或公司，他們正在圍繞自己建立帝國，”伍德伯里說。