Passionfroot is a marketplace for business-focused content creators looking for brand partnerships – and vice versa.

With the creative economy growing rapidly, product partnerships remain one of the main ways creators can make money. Other services like link-in-bio apps with affiliate links or subscriptions like Pateron are secondary ways to increase income for creators. For foundations and startups, the biggest challenge remains matching brands and creators to compete.

Berlin-based startup Passionfroot is building a toolkit and marketplace for business, productivity, and creatives focused on the thought leadership of brand collaboration.

The company, founded by early stage venture capitalist Jen Phan, has raised $3.8 million in a seed funding round led by VC Supernode Global, with other investors including Miro CEO Andrey Khusid’s s16vc, Sequoia, Accel’s Scout Fund, and Crendum is also involved – Crendum previously invested in the company’s $3.4 billion round. The seed round included angels like former Zapier CMO Kieran Flanagan, former community and lead creator at Notion Ben Lang, Linktree CPO Jiaona Zhang, and Austin Lau, responsible for Anthropic Growth.

Before launching Passionfroot, Phan launched a tech newsletter in 2020 for tech professionals with immigration backgrounds. He considered leaving his VC role and working full-time at a newspaper.

“Amidst this evolution, a new breed of business-focused creators emerged, producing thought leadership content across platforms such as LinkedIn, newsletters, and podcasts. “However, after talking to dozens of creators, I realized that while the freedom of creation is attractive, the business side—especially the brand relationship, which serves as the main source of revenue—remains fragmented and inefficient,” Phan told TechCrunch.

He added that the decision to create Passionfroot was also due to companies struggling to find the right creators, manage campaigns, and coordinate payments.

Zain Khan, founder of AI-focused newspaper Superhuman, said one of the biggest challenges for creators is chasing pending payments from brands and partners.

“In our early days, we had this one $40k payment that didn’t show up for months. We had to chase the banks for years to track down and resolve this issue. We were paying salaries with our savings and we are very close to going out of business,” he told TechCrunch via email.

Passionfroot allows creators to create a storefront for ad spaces or for brand partners they have on their various channels, including newsletters, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. Creators can create media kits for brands that highlight their brands’ engagement rates, their channels’ engagement rates, and schedules. Creators can also show examples of previous funding on their Passionfroot page.

The toolkit also makes it easy for brands to book campaigns with creators through automated scheduling. Creators can share their pages and products — like a page link in bio. The startup counts Hubspot, Notion, and Freshbook as some of its product partners.

On the other side of the market, the startup has also created a network where products can find suitable creators on the platform. Phan said that the deals booked through the network are currently equal to the deals booked through certain designer stores.

Passionfroot has a 15% take rate for any brand partnerships that happen through its network, including payouts. The company takes 5% in payment fees when a brand books a partnership with a creator on their storefront.

The company is launching its improved website with better search for creators and similar functionality for advertisers. The platform also displays the match result to advertisers, helping them choose the best creative fit for a particular campaign. In the coming months, the startup will build a detailed campaign dashboard and better support for sales teams – rather than individuals – to use Passionfroot.

Sabina Wizander of Crendum believes that Passionfroot has a unique advantage by focusing on the B2B segment.

“The company starts with the B2B market from creators and companies like that. In this market, there is no such thing as 50% fair. So the startup has the product market fit right from the start,” he told TechCrunch on the phone.

According to a report by eMarketer, US influencer marketing spending in 2024 is expected to be approximately $7.14 billion, with annual growth of 15.8%, indicating that marketers want to reach consumers through different channels.

Gina King, a partner at Supernode Global, said Passionfroot is building its product at the right time.

“Passionfroot is well timed to capitalize on multiple market shifts. The company is not just riding on one thing but is well positioned to benefit from several developments in the creator economy, B2B marketing, and technology,” he said.

King also added that 87% of Passionfroot’s partners are organic, which proves that the company has a strong network effect.

Startups like VSCO for photographers, Ajentio for YouTubers, and Catch + Release for licensed goods have tried to formalize duties and relationships between brands and creators. Major social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have also tried to create platforms that align with the same brands and creators.