Kevin Durant’s Investment in Creatively Is Helping the Creator Economy Grow

Creatively is a job platform for independent contractors and freelancers.

Written by Miranda Perez
Published on Mar. 11, 2022
Photo: Shutterstock
An animated Kevin Durant image. | Photo: Shutterstock

Between the rise of the creator economy and the impending boom of Web3, data shows roughly 50 million people identified as independent, creative contractors last year. Everyone from viral TikTokers and influencers to freelancers contribute to the market being worth at least $104 billion, according to The Influencer Marketing Factory

With so many content creators and freelancers in the market, tech-backed solutions like Creatively are seeking to make it easier for creatives to find job opportunities and get paid. 

This week, the NYC-based startup announced that it pulled in $8 million in fresh funding from Rich Kleiman and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures and other investors.

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“The pandemic changed how creatives work — and now, opportunities for creatives to collaborate, make money and get paid are undergoing a quantum shift,” Gregory Gittrich, Creatively CEO, said in a statement. “Our mission is to help creatives live and work however they want to achieve their boldest ambitions.”

Creatively will use its seed funding to hire for its product and engineering teams, scale marketing efforts and launch its payment feature CreativelyPay in partnership with fintech platform Orum.io.

Launching CreativelyPay will allow platform users to gain same-day payment upon completing projects, which is a rarity in the world of freelancing when most workers are paid on a net-30 basis.

Over 275,000 users have signed up for Creatively. With its most recent raise, Creatively has raked in $19 million in total funding to date.

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