Our Investment in Superjoi
If the 2010s were the decade where people amassed large followings on social media — Instagram, Vine, Facebook and the like — the 2020’s (accelerated by the pandemic) was the moment where artists began to monetise their fandom. In 2020 alone, the use of TikTok grew by 180% among 15–25 year olds in the US.
If the 2010s were about the beginning of influencer culture, the 2020s were the start of these influencers monetising their creativity. The third pillar are fans building direct relationships between themselves and their favourite creators.
The shift we see next at Ascension in the creator economy is a more personal relationship between fans and creators which is why we are so excited to announce our most recent investment in Superjoi. Superjoi enables fans to make money from their fandom, taking a direct stake in the future content of their favourite creator, from platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Apple Music and Spotify. Superjoi’s inimitable mission is to provide every creator across the world (c. 48m people) with access to funding from their fans.
Superjoi founders Chris Knight (CEO), Piotr Wolanski (CTO) and Sören Creutzberg (CPO) became tired of the fact that despite superfans watching hours of content, the platforms hosting the content made all the money.
So they decided to build Superjoi, which promises to give fans a portion of the upside of their favourite creator’s success. The company was part of the prestigious Launch House programme in 2021, which gave Superjoi access to the emerging creator economy hub in LA. Launch House recently announced a $12m Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz.
We’re on a mission to get every creator funded by their superfans. Money should never be a creativity blocker, and there’s no better source of funds than the fans — the ones who love you most. We like to call it ‘Liquidity with Love’ .
Chris Knight, CEO
We envision a world where Creators can unfold their full creative potential, and Superfans are the engine and fuel to power them.
Sören Creutzberg, CPO
Superjoi has raised $2.5m in funding led by Ascension and with participation from QED, United First Partners, Tomahawk and Modern Venture Partners. There are also impressive angels on board, including Carl Rivera, VP of Product at Shopify, and Jacob Peters, co-founder of Launch House.
We are so excited that Ascension are leading our funding round as we develop a tool which will enable fans to make an investment in their favourite creators. Ascension’s extensive media backgrounds mean they are the perfect partner as we begin to bring Superjoi to the global creator community.
Piotr Wolanski (CTO)
We are happy to announce our recent investment in Superjoi. As soon as we met Chris, we knew we wanted to be part of the journey. We see fan incentivisation as the next step in the relationship between creators and fans in the creator economy.
Nico Albanese, Principal @ Ascension
Are you looking for a new opportunity in an amazing start up? If this mission excites you as much as it does us, Superjoi is hiring for designers, developers and community builders — visit superjoi.com/careers for more information.
