Sanil Chawla remembers the conferences he had with numerous artists in school. These creatives had been searching for one factor: sustainable financial infrastructure that would assist them scale slightly than drown them in paperwork, filings and monitoring down receipts.
Chawla thought he may need an answer and launched a music monetization platform in 2020. Throughout the pandemic, he pivoted the corporate into what it’s at this time: Slingshot, which helps creatives discover the instruments they should handle operational necessities. It even affords its personal company card to assist additional centralize monetary transactions into its platform.
“Too many gifted creators at this time are pressured to spend numerous hours navigating the advanced monetary and enterprise challenges of being self-employed,” Chawla informed TechCrunch. “Our purpose is to leverage expertise to dramatically simplify these duties, empowering creatives to give attention to what they love.”
The corporate introduced on Monday a $2.2 million pre-seed spherical, with participation from Dorm Room Fund, 1916 Enterprises, Key Companions Group, and angel investor Vincent Francouer, former head of internet and cell at Blizzard.
Slingshot emerged within the wake of the booming $250 billion creator economic system, nevertheless it’s not the primary firm to try to construct out infrastructure for the bustling creator economic system. It says it differentiates itself by centralizing its options and knowledge, providing automated bookkeeping linked to its enterprise card. It additionally works with banks to facilitate monetary transactions, permitting creatives to handle their funds, make transfers, and ship funds. Its main BaaS accomplice for buyer accounts is Stripe by way of its Treasury and Issuing packages.
It affords different options like letting creatives save a share of their income and providing advantages like healthcare and retirement. It acts like HR and handles authorized submitting and tax paperwork. Chawla, now 24, stated it took 4 years to lift the pre-seed spherical for the reason that firm raised in batches. It took smaller angel checks in 2020 after which pivoted to its present iteration in 2023.
Slingshot began as an organization that supplied authorized and monetary infrastructure to musicians to develop their audiences with no label and in a means that also lets artists management a bulk share of their royalties. It raised $50,000 from that concept, then one other $1.2 million to construct it out. In late 2022, the corporate pivoted. Its clients needed extra of a monetary product, and Slingshot adopted what the shoppers had been asking for. It then spent final yr and this yr fundraising to shut a further $1 million in funding, bringing the corporate to the place it stands at this time.
Wanting forward, Slingshot has formidable plans. It intends to lift funds once more within the coming yr, leveraging the $2.2 million pre-seed spherical to reinforce its characteristic choices. This consists of the event of an AI assistant, with the intention of revolutionizing how creatives handle their operations. Chawla stated that higher instruments and infrastructure for the inventive economic system can assist allow extra creativity and numerous creative expression. “We’re nonetheless early within the journey, however I’m impressed by the affect we’ve had thus far and all of the potential forward to take action way more,” he stated.
