Sanil Chawla remembers the conferences he had with numerous artists in faculty. These creatives have been on the lookout for one factor: sustainable financial infrastructure that would assist them scale reasonably than drown them in paperwork, filings and monitoring down receipts.
Chawla thought he might need an answer and launched a music monetization platform in 2020. In the course of the pandemic, he pivoted the corporate into what it’s right now: Slingshot, which helps creatives discover the instruments they should handle operational necessities. It even presents its personal company card to assist additional centralize monetary transactions into its platform.
“Too many gifted creators right now are compelled to spend numerous hours navigating the advanced monetary and enterprise challenges of being self-employed,” Chawla informed TechCrunch. “Our objective 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 net and cell at Blizzard.
Slingshot emerged within the wake of the booming $250 billion creator financial system, nevertheless it’s not the primary firm to attempt to construct out infrastructure for the bustling creator financial 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 companion for buyer accounts is Stripe via its Treasury and Issuing packages.
It presents 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, mentioned 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 manner 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 wished extra of a monetary product, and Slingshot adopted what the shoppers have been asking for. It then spent final 12 months and this 12 months fundraising to shut an extra $1 million in funding, bringing the corporate to the place it stands right now.
Wanting forward, Slingshot has formidable plans. It intends to lift funds once more within the coming 12 months, leveraging the $2.2 million pre-seed spherical to boost its characteristic choices. This consists of the event of an AI assistant, with the goal of revolutionizing how creatives handle their operations. Chawla mentioned that higher instruments and infrastructure for the artistic financial system can assist allow extra creativity and numerous inventive expression. “We’re nonetheless early within the journey, however I’m impressed by the impression we’ve had to this point and all of the potential forward to take action way more,” he mentioned.
