Joel Morris was 13 years old when he uploaded his first YouTube video. Two million subscribers flocked to his channel of gaming streams and viral challenges until two years ago, when he uploaded his last video. Since then, he’s switched roles in the creator industry: helping other creators make money. In 2020 he and his cofounders, Will Monange and Harry Fitzgerald, launched Fanvue—a subscription platform where creators charge for exclusive content as an alternative to brand partnerships.

“This massive paradox is that advertising is how creators make the money, but it’s quite negative for their audience,” says Morris. He and his cofounders created a hub where users could make money without hawking products. “When someone pays to subscribe to a creator, they actually become more loyal and more dedicated as a fan.”

This week, the London-based startup announced a $22 million Series A, led by Inner Circle. With 17 million monthly users already on the site, the funding will go toward expanding internationally and building AI features.

The idea behind selling exclusive content isn’t new. Patreon, OnlyFans and Substack have let creators do it for years. Fanvue is betting their AI offerings will make it competitive. Today, their AI capabilities include analytics tools to help creators better understand what consumers are watching, an AI coach delivering content and revenue tips, and options for AI-generated content. While competing platforms provide space for creators and fans to communicate with each other, Fanvue uses AI to take some of that workload off the creators. For instance, AI agents can have DM conversations with followers. And Fanvue has partnered with voice generation platform ElevenLabs to allow creators to clone their own voice to send voice messages or conduct phone calls with fans.

“We were seeing firsthand from some larger creators that the main pain point in the creator economy is the time it takes,” said James Cox, the cofounder of investor Inner Circle. “We became interested in the thesis around ‘how can you augment technology within the conventional creator economy?’”

In addition to allowing fans to more directly engage with their favorite human influencers, Fanvue has also started exploring AI influencers. Monange believes more people want to create, but fear the spotlight. He says AI-powered avatars and content will force many from their shells. “More and more people are now able to get involved in the creator economy by building a creator, without having to put their face out there on the line,” he says. “That's been a fundamental change.”

Whether it’s a real cultural icon—like Swiss soccer star Alisha Lehmann, who uses Fanvue to share paywalled behind the scenes videos of her life—or AI creators, Fanvue makes its money by charging 20% on each monthly subscription purchased (plans average $12.50 a month). They take the same cut on one-off content, too.

Athletes are a key demographic, but education is growing. Creators can charge one-time fees for access to video tutorials on how to use generative AI platforms, courses on computer coding, lessons in music production, and even health and nutrition information.

One of the biggest complaints about AI’s involvement in the creator economy is the fear of deepfakes or fabricated news. Fanvue addresses this by partnering with content moderation platform Hive to detect whether content is made with AI—and enforce transparency when it is.

“We're not trying to replace any kind of interaction, we're really trying to create new experiences,” Morris says. “You know Drake can't FaceTime you, you know you can't actually speak to Messi, people just want to get as close as possible.”