Steven Bartlett seeking to build ‘Disney of the creator economy’ after multi-million investment
Podcaster and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett has closed an eight-figure investment round in his company Steven.com, which he says values it at US$425m, as he bids to build “the Disney of the creator economy.”
The funding round, specific financial details of which were not disclosed but Bartlett says is in the tens of millions of dollars, will be used to help independent online creators grow and develop IP that can be commercialised.
Led by investor Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group, the fundraising round is said to be Europe’s biggest ever for a company focused on those working in the creator economy.
Bartlett founded the social media marketing company Social Chain in 2014 and in 2017 started the Diary of a CEO podcast, which has more than 13 million YouTube subscribers and 70 million monthly views/downloads. Since 2021, Bartlett has appeared as an investor on BBC One series Dragons’ Den.
Following the funding, Bartlett will maintain majority ownership of more than 90% in Steven.com, which houses his various creator media assets and ventures, such as media division FlightStory, which produces video podcasts fronted by the likes of Trevor Noah, Davina McCall and Paul C. Brunson.
An investigation by the BBC World Service last year found Bartlett was amplifying harmful health misinformation on his podcast. However, as podcasts are not regulated by UK media regulator Ofcom, Bartlett did not break any broadcasting rules.
This month Bartlett, together with Roxcodes, a former engineer who worked with MrBeast, launched Flightcast, a platform designed to help video podcasters grow their audiences.
Steven.com employs more than 100 people full time in the UK between London and Manchester and has offices in LA and New York.
It comes as the creator economy is projected to reach more than US$528bn by 2030, according to Coherent Market Insights, with more than 207 million active creators worldwide.
Bartlett, who has invested in more than 40 companies, including SpaceX, Whoop, Lovable, Replit, MrBeast, Cadence, Groq and PerfectTed, said: “My ultimate ambition is to build the Disney of the creator economy – and the strategic partners this funding round has brought on board has enabled me to take a big step in that direction.
“For the last century, companies like Disney – from its starting point with Walt Disney himself – has demonstrated the power of a single piece of intellectual property. He and his successors built a global empire by taking a character like Mickey Mouse and building a universe around him: films, theme parks, merchandise and more.
“This created a flywheel of immense, compounding value which resulted in a generational company. With my team, I think we are building the modern version of this model. But in our world, the IP is not a fictional character. The creator is the new franchise. Our mission is to build the defining company of the creator economy by constructing an ecosystem that scales a creator’s influence across two core pillars: creator media and creator ventures, while powering this flywheel with our proprietary creator technology.”
Other investors in Steven.com include Philipp Freise (KKR), Second Sight Ventures, Tom Profumo (Active Partners), Magnus Grimeland (Antler), Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg), Will Ahmed (founder of Whoop), Bryan Johnson, Alex Hormozi and Codie Sanchez.
