Sanil Chawla remembers the conferences he had with numerous artists in school. These creatives had been in search of one factor: sustainable financial infrastructure that might assist them scale somewhat 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. Through the pandemic, he pivoted the corporate into what it’s as we speak: 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 talented creators today are forced to spend countless hours navigating the complex financial and business challenges of being self-employed,” Chawla informed TechCrunch. “Our goal is to leverage technology to dramatically simplify those tasks, empowering creatives to focus on what they love.”
On Monday, the corporate introduced a $2.2 million pre-seed spherical, with participation from Dorm Room Fund, 1916 Enterprises, Key Companions Group, and angel investor Vincent Francoeur, former head of internet and cellular 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 this bustling economic system. It says it differentiates itself by centralizing its options and information, 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 via 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, mentioned it took 4 years to boost 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 out a 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 prospects 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 as we speak.
Wanting forward, Slingshot has formidable plans. It intends to boost funds once more within the coming yr, leveraging the $2.2 million pre-seed spherical to reinforce its function choices. This contains the event of an AI assistant, with the intention of revolutionizing how creatives handle their operations. Chawla mentioned that higher instruments and infrastructure for the inventive economic system might help allow extra creativity and numerous inventive expression. “We’re still early in the journey, but I’m inspired by the impact we’ve had so far and all the potential ahead to do so much more,” he mentioned.
This piece was up to date to mirror the spelling of Vincent Francoeur‘s title.
