Creators are increasingly running digital businesses that combine content, community, and commerce. Goldman Sachs estimates the creator economy could reach USD 480 billion by 2027. Also, platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are expanding subscriptions, tipping, and in-app shopping features. This shift moves monetization beyond advertising and emphasizes direct audience revenue, social commerce, and owned fan relationships.

Creator economy companies are building infrastructure across engagement, analytics, commerce, and creator identity management to support this transition. Here are the emerging companies innovating in this domain:

  1. Enara (Cyprus): AI Social Commerce
  2. Envolvly (USA): Monetization Platform
  3. Honey Chat (USA): Social Cryptocurrency Integration
  4. RoundTable (Australia): Fan Interaction Platform
  5. PortalBunny (Portugal): Content Analytics Dashboard
  6. Kliq (Saudi Arabia): Influencer Marketing Platform
  7. Promeet (UAE): Content Commerce Monetization
  8. bythen (Indonesia): Virtual Character Creation
  9. anchors (India): Social Marketing AI
  10. BYAHT (South Korea): Creator Value Assessment Platform

 

 

Explore Emerging Creator Economy Startups to Watch in 2026

1. Enara – AI Social Commerce

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Nicosia, Cyprus

Enara is a Cypriot startup that develops an AI operating system for social commerce. The company utilizes four coordinated ML agents that manage the complete commerce cycle. These agents identify relevant creators, generate platform-specific content briefs, and score video shoppability with computer vision.

Further, the operating system automatically coordinates sample logistics, scales campaigns, and synchronizes inventory with demand forecasts. Additionally, NLP provides creators with immediate feedback that improves content performance before publication. This automates the social commerce workflow and establishes a predictable and scalable sales process.

2. Envolvly – Monetization Platform

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Envolvly is a US-based startup that provides a monetization platform for content creators. Creators design interactive experiences, set admission prices, and establish availability limits. Fans then purchase access to these experiences via shared social links.

The company equips hosts with tools to manage event logistics, distribute resources, and message buyers directly. As a result, it delivers a direct revenue source and cultivates close relationships between hosts and audiences.

3. Honey Chat – Social Cryptocurrency Integration

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Sheridan, Wyoming, USA

US-based startup Honey Chat operates a social finance application on the Berachain blockchain. It integrates cryptocurrency into daily social interactions by requiring members to authenticate via X accounts.

Additionally, it supplies specific monetization instruments for content creators, fans, and traders. The app also issues digital badges to reward community achievements and deter network misconduct. As a result, the application guarantees data sovereignty and grants users complete ownership of their personal digital assets.

4. RoundTable – Fan Interaction Platform

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Sydney, Australia

RoundTable is an Australian startup that provides a fan interaction platform for content creators. Creators host ticketed group video sessions, accept personal bookings, and answer short video questions.

Additionally, it automatically syncs calendar events and generates shareable videos containing both fan inquiries and creator replies. This allows the company to build direct revenue streams for creators and establishes face-to-face connections with audiences.

5. PortalBunny – Content Analytics Dashboard

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Portuguese startup PortalBunny offers a content analytics dashboard for digital creators and brands. It analyzes audience interactions directly to generate data about fan engagement.

The company delivers audience insights to optimize content strategy and increase online visibility. It also tracks fan preferences to support personalized interactions and targeted merchandise offerings.

 

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6. Kliq – Influencer Marketing

  • Founding Year: 2025
  • Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Kliq is a Saudi Arabian startup that operates an AI-powered creator collaboration platform. It analyzes campaign briefs to match brands with relevant influencers.

Additionally, it provides integrated tools for complete campaign management, real-time performance tracking, and secure payment processing. This simplifies influencer marketing and produces measurable results for participating creators and businesses.

7. Promeet – Content Commerce Monetization

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Dubai, UAE
  • Funding: Raised USD 3.1M in pre-seed funding

UAE-based startup Promeet operates a content commerce monetization platform. Creators establish personalized storefronts and upload media like videos, photos, and scheduled meetings. Users then set exact prices for these items and share direct payment links with their audience.

Further, it guarantees instant global payouts without algorithm interference or high intermediary fees. This setup gives individuals complete control over their personal revenue streams, facilitating direct sales and turning creative output into an independent business.

8. bythen – Virtual Character Creation

  • Founding Year: 2024
  • Location: Jakarta, Indonesia
  • Funding: Raised USD 5 million in a seed round of financing led by Vector Inc. and Skystar Capital

bythen is an Indonesian startup that provides a virtual character creation platform for content creators. Its platform generates 3D avatars through AI, letting users select base designs from a digital store and assign personality traits.

Moreover, the platform integrates large language models with emotional recognition and simulates human interactions. These characters function as digital twins that operate independently across streaming platforms. This allows creators to script and produce videos using these avatars without expensive equipment.

9. anchors – Social Marketing AI

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Delhi, India

anchors is an Indian startup that develops a social marketing AI platform that connects businesses with relevant LinkedIn influencers for targeted audience engagement. It analyses client websites and instantly constructs highly tailored influencer collaboration strategies.

Additionally, it streamlines the entire campaign workflow by actively managing creator matching, content approvals, and verified performance-based payouts through a single centralized live dashboard. This provides businesses with a measurable method to reach specific professional demographics while eliminating the manual labor of traditional marketing.

10. BYAHT – Creator Value Assessment

  • Founding Year: 2023
  • Location: Seoul, South Korea

BYAHT is a Korean startup that operates Glow.B, an AI creator content management platform for creator value assessment. It evaluates a creator’s professional worth through actual revenue, digital assets, and advertising engagement metrics. Further, this technology ignores outdated indicators like simple views and delivers accurate appraisals. This generates reliable data and establishes clear performance standards for influencers.

How did we discover these emerging startups?

These creator economy startups were selected using proprietary intelligence from the Discovery Platform, which tracks more than 9M companies, 25K technologies and trends, and over 190M patents, news articles, and market signals. It focuses on startups that enable direct monetization, audience ownership, and creator-led commerce across social platforms and digital communities.