Sanil Chawla remembers the conferences he had with numerous artists in faculty. These creatives have been searching for one factor: sustainable financial infrastructure that would assist them scale moderately than drown them in paperwork, filings and monitoring down receipts.
Chawla thought he may 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 presents 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 net and cellular at Blizzard.
Slingshot emerged within the wake of the booming $250 billion creator financial system, however it’s not the primary firm to attempt to construct out infrastructure for this bustling financial 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 associate for buyer accounts is Stripe by way of 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, stated it took 4 years to lift the pre-seed spherical because the 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 offered authorized and monetary infrastructure to musicians to develop their audiences and not using a label, and in a means 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 wished extra of a monetary product, and Slingshot adopted what the shoppers have 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 lift funds once more within the coming yr, leveraging the $2.2 million pre-seed spherical to boost its characteristic choices. This contains the event of an AI assistant, with the goal of revolutionizing how creatives handle their operations. Chawla stated that higher instruments and infrastructure for the artistic financial system can assist allow extra creativity and various creative 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 stated.
This piece was up to date to replicate the spelling of Vincent Francoeur‘s identify.
