Passionfroot, a Berlin-based marketplace connecting business-focused content creators with brands, has secured $3.8 million in seed funding led by Supernode Global. 

The round includes Miro CEO Andrey Khusid’s s16vc, Sequoia, Accel’s Scout Fund, and Creandum participation.

The platform aims to solve a critical pain point in the creator economy: payment processing and brand partnership management. Zain Kahn, founder of the AI newsletter Superhuman, believes creators often struggle with delayed payments.

“In our early days, we had this one $40K payment that didn’t show up for months. We had to chase banks for ages to track and resolve the issue. We were paying salaries out of our personal savings and came very close to going out of business,” Kahn told TechCrunch.

Passionfroot’s solution enables creators to build digital storefronts for their advertising inventory across newsletters, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok. The platform automates scheduling and payment processing, charging a 15% fee for partnerships secured through its network and 5% for direct bookings through creator storefronts.

CEO Jennifer Phan, a former VC investor, co-founded the company after launching her own tech newsletter in 2020. The platform has attracted major brands as partners, including HubSpot, Notion, and Freshbook.

Phan describes Passionfroot as a “turnkey solution” for creators. “Many creators said they used ten different tools before, and now only need Passionfroot,” she told Net Influencer. “Creators are the new generation of entrepreneurs and media brands, and we want to empower them.”

The timing appears opportune, as EMarketer projects U.S. influencer marketing spending will reach $7.14 billion in 2024, representing 15.8% year-over-year growth. Supernode Global partner Gina King reports that 87% of Passionfroot’s partners join organically, suggesting strong network effects.

“[Passionfroot] is not just riding a single trend but is well-positioned to benefit from several concurrent developments in the creator economy, B2B marketing, and technology,” King told TechCrunch.

The company’s new website launch introduces enhanced creator search capabilities and a match score system to help marketers identify suitable creators for campaigns. Future developments include a comprehensive dashboard for campaign insights and improved support for marketing teams.

Creandum investor Sabina Wizander highlights Passionfroot’s focus on the B2B segment as a key differentiator, noting that partial relevance isn’t sufficient in that sector.

“In this market, there is nothing called being 50% relevant. So the startup has the right product-market fit from the get-go,” Wizander told TechCrunch.

This funding round follows a $3.4 million pre-seed investment from Creandum, bringing Passionfroot’s total funding to $7.2 million.