Fundmates founder & CEO Ilia Dronov says the creator economy lacks capital resources to help content creators build real businesses. And this is because traditional banks often consider creators, according to Ilia, “too risky.” 

This gap in the market made him realize traditional financial institutions don’t cut it for the rising class of digital entrepreneurs, who have always found great success in growing audiences and subscribers but have been unable to access finance or attract much-needed capital.

Instead of being all talk and no action, Ilia decided to step up and build a replacement for traditional banking bespoke for creators, with a fintech platform that provides growth capital to YouTube creators.

Since its launch in 2022, Fundmates has taken a fresh approach to evaluating and funding creative businesses. While conventional banks rely on credit scores, Fundmates’ technology analyzes over 50 YouTube-specific metrics to assess a creator’s potential. The company’s growth – expanding 7x in the past year – demonstrates the strong demand for creator-focused financial services.

“We actually don’t use any financial market data like credit score,” Ilia explains. “YouTube’s data tells us more about a creator than any credit score.” This complete departure from traditional evaluation methods enables Fundmates to offer creators three to five times more capital than conventional banks.

Ilia tailored this approach through a decade of experience in the creator economy, having witnessed creators delivering stronger business results than traditional marketing channels. “We realized you could spend your marketing budget on creators instead of Facebook or Google,” he recalls. “The connection between creators and their audience was so unique.”

Data-Driven Decision Making

The Fundmates technology examines creator channels across dozens of specific metrics, revealing key patterns for success. “The most important thing is the same for over 2,000 creators we looked for,” Ilia emphasizes. “The most important part of being successful on YouTube is just making consistent videos, and everything else is just details.”

This insight comes from analyzing approximately 1,500 creators in the past year alone, directly shaping their funding decisions. “Typically, we have two or three days to finalize the deal,” Ilia explains. “Creators share their YouTube analytics data, and we have tech behind the company that understands tons of metrics from the channel. Then, we provide the exact money offers for them.”

A Creator-First Financing Model

The extensive data analysis enables Fundmates to offer a unique financing approach. Instead of requiring creators to sell their content catalogs, they’ve developed a revenue-share model that maintains creators’ financial stability while providing substantial growth capital.

“When we take only 30% of revenue, the creator’s monthly revenue is not disrupted massively,” Ilia explains. “Which means like today is 100% – let’s say you generate 20k or 10k per month. Next month, you start generating 7k, which is okay because you have a lot of capital at the moment.” This differs significantly from catalog sales models where “revenue comes from 10k per month to just 1k.”

This carefully calibrated approach yields results: creators who strategically use Fundmates’ capital typically grow 40-50% from their baseline within 6-12 months of joining the platform. These growth metrics have led to increased demand for financing and the support system accompanying it.

Comprehensive Creator Support System

Fundmates provides more than just capital – it offers a complete growth support system. “We’ve seen a lot of cases where we literally explain to creators what they’re missing,” Ilia shares. “If you need help with YouTube strategy, we have five analytics experts inside our team that can help crunch the numbers and see what you missed before that we can actually fix.”

Their support includes production resources: “We have a team of 15+ video editors that creators can use as part of the contract for free for one to two years,” Ilia explains. “We’re committed to providing 30 hours per month, effectively a part-time employee for their videos.” This enables creators to increase production without immediately hiring full-time staff.

The analytics support proves especially valuable as YouTube continues to develop new features. “YouTube changes so fast, and it’s hard to keep up,” Ilia notes. “When you’re making content all day and doing business, YouTube changes algorithms, they add a lot of features. Creators come to us like, ‘Hey, do you know this?’ And we can help because everything changes super fast.”

Through a partnership with TheSoul Publishing, which employs over 2,000 people, Fundmates helps creators expand their reach. “We have something that can help creators with distribution, like where you can go from YouTube to Facebook through these partners because they handle tens of thousands of channels,” Ilia explains. “They really know what they’re doing.”

“We think of ourselves as a growth partner, not just a funding source,” Ilia emphasizes. “Money is a commodity in some way. Creators should pick us not just because we provide money but because they get expertise and tools to help them build sustainable businesses.”

Building Tomorrow’s Creator Economy

The professionalization of content creation has transformed how creators approach their work. Ilia has witnessed this firsthand: “Five years ago, they were just trying to make some money. Now they can make a lot, and they’re thinking, ‘Okay, I need to build a business around my social media.'”

This shift brings both opportunities and challenges. “In one or two years, there would be five times as many creators,” Ilia predicts. “It would be tougher each year because more creators come to the market.” 

Success in this competitive environment requires treating creator channels as full-fledged businesses. “If you want to be a creator full-time, you need to think of it as a business,” Ilia advises. “You need to hire a team, put money into equipment, or build a space to create more content. In the long run, it will definitely pay off because investing in it will make it more sustainable and predictable.”

For professionals working in the creator economy, Fundmates demonstrates how creator businesses can scale effectively. “What excites me the most is that it’s working,” Ilia shares. “Five years ago, when we raised the idea that we could fund creators, everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are just shooting on camera, what’s the deal?’ But we always believed they could be sustainable, committed businesses.”

The company plans to expand beyond YouTube. “We plan to expand to other platforms and build more tools that help creators get more value,” Ilia explains. “We want to be the company that helps creators grow, not just with capital but with everything they need to succeed.”

“This is a great opportunity to expand and grow faster by having these financial tools that didn’t exist before. Success comes when you strive to build something big and start thinking strategically.”