Stripe deepens creator economy investments with SendOwl

Fintech giant Stripe is strengthening its creator economy cred with an investment in SendOwl, a startup that helps creators sell their digital goods.

The news: SendOwl raised $4.5 million from Defy.vc, Stripe, and other investors to accelerate growth and offer new products that aim to capitalize on the creator economy, which is estimated to be worth $100 billion.

SendOwl 101: SendOwl enables creators to sell digital products like ebooks, podcasts, courses, or memberships directly to their audience from blogs, social media, websites, or anywhere you can paste a link. The company reports that it has enabled the sale of more than $1.8 billion in digital goods and has customers in more than 50 countries. Founded in 2011 by George Palmer, SendOwl was acquired in 2020 by Matt Plotke, a former Stripe employee.

Differentiators: Plotke told TechCrunch that SendOwl offers more flexibility than competitors like Patreon or Gumroad, allowing users to sell on multiple platforms, via payment links, integrations with Shopify and Stripe, and SendOwl’s API.

What sells? Plotke told TechCrunch that SendOwl’s most successful digital products are in music, books and writing, health and beauty, apps and software, sports, hobbyist content, food and cooking, professional development, and influencer marketing.

No cut: Unlike Patreon or Gumroad, SendOwl doesn’t take a cut of creators’ sales or memberships. Rather, it charges a variety of memberships ranging from $15/month for a basic to $99/month for businesses.

Why SendOwl? Early-stage investor Defy.vc said it backed SendOwl because the existing e-commerce infrastructure was designed for selling physical goods. It sees a big opportunity with enabling creators to sell digital goods, manage customers, and enter the world of NFTs and crypto.

Stripe Capital’s impact: Firms that received financing from Stripe Capital grew revenue 114% faster than their peers, the company recently reported. Stripe’s financing was particularly meaningful for smaller businesses. Firms making less than $100K per year saw revenue grow 140 percentage points over their peers that hadn’t used Stripe Capital, demonstrating a link between cash infusions and revenue growth.

Stripe’s creator investments: Stripe has invested significant resources into its creator economy tools. It’s built an array of tools that are widely used by platforms serving creators, including ticket sales, tips from fans, subscriptions, memberships, and other financial services.

Stripe & creators: In October, Stripe released data on how it’s fueled the creator economy and the platforms that creators use. The San Francisco-based firm looked at monetization data across 50 platforms and learned that creators will soon surpass $10 billion in aggregate earnings.

Edu is hot: Stripe’s data indicates that education is the fastest growing sector within the creator economy. That makes sense, considering online courses — sold on platforms like Kajabi, Gumroad, Teachable, and SendOwl — were some of the first avenues through which creators could earn money for their content.

Spreading the spoils: Stripe reported that, in the U.S., the number of creators earning more than $69,000/year has increased 41% year over year. Stripe didn’t provide specific figures on how many people that includes, but it’s encouraging nevertheless.