Whatnot cofounders Logan Head and Grant LaFontaine. Whatnot Investors are writing big checks for creator economy startups, but influencers aren't the main focus. Instead, VCs are funding startups using AI, social commerce, and community tools to shake things up. Here's where almost $2 billion in new funding went last year among creator industry companies. Influencers are no longer a buzzy category for investors writing big checks. Artificial intelligence, social commerce, and new community apps are now the primary focus among creator economy investors. In 2025, venture capitalists and private equity firms largely avoided shelling out for startups whose businesses catered narrowly to social media stars. Some of those companies have failed to live up to investors' growth expectations, such as FaZe Clan. Instead, VCs are making big bets on companies that are trying something new with social media, whether that's merging e-commerce into the social feed, shaking up the content creation process with AI video generation, or trying to build the next big social media community. In 2025, over a dozen creator economy startups pulled in at least $50 million in new funding, according to a Business Insider analysis of PitchBook data. While a few deals went to startups offering services for social media marketers or creators — such as talent-management firm Fixated's $62.8 million fundraise, or direct-message marketing company Manychat's $140 million growth capital round — most funds flowed to startups trying to shake up the status quo. Here are the three big trends that investors are betting on heading into 2026 and beyond: 1. AI tools to help anyone become a creator More than half of the roughly $2 billion in funding from 13 creator economy rounds Business Insider reviewed went to eight startups that are building AI tools to help users speed up content creation. Some investors are wagering that generative AI will democratize the content creation process and eventually eat into the market share of creative tool kits from Adobe and others. Companies like Synthesia, PixVerse, and Krea collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars last year to open up access to AI video and photo generation. Other companies accelerating that transition are the AI song-making tool Suno, which announced a $250 million round in November, and ElevenLabs, a text-to-voice upstart that pulled in $180 million in funding last year. Some AI startups are using the technology to launch their own media businesses on platforms like YouTube, such as animation production company Animaj. Others, like the AI video company Moonvalley, are building tools for traditional players in Hollywood. 2. Shopping on social media is becoming mainstream — and lucrative E-commerce is a crowded industry dominated by players like Amazon and Shopify in the US. But social-commerce entrants like TikTok Shop and Whatnot are finding a new way into the category. US consumers, like their counterparts in Asia, are learning to buy products via influencer livestreams and social feeds. TikTok Shop was one of the fastest-growing brands in the US in 2025, and it drove over $500 million in product sales in the US during the four-day window between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Investors have spotted the opportunity and are ready to pay up to get in. Whatnot doubled its valuation to $11.5 billion last year as it announced it had raised $490 million in 2025 across two rounds. ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platform that helps influencers get paid for linking to products, raised a total of $147.5 million last year, hitting a $1.5 billion valuation. 3. The next big community platform We live in a social media age dominated by a few large companies, including Meta, YouTube, and TikTok. But that may not be true forever, as some users sour on social feeds that increasingly deliver AI slop rather than human connection. What comes next isn't clear, and whether the new social apps will have staying power is very much up in the air. Photo app BeReal and live audio app Clubhouse emerged from the pandemic but failed to unseat the incumbents. Still, VC investors are making bets on newer community platforms like Substack as a promising venture-scale play. Substack, which hosts and monetizes newsletters and other content formats for independent creators, announced it raised a $100 million Series C round last year at a $1.1 billion valuation. Read the original article on Business Insider