contact Raises $1.9M Seed Funding - Backed by Maisie Williams

The Rise of the Creator Economy and a New Platform: Contact

The rapid digitization of life, accelerated by the recent pandemic, has fueled unprecedented growth in the Creator Economy. Current estimates place its market value at over $100 billion. Despite this expansion, professionals in creative fields – including models, actors, writers, and designers – often rely on fragmented systems of emails, manual bookings, and PDF files for managing their careers.

Creatives frequently encounter issues such as delayed payments and a lack of transparency within the industry. This occurs even as established talent agencies have collectively reached a valuation of $20 billion. While commission fees for modeling talent can range from 20% to 40%, social media has begun to challenge traditional agencies by lowering barriers to entry and increasing talent accessibility.

Introducing Contact: A Platform for Creative Professionals

Launched late last year, the Contact platform initially focused on providing models with a means to manage bookings and aspects of their work. Now, the company is expanding its scope to address broader challenges within the creative industries, supported by a new funding round and key industry figures.

Maisie Williams, renowned for her role in “Game of Thrones”, has joined Contact as Creative Strategist and Advisor. She has become a strong advocate for improved working conditions for creatives.

Seed Funding and Key Investors

Contact has secured $1.9 million (£1.4 million) in seed funding, led by Founders Fund. Additional investors include LAUNCH (led by Jason Calacanis), Sweet Capital (via Pippa Lamb), Rogue VC (via Alice Lloyd George), and angel investors Simon Beckerman (co-founder of Depop), Eric Wahlforss (co-founder of SoundCloud and Dance), Abe Burns, and Joe White.

A Scalable Solution for the Creator Economy

While initially geared towards the modeling world, Contact’s ambitions are far-reaching. Co-founder and CEO Reuben Selby, a fashion designer formerly associated with William’s early career, has collaborated with brands like Nike, Thom Browne, and JW Anderson. He envisions the platform as a scalable back-end solution for the $104.2 billion Creator Economy, aiming to “democratize” access to top creative talent.

Selby, who has openly discussed his experience as a founder with autism, is also the founder and creative director of his own label, Reuben Selby, and co-founder of Cortex, a creative agency and community.

Competition and Contact’s Unique Approach

Contact’s competitors include platforms like Patreon, Creatively, and The Dots. However, Contact differentiates itself by aiming to consolidate many features of these platforms into a single, comprehensive solution. This ambitious vision is also considered highly promising.

In a departure from the agency-dominated industry, Contact enables direct discovery and booking of creators and creative services, bypassing traditional intermediaries.

Platform Features and Functionality

Contact initially launched in October 2020, focusing on fashion model bookings. Following the funding round, the platform plans to expand into other creative verticals, including photographers, stylists, and videographers.

Creators joining the platform can showcase their portfolios and receive direct bookings. Businesses can browse talent using filters, provide job details, and book creators directly. Talent can accept or reject jobs through the web platform, with a smartphone app planned for release. Payments are processed securely through Contact upon job completion.

Since its soft launch, Contact has onboarded nearly 600 creatives and over 1,400 clients, including Depop, Farfetch, Nike, Vivienne Westwood, and Vogue. The platform has experienced a 100% year-over-year increase in user growth.

Revenue Model and Future Plans

Contact does not charge creators any fees. Instead, it levies a 20% commission on transactions with booking companies. The company intends to remain largely invisible, allowing creators to build their own brands independently.

Industry Support and Vision

Trae Stephens, partner at Founders Fund, commented: “We are always excited when we find founders who seem to have been born to build a specific company. Reuben definitely seems like one of those founders. We are really excited to watch the company scale and expand into new creative verticals.”

Pippa Lamb, partner at Sweet Capital, added: “The team at Contact have been pushing frontiers in the creator economy long before ‘the creator economy’ became a buzzword. Contact possesses a rare combination of world-class technical talent with the raw innovation of today’s most creative minds. We are excited about this next chapter.”

Maisie Williams, drawing on her experience in the entertainment industry, highlighted the inefficiencies of current systems. She noted the reliance on emails and links, and the lack of centralized platforms for managing assets and auditions.

Williams and Selby envision a streamlined process for casting and collaboration, offering creatives greater control and independence. Selby emphasized the platform’s potential to empower creators to monetize their work directly, handling logistics, payments, licensing, and insurance.

Williams pointed out that many actors pursue additional creative endeavors to supplement their income during periods of unemployment. She believes Contact can provide a platform for showcasing and monetizing these diverse talents, breaking free from the constraints of traditional representation.

The combination of a passionate team, a robust technology platform, and support from prominent investors suggests a strong potential for success. Contact’s vision to revolutionize the creative industries is ambitious, but its innovative approach and industry backing position it for significant growth.