Fave Secures $2.2 Million Seed Funding to Connect Fans and Creators

Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, following a seven-year tenure at Google, identified an unmet need within the social media landscape – a more direct connection between devoted fans and the creators they admire. She subsequently founded Fave to address this gap, and the company has now announced the successful completion of a $2.2 million seed funding round.

Investment Details

The funding round saw participation from a diverse group of investors including Female Founders Fund, HYBE, Sony Music, Warner Music, Concord Music, Quality Control, Right Hand Management, Techstars Music, and Betaworks.

Building Deeper Fan-Creator Relationships

At its core, Fave is designed to foster a stronger relationship between fans and creators. Horton notes that while creators and artists have numerous channels for reaching their audience and sharing updates, dedicated fans often lack a meaningful way to demonstrate their enthusiasm beyond basic interactions like commenting or liking posts.

Fave addresses this by organizing itself around specific fandoms – beginning with the community of Taylor Swift fans, known as Swifties. This structure allows fans to connect with each other, share content, and engage in a marketplace for fan-created merchandise and artwork.

Revenue Generation

The platform’s initial focus is on attracting fans, with a long-term goal of onboarding creators as well, providing them with an additional income source.

Revenue will be generated through advertising and a transaction fee applied to all sales within the marketplace. Fave will retain a 10% commission on each transaction, regardless of whether the seller is the creator or a fan.

Public Beta Launch and Growth Strategy

Coinciding with the funding announcement, Fave is now launching into public beta.

Horton shared with TechCrunch that a key strategy involves collaborating with prominent influencers within each fandom. These individuals are already well-known within their respective fan communities for their content creation and often receive recognition from the artists themselves.

Leveraging Fan Engagement

By onboarding these influencers early, Fave aims to attract a wider audience of fans to the platform. The startup also intends to capitalize on the competitive spirit inherent in fandoms, enabling creators to host contests and reward top-performing fans with points redeemable in the marketplace.

A Founder's Personal Connection

Horton emphasizes her own background as a dedicated fan, allowing her to deeply understand the needs and desires of Fave’s target users.

“I was the girl in her bedroom who knew every lyric of every song, how many freckles they have, and fell asleep to the movie every single night just to hear the sound of his voice,” Horton recounted. “But I wasn’t able to go sit front row at a concert or spend $70 on a sweatshirt so the artists got nothing from me despite my deep passion.”

Future Expansion

The ultimate aim is to provide fans with a dedicated space to express their passion, while simultaneously offering artists a direct channel for connecting with and benefiting from their fanbase. Currently focused on the Taylor Swift fandom, Fave is actively gathering user feedback to determine which communities to expand into next.