Fintech
Fintech creator Slingshot raises $2.2 million
Sanil Chawla recalls meetings he had with countless artists in college. Those creatives were looking for one thing: a sustainable economic infrastructure that could help them grow instead of drowning them in paperwork, filing, and tracking receipts.
Chawla thought he could find a solution and launched a music monetization platform in 2020. During the pandemic, he transformed the company into what it is today: Slingshot, which helps creatives find the tools they need to manage operational requirements. It also offers its own corporate card to further centralize financial transactions in its platform.
“Too many talented creators today are forced to spend countless hours dealing with the complex financial and business challenges of being self-employed,” Chawla told TechCrunch. “Our goal is to leverage technology to make those tasks much easier, allowing creatives to focus on what they love.”
The company announced a $2.2 million pre-seed round on Monday, with participation from Dorm Room Fund, 1916 Enterprises, Key Partners Group and angel investor Vincent Francouer, Blizzard’s former head of web and mobile.
Slingshot was born in the wake of the booming $250 billion creator economy, but it’s not the first company to try to build infrastructure for the bustling creator economy. It claims to differentiate itself by centralizing its features and data, offering automated accounting linked to its business card. It also works with banks to facilitate financial transactions, allowing creators to manage their funds, make transfers and send payments. Its primary BaaS partner for customer accounts is Stripe through its treasury and issuing programs.
It offers other features like allowing creators to save a percentage of their income and offering benefits like healthcare and retirement. Acts as HR and handles legal documentation and tax paperwork. Chawla, now 24, said it took four years to harvest the pre-sowing cycle as the company harvested in batches. It took smaller angel controls in 2020 before moving to the current iteration in 2023.
Slingshot began as a company that provided legal and financial infrastructure for musicians to grow their audiences without a label and in a way that still allowed artists to control a major share of their royalties. From that idea, $50,000 was raised, then another $1.2 million to make it happen. At the end of 2022, the company changed course. Its customers wanted more than a financial product, and Slingshot followed what customers were asking for. He then dedicated last year and this year to fundraising to close an additional $1 million in financing, bringing the company to where it is today.
Looking ahead, Slingshot has ambitious plans. He plans to raise money again next year, leveraging the $2.2 million pre-seed round to enhance his feature offering. This includes the development of an AI assistant, aiming to revolutionize the way creatives run their operations. Chawla said better tools and infrastructure for the creative economy can help enable greater creativity and diverse artistic expression. “We’re still early in the journey, but I’m inspired by the impact we’ve had so far and all the potential we have ahead to do so much more,” she said.