萝莉视频

If there鈥檚 one thing wants people to know, it鈥檚 that creators and influencers are businesses.

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He鈥檚 right about that, as many creators who started making videos or creating other content as a hobby can now rely on their content, sponsorships and partnerships as their main source of income. The influencer marketing industry is expected to be valued at up to $15 billion by 2022, according to a 2019 estimate.

鈥淥nce you start to get sponsors, you鈥檙e a business,鈥� Wei said in an interview with 萝莉视频 News.

That鈥檚 why Wei and former venture capitalist started . The company emerged from stealth on Thursday and introduced the Karat Black Card, a credit card for influencers and creators.

The idea for Karat stems from Wei鈥檚 experience as a product manager at . He used to work with hundreds of creators and influencers who were skilled at growing their followings, but didn鈥檛 have traditional business products that worked for them. Banks didn鈥檛 understand the creator economy and were using traditional metrics like FICO scores to evaluate influencers, and were giving them low credit limits, Wei said.

鈥淚nfluencers are actually businesses, and with the same business pain points as everybody else, but banks don鈥檛 understand them,鈥� Wei said.

What Karat does is ask for a creator or influencer鈥檚 social media handle, then assesses their financials using . With a social media handle, Karat can evaluate a creator鈥檚 reach, engagement, type of content and platform, and other metrics. It uses that combined with financial information to determine credit limits.

The card is a starting point, but Karat eventually wants to offer a whole suite of financial tools and services for creators, such as bank accounts, help incorporating, help with taxes, etc. The fintech ecosystem has matured to the point where Karat鈥檚 able to do this, Wei explained.

And certainly niche credit cards have been well-received by Silicon Valley–just look at , known for being the credit card for startups.

鈥淲e think that no matter what type of creator you are, and you could be making money any number of ways, but that financial business backbone is what we鈥檙e building,鈥� he said.

Karat controls the underwriting, product experience, credit limits, rewards and risks, while a partner bank actually issues the card.

Through private beta Karat has signed up creators with millions of followers like TheRussianBadger, Nas Daily and TierZoo. The company has worked with more than 70 creators and influencers so far.

Founded in August 2019, Karat has raised $4.6 million in seed funding from investors including co-founder , as well as from , , and .

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