2020 Year of Creators, Pine Labs Grows POS, 1 Step Checkout

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2020's been a breakout year for creators

Nearly every major app geared towards content creators has seen significant percentage increases in downloads this year, according to data from Apptopia.

The state of play: Cameo expects to make $100 million from video transactions this year, a spokesperson tells Axios. Over 1 million Cameo videos have been sold-to-date, Tens of thousands of talent now use the app to sell videos.

• Substack has more than 250,000 paid subscribersand that its top 10 publishers collectively earn more than $10 million a year. 

• Patreon is now valued at $1.2 billion, after raising $90 million in September. More than 6 million people pay creators through its service globally.

• OnlyFans will earn $300 million in profit this year, per The Information. The subscription service lets creators monetize exclusive videos, sometimes racy ones.

• Twitch has doubled the number of streamers on its platform during the pandemic.

Pine Labs raises $75-100 million in fresh funding at $2 billion valuation

Pine Labs has raised $75-$100 million led by US-based billionaire Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, valuing the Noida-based merchant-commerce startup at more than $2 billion.

This makes Pine Labs the third-most valued fintech company in India behind Paytm and PhonePe. The fund infusion is through a mix of primary as well as secondary share of sales by investors, one person aware of the details said.

Bolt Raises $75M Series C1 To Advance One-Click Online Buying
San Francisco-based Bolt, founded in 2014, gives retailers and consumers more choice, control and flexibility over their transactions by managing the back-end of the checkout—presenting payment options, securely processing payments, and mitigating fraud—while providing a seamless front-end experience.

The latest funding is co-led by Westcap, which also led Bolt’s $50 million round in July, and General Atlantic. They were joined by existing investors Activant Capital and Tribe Capital, as well as a group of angel investors. To date, Bolt has raised a total of $215 million, according to Crunchbase data.

“We are investing a ton into the platform and in product engineering as we see so much reception of our product with enterprise clients,” Ryan Breslow, founder and CEO of Bolt said in an interview. “Our focus back in July was working in a transitional market, but now we are building enterprise retailers into our one-click network and expanding rapidly.”