Lucy Guo, a 29-year-old self-made millionaire and co-founder of Scale AI, has secured a $40 million Series A funding for her new venture, Passes. Passes is a creator monetization platform that helps content creators diversify their revenue streams by earning money directly from their audiences. The platform allows influencers with 100,000 followers to post exclusive content, message fans, livestream, host one-on-one calls, and earn tips. Passes previously raised $9 million in seed funding in 2022 and currently supports 900 creators and 500,000 fans. The top 10 creators on Passes are on track to earn more than $1 million this year. The funding will be used to expand the Passes team, which currently consists of 15 people. The Series A round was led by Bond, with participation from Skims cofounders Emma and Jens Grede, and Crossbeam Ventures. Passes plans to integrate AI technology into the platform to streamline sales features. Guo, who sold Pokémon cards in elementary school and taught herself how to code, previously co-founded Scale AI, a $7 billion startup that provides training data to companies building AI models. She also runs her own venture capital fund, Backend Ventures. Passes aims to solve the problems faced by creators in the creator economy, such as inconsistent income from brand deals and dependence on big platforms with constantly changing algorithms. The platform charges a 10% fee plus a 30-cent transaction fee on each payment. Passes competes with platforms like Patreon and Fanfix but offers additional features like screenshot-blocking technology and automated sales messages. Guo's goal is to turn creators into large businesses and help them diversify their wages and receive more consistent payment. Passes has attracted major players from the tech and media industry, and Guo plans to continue growing the platform.
Guo Wenjing, a Chinese-American entrepreneur, is a co-founder of tech firm Pika, which recently secured US$135 million in funding, valuing the company at US$470 million. Guo, a Harvard graduate, has a remarkable resume, including winning a silver medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics in 2015 and interning at top tech companies like Microsoft and Google. She pursued a PhD in computer science at Stanford University and dropped out to focus on Pika. The launch of Pika 1.0 caused Sunyard Technology's share price to rise by over 20%. Guo's story has drawn attention in China, with some praising her beauty, intelligence, and family background, while others express fatigue over elite narratives and the perception of privilege. [272fe96a]