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Cult Creative, a Malaysian creator economic system firm, has secured a RM500,000 seed funding from The Hive Southeast Asia, a January 4 press launch introduced.
Connecting manufacturers with creators, Cult Creative makes use of expertise to assist manufacturers in discovering becoming creators, streamlining workflows, and facilitating creator funds.
Shermaine Wong, Cult Creative’s co-founder and CEO, instructed Vulcan Post that the funding might be a catalyst for the event of the startup’s new proprietary creator collaboration platform.
Specifically, they’ve allotted sources to give attention to expertise enhancement, person expertise optimisation, and scalability. They’ll even be investing in community-building initiatives to empower creators and types.
“The decision to pursue funding for Cult Creative wasn’t one we took lightly,” Shermaine added. “After overcoming various challenges and showing significant traction in the market, we recognised the immense potential of our new model.”
Significant wins embrace touchdown model offers with notable corporations together with Farm Fresh, Bata Malaysia, and Pavilion Group.
“It was clear that additional capital would fast-track our creator collaboration platform’s development and equip us with the resources to make a bigger splash in the creator economy,” the CEO defined.
According to the press launch, this funding follows a interval of not simply strategic evolution, but additionally overcoming the challenges of the premature passing of Cult Creative’s co-founder Manisha Jagan Mongan in March 2023.
Fresh funds for contemporary concepts
In November 2023, it was introduced that Cult Creative could be shutting down its job portal app.
This was due to the corporate’s pivot from only a job portal to changing into a extra holistic platform that bridges manufacturers and creators. The former app had been fairly restricted by way of its expertise, so a brand new platform wanted to be constructed.
As talked about, the contemporary funds from The Hive Southeast Asia might be used to construct this new platform.
“We’re making great strides in developing the platform and are on track to unveil the beta version to the public within the next six months,” Shermaine assured.
On high of constructing a brand new platform, the press launch additionally revealed a brand new mission by the title of CultPay.
CultPay might be an alternate credit score scoring system designed to empower creators to realize monetary freedom.
Shermaine defined, “Our long-term vision is to provide gig workers with a reliable credit scoring mechanism and get recognised by traditional financial institutions so they can easily get housing, car loans, and credit cards, and even expand their creative businesses.”
CultPay remains to be in its nascent phases, so specifics of it are saved beneath wraps. That mentioned, Shermaine expressed that the group is in search of monetary companions to construct a system that considers a creator’s efficiency, reliability, and contribution to the Cult Creative creator neighborhood.
The group is aiming to roll out the function throughout the subsequent 12 months.
Two years within the plans
While studying success tales of startups securing investments, it might be straightforward to overlook that behind each fundraising is years and years of labor.
Shermaine shared that it took them two years to safe a “yes”, and that every dialog she had performed a job as a stepping stone within the firm’s journey.
“We’ve been monitoring Cult Creative for the past two years, and during this time, the team has consistently demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability,” mentioned Dato Syed Haizam Jamalullail, the managing companion at The Hive Southeast Asia.
The Hive Southeast Asia is a VC fund backed by Palo Alto-based enterprise capital agency The Hive, Tuas Capital Partners, and Sunway.
Aside from Cult Creative’s resilience, the managing companion additionally identified that the corporate’s influence extends past enterprise metrics, because it contributes to social influence and job creation.
This occurs to be consistent with the target of the mandate that The Hive Southeast Asia has been given beneath Penjana Kapital’s Dana Penjana Nasional Program.
“I advise entrepreneurs to be unequivocal about their company’s mission, values, and growth strategy,” Shermaine shared. “Seek investors who offer more than just capital—those who bring strategic value through mentorship and network connections.”
- Learn extra about Cult Creative right here.
- Read different articles we’ve written about funding right here.
Featured Image Credit: (From left) Watson Tan (The Hive), Lina Esa (Cult Creative), Shermaine Wong (Cult Creative), Zhong Han (The Hive)
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