Fenwick & West.
Vejay Lalla is the industry colead in the digital media and entertainment, consumer technologies, and retail practice at Fenwick & West.
Lalla s team worked on the launch of Animal Capital, a venture capital firm cofounded by TikTok influencers Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson, and Noah Beck. Fenwick supported influencer Arielle Charnas and her brand Something Navy on talent and endorsement deals and building Something Navy s curated marketplace. And the firm also worked with gamer-training platform Statespace to set up deals with Twitch streamers KingGeorge, SypherPK, and Valkia. You re seeing this very different and growing strategy with talent where they re not only leveraging their traditional name and likeness in the context of media entertainment and social and digital channels, Lalla told Insider. You are seeing this trend
Slow Ventures recently dedicated $20 million from its new funds to invest in creators.
Startup Creative Juice has also partnered with YouTube star MrBeast to back rising creators.
While investing in influencers could transform the creator economy, it s risky and complicated. It s finally time, Sam Lessin, a general partner at Slow Ventures, said.
In a way, he s been waiting years for this moment. Over the past two decades, Lessin has launched a newsletter subscription service, experimented with equity financing for people, and helped develop Facebook s timeline. While he said many of those projects were too early, he s confident that his next endeavor is right on time.