Passionfroot raises $15M to bring B2B creator marketplace to US

Key Takeaways

• Passionfroot raised $15M Series A led by Insight Partners to fuel US and Brazil expansion
• The startup claims 13x revenue growth over the past year with clients like ElevenLabs, Figma, and Replit
• New AI agent Zest helps brands find creators and measure campaign performance across platforms

Passionfroot, a Berlin-based startup that matches B2B creators with enterprise brands, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. CEO Jen Phan is relocating to New York to open a US office, with a second new location planned for São Paulo. The company, which currently employs 15 people, will use the capital to expand its team and push into the American market.

The round brings Passionfroot's total funding to over $21 million. Existing investors Creandum, Supernode Global, and s16vc also participated.

Why B2B brands are betting on creators

Rebecca Liu-Doyle, managing director at Insight Partners, points to AI as a driver of demand. "There is increasing consumerization of the way B2B brands go to market. That's a product of, in part, AI technology requiring evangelism, narrative building, and education," she told TechCrunch.

Phan sees a similar pattern from the brand side. "AI is commoditizing software and flooding every category with new products, features, and launches. It's incredibly crowded and noisy," she said. "That is why B2B buyers are going to channels like LinkedIn, a creator's Substack, or a podcast on YouTube to discover new products and tools."

The logic is straightforward. When every competitor can ship features quickly, differentiation shifts from product to perception. Creators with domain expertise and established audiences offer a shortcut to trust.

Revenue growth and notable clients

Passionfroot claims its revenue grew 13x over the past year. The company says it onboarded clients including ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer, and Gamma. It also claims to have paid at least $10 million to creators on its platform in the last 18 months.

These numbers are self-reported and unaudited, but 13x growth in a single year would put Passionfroot among the faster-growing startups in the creator tools space.

Zest: an AI agent for campaign management

Since its 2024 fundraise, Passionfroot has shipped an AI agent called Zest. The tool helps brands create campaigns, execute them, and monitor performance. The company says Zest can identify suitable creators both on and off the platform, drawing on a proprietary "creator graph" built from reach and performance data across thousands of campaigns.

Passionfroot also offers a wallet feature that lets companies pay creators globally and track spending in one place. This solves a real headache for marketing teams running multi-creator campaigns across different countries and currencies.

The company says it is now working on tools to measure how campaigns affect AI citations. Specifically, how a brand appears in AI-generated answers. This is an emerging concern for marketers as search behavior shifts toward AI assistants.

A crowded creator economy

Passionfroot enters the US at an interesting moment. Substack recently introduced subscriber-only perks within newsletters, and Beehiiv launched a new community and ad marketplace last week. Both moves signal that newsletter platforms want a larger share of creator monetization.

The difference is positioning. Substack and Beehiiv focus on helping creators build direct relationships with readers. Passionfroot focuses on the brand-creator transaction, acting as a matchmaking layer between enterprise marketing budgets and individual creators. These models can coexist, but they will compete for creator attention and, eventually, for exclusive partnerships.

For companies managing influencer campaigns at scale, tools like Zapier or Make often fill workflow gaps. Passionfroot's value proposition is that it handles discovery, payments, and analytics in one purpose-built platform rather than stitching together multiple tools.

What comes next

Passionfroot plans to build AI features for creators, including monetization tips and content ideas. The company is betting that creators, not just brands, will pay for tools that help them grow revenue.

The US expansion will test whether the dynamics that worked in Europe translate across the Atlantic. American B2B marketing budgets are larger, but so is competition from agencies, in-house teams, and other creator platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Passionfroot do?

Passionfroot operates a marketplace that connects B2B brands with creators for sponsored content, podcasts, and newsletters. It also offers campaign management tools and global creator payments.

How much has Passionfroot raised in total?

Passionfroot has raised more than $21 million, including the $15 million Series A announced in July 2026.

Who are Passionfroot's clients?

The company lists ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer, and Gamma as clients.

What is Zest?

Zest is Passionfroot's AI agent that helps brands plan, execute, and measure creator campaigns. It uses a proprietary creator graph to match brands with suitable creators.

Where is Passionfroot expanding?

The company is opening offices in New York and São Paulo to expand beyond its Berlin headquarters.

Source: TechCrunch / Ivan Mehta