Sanil Chawla remembers the meetings he had with countless artists in college. These creatives were looking for one thing: sustainable financial infrastructure that could help them scale instead of suffocating them in paperwork, filing and tracking down proof.
Chawla thought he might have a solution and launched a music monetization platform in 2020. During the pandemic, he turned the company into what it is today: Slingshot, which helps creatives find the tools they need to manage the functional requirements. It even offers its own corporate card to help further centralize financial transactions on its platform.
“Many talented creators today are forced to spend countless hours navigating the complex financial and business challenges of self-employment,” Chawla told TechCrunch. “Our goal is to leverage technology to dramatically simplify these tasks, enabling creatives to focus on what they love.”
The company announced a $2.2 million pre-seed round on Monday, with participation from Dorm Room Fund, 1916 Enterprises, Key Partners Group and angel investor Vincent Francouer, Blizzard’s former head of web and mobile.
Slingshot emerged in the wake of the booming $250 billion creator economy, but it’s not the first company to try to build infrastructure for the bustling creator economy. It says it differentiates itself by bringing together its capabilities and data, offering automated bookkeeping linked to its business card. It also works with banks to facilitate financial transactions, allowing creatives to manage their money, make transfers and send payments. The primary BaaS partner for customer accounts is Stripe through the Treasury and Issuing programs.
It offers other features, such as allowing creatives to save a percentage of their revenue and offering benefits such as health care and retirement. Acts as HR and handles legal filings and tax documents. Chawla, now 24, said it took four years to raise the pre-seed round since the company grew in batches. It took smaller angel checks in 2020 and then turned to its current iteration in 2023.
Slingshot began as a company that provided the legal and financial infrastructure for musicians to grow their audiences without a label and in a way that still allowed artists to control a large portion of their royalties. He raised $50,000 from that idea and then another $1.2 million to build it. In late 2022, the company spun off. Its customers wanted more of an affordable product and Slingshot followed what customers were asking for. He then spent last year and this year raising funds to close an additional $1 million in funding, bringing the company to where it is today.
Looking ahead, Slingshot has ambitious plans. It plans to raise capital again next year, using its $2.2 million pre-seed round to improve its offerings. This includes the development of an AI assistant, aiming to revolutionize the way creatives manage their activities. Chawla said better tools and infrastructure for the creative economy can help generate more creativity and diverse artistic expression. “We’re still early in the journey, but I’m inspired by the impact we’ve had so far and all the potential ahead of us to do so much more,” he said.
