IntelligentHQ · Creator Economy Atlas
The 50 platforms behind the creator economy
Who runs them, who owns them and where each one sits in the flow of money from brands to creators to audiences.
Brand money Content Direct revenue Data
- $32.6bn Global influencer marketing, 2025 Influencer Marketing Hub
- $44bn US creator ad spend, projected for 2026 IAB
- 70 Creator-economy deals in the first half of 2026 Quartermast Advisors
- £1.2bn UK creator partnerships, forecast for 2026 IAB UK
The directory
50 platforms, seven layers
- #paid Marketplaces
#paid
Toronto-founded creator marketing platform that matches brands with opted-in creators and handles briefing, contracts, payments and measurement, backed by a managed service team.
Bryan GoldCo-founder and CEO 
MarketplacesAfluencer
Self-serve marketplace where small and growing brands post paid or product-based collaborations and verified creators apply; owned by Influencer Hero since July 2026.
Chief executive not named publicly Influencer Hero- Marketplaces
Agentio
New York platform that lets brands buy creator sponsorships, starting with YouTube integrations and Meta Partnership Ads, the way they buy other digital media, using AI for matching and review.
Arthur LeopoldCo-founder and CEO - Collabstr Marketplaces
Collabstr
Self-serve online marketplace where brands find, book and pay Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators for sponsored posts and user-generated content.
Chief executive not named publicly - Marketplaces
indaHash
Influencer marketing company that started in Poland, combining a managed campaign service with a self-serve SaaS platform for creator search, campaign management and reporting.
Barbara SołtysińskaCo-Founder and CEO ArabyAds - Marketplaces
Passionfroot
Berlin-based marketplace and AI agent that connects B2B technology companies with business-focused creators on newsletters, YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts and social video.
Jennifer (Jen) PhanCo-founder and CEO - Marketplaces
TRIBE
Australian-founded creator marketing platform where opt-in creators pitch content to brand briefs, with managed services, employee-generated content and creator media buying.
Anthony SvirskisChief Executive Officer - Agencies
AnyMind Group
Tokyo-listed company, founded in Singapore, that provides marketing, creator, e-commerce and live-commerce software and services to brands across Asia.
Kosuke SogoCEO - Agencies
Billion Dollar Boy
Creator and influencer marketing agency group with offices in London and New York, now adding B2B creator work through its 2026 purchase of Creator Authority.
Edward (Ed) EastFounder and CEO, Billion Dollar Boy Group - Agencies
Gushcloud International
Singapore-based creator company that manages talent, publishes content and arranges brand partnerships across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the US.
Althea LimGroup CEO and Co-Founder - Agencies
Influential
US influencer marketing company owned by Publicis Groupe that matches brands with creators using its own data platform and Publicis's Epsilon consumer data.
Ryan DetertFounder and CEO Publicis Groupe - Agencies
Linqia
San Francisco-based independent influencer marketing agency that runs creator campaigns for large consumer brands using its own AI-assisted platform, Resonate.
Nader AlizadehCo-Founder and CEO - Agencies
Open Influence
Los Angeles creator marketing agency, operating since 2013, that plans and runs influencer campaigns for large brands using its own discovery, vetting and campaign software.
Alex DahanCEO and Co-Founder - Agencies
The Goat Agency
London-founded global influencer marketing agency, owned by WPP since 2023, that combines creator content with paid media placements for large brands.
Alex BurgessGlobal President WPP - Agencies
Viral Nation
Toronto-founded creator marketing company that runs social and influencer programmes for large brands on its own AI platform, with a brand-safety vetting module.
Joe Gagliese and Mat MicheliCo-Founders and Co-CEOs - Agencies
Whalar
Creator and social agency that runs creator-led campaigns for global brands; sold by Whalar Group to Accenture and part of Accenture Song since 31 July 2026.
Emma Harman and Jo CronkCo-CEOs, Whalar Accenture - Discovery and analytics
Favikon
Paris-based creator data platform that scores and ranks creators across social networks and sells discovery, outreach and campaign tools to brands and agencies.
Jeremy BoissinotCo-founder and CEO - Discovery and analytics
Heepsy
Bilbao-based influencer search tool that helps smaller brands and agencies find, vet, contact and pay creators, with a free plan and low entry price.
Xabier VicuñaFounder and CEO - Discovery and analytics
HypeAuditor
Influencer analytics platform known for scoring audience quality and spotting fake followers, now covering discovery, campaigns, payments and sales tracking.
Alexander FrolovCEO and co-founder - Discovery and analytics
Influencity
Spanish influencer management software that combines creator search across major social networks with campaign management, relationship tracking and reporting for brands and agencies.
Daniel SánchezFounder and CEO - Discovery and analytics
Kolsquare
Paris-based influencer marketing platform, owned by team.blue since 2024, that has bought Woomio, Inflead and Storyclash to build a pan-European business.
Quentin BordageFounder and CEO
team.blue - Discovery and analytics
Modash
Estonian influencer marketing software that indexes public creator profiles on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and lets brands find, manage, track and pay creators.
Avery SchraderCo-founder and CEO - Management and commerce
Aspire
Austin-based creator marketing platform that helps e-commerce brands run influencer, affiliate, ambassador, referral and user-generated content programmes.
Anand KishoreCEO and Co-Founder - Management and commerce
Captiv8
Influencer marketing and social commerce platform bought by Publicis Groupe in 2025 and now run as the technology platform of Publicis's influencer agency, Influential.
Krishna SubramanianCo-Founder and CEO Publicis Groupe - Management and commerce
GRIN
Sacramento-based creator management platform for consumer brands, now sold self-serve with public monthly plans and an AI agent, Gia, that runs much of the work.
Ryan DebenhamCEO - Management and commerce
Later
Boston-based company combining social media management software, enterprise influencer campaigns and an affiliate creator network that came from its 2025 purchase of Mavely.
Scott SuttonChief Executive Officer - Management and commerce
LTK
Dallas-based creator commerce platform, formerly rewardStyle, where lifestyle creators earn commission on products they recommend through the LTK shopping app.
Baxter BoxCEO and Co-Founder - Management and commerce
ShopMy
New York creator commerce platform where tastemakers build shoppable digital shops and affiliate links, and premium brands gift, pay and track them.
Harry ReinFounder, CEO - Management and commerce
Upfluence
Influencer and affiliate marketing software for e-commerce brands, run by an AI agent called Jaice that can handle campaigns from brief to reporting.
Kevin Creusy and Vivien GarnesCo-Founders and Co-CEOs - Enterprise intelligence
CreatorIQ
Los Angeles-based enterprise software for running, governing and measuring creator marketing at large brands and agencies, now adding an agentic AI system called Q.
Chris HarringtonChief Executive Officer - Enterprise intelligence
impact.com
Partnership management platform that lets brands recruit, contract, track and pay affiliates, creators and other partners, with creator storefronts and AI assistants.
David A. YovannoCEO - Enterprise intelligence
Meltwater
Media, social and consumer intelligence company whose suite includes news and social monitoring, the Klear influencer marketing product and AI agents.
John BoxChief Executive Officer MW Investment B.V. - Enterprise intelligence
Sprout Social
Listed social media management suite covering publishing, customer care, listening and analytics, with an influencer marketing product built on its 2023 Tagger acquisition.
Ryan BarrettoChief Executive Officer - Enterprise intelligence
Traackr
Influencer and creator marketing platform for large consumer brands, combining creator data, campaign workflows, spend benchmarking and an AI strategist called Abigail.
Pierre-Loïc AssayagCEO and Co-founder - Owned audience
beehiiv
Newsletter platform for writing, growing and earning from email publications, with an ad network, paid subscriptions, websites and podcasts, taking no cut of subscription revenue.
Tyler DenkCo-founder and CEO - Owned audience
Kajabi
All-in-one platform for experts and educators to sell online courses, coaching, communities, memberships and newsletters, with built-in payments and AI tools.
Kenny Rueter and Jonathan CronstedtCo-CEOs - Owned audience
Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Email marketing and commerce platform for creators, formerly ConvertKit, with a free plan, a creator recommendation network, paid newsletters and digital product sales.
Nathan BarryFounder and CEO - Owned audience
Linktree
Link-in-bio platform that gives creators and businesses one page for their links, content, products and analytics, now used by over 70 million people.
Alex ZaccariaCo-founder and CEO - Owned audience
Patreon
Membership platform where creators earn recurring income from fans through paid tiers, alongside free memberships, video and community features.
Jack ConteCo-founder and CEO - Owned audience
Spotter
Spotter pays YouTube creators upfront to license their video libraries and connects brands with long-form creator shows it calls Creator TV.
Aaron DeBevoiseFounder and CEO - Owned audience
Stan
Stan is a link-in-bio storefront that lets individual creators sell digital products, courses, coaching calls and memberships from one page.
John HuFounder and CEO - Owned audience
Substack
Publishing platform and app where writers, podcasters and video creators run paid subscriptions, with a reader network that drives discovery.
Chris BestCo-founder and CEO - Owned audience
Whop
Whop is a commerce and payments platform where people sell paid communities, courses, software and other digital products, with a marketplace for discovery.
Steven SchwartzCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
Canva
Canva is an online design platform with built-in AI tools that lets people and teams make graphics, presentations, videos, documents and websites from templates.
Melanie PerkinsCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
Descript
Descript is a video and audio editor that lets people edit recordings by editing the transcript, with built-in AI tools for cleanup, clips and voice.
Laura BurkhauserCEO - AI-native creation
ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs builds AI voice models and products for speech generation, dubbing, transcription and voice agents, used by creators, developers and large companies.
Mati StaniszewskiCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
HeyGen
HeyGen makes AI video tools that let people and businesses create talking-avatar videos of themselves and translate videos into other languages.
Joshua XuCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
OpusClip
OpusClip uses AI to cut long videos into short social clips, add captions and reframing, and post them to short-video platforms.
Young ZhaoCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
Runway
Runway develops generative AI models and tools that create and edit video and images, and is now also building world models for simulation and robotics.
Cristóbal ValenzuelaCo-founder and CEO - AI-native creation
Synthesia
Synthesia turns scripts and documents into presenter-led videos using AI avatars, mainly for company training, onboarding and internal communication.
Victor RiparbelliCo-founder and CEO
| Platform | Layer | Headquarters | Leader | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #paid | Marketplaces | Toronto, Canada | Bryan Gold | Independent |
| Afluencer | Marketplaces | Sacramento, United States | Not named publicly | Influencer Hero |
| Agentio | Marketplaces | New York, United States | Arthur Leopold | Independent |
| Collabstr | Marketplaces | Vancouver, Canada | Not named publicly | Independent |
| indaHash | Marketplaces | Barbara Sołtysińska | ArabyAds | |
| Passionfroot | Marketplaces | Berlin, Germany | Jennifer (Jen) Phan | Independent |
| TRIBE | Marketplaces | Melbourne, Australia | Anthony Svirskis | Independent |
| AnyMind Group | Agencies | Tokyo, Japan | Kosuke Sogo | Listed (TSE Growth: 5027) |
| Billion Dollar Boy | Agencies | London, United Kingdom | Edward (Ed) East | Independent |
| Gushcloud International | Agencies | Singapore, Singapore | Althea Lim | Independent |
| Influential | Agencies | United States | Ryan Detert | Publicis Groupe |
| Linqia | Agencies | San Francisco, United States | Nader Alizadeh | Independent |
| Open Influence | Agencies | Los Angeles, United States | Alex Dahan | Independent |
| The Goat Agency | Agencies | London, United Kingdom | Alex Burgess | WPP |
| Viral Nation | Agencies | Toronto, Canada | Joe Gagliese and Mat Micheli | Independent |
| Whalar | Agencies | Emma Harman and Jo Cronk | Accenture | |
| Favikon | Discovery and analytics | Paris, France | Jeremy Boissinot | Independent |
| Heepsy | Discovery and analytics | Bilbao, Spain | Xabier Vicuña | Independent |
| HypeAuditor | Discovery and analytics | Indianapolis, United States | Alexander Frolov | Independent |
| Influencity | Discovery and analytics | Valencia, Spain | Daniel Sánchez | Independent |
| Kolsquare | Discovery and analytics | Paris, France | Quentin Bordage | team.blue |
| Modash | Discovery and analytics | Tallinn, Estonia | Avery Schrader | Independent |
| Aspire | Management and commerce | Austin, United States | Anand Kishore | Independent |
| Captiv8 | Management and commerce | United States | Krishna Subramanian | Publicis Groupe |
| GRIN | Management and commerce | Sacramento, United States | Ryan Debenham | Independent |
| Later | Management and commerce | Boston, United States | Scott Sutton | Independent |
| LTK | Management and commerce | Dallas, United States | Baxter Box | Independent |
| ShopMy | Management and commerce | New York, United States | Harry Rein | Independent |
| Upfluence | Management and commerce | New York, United States | Kevin Creusy and Vivien Garnes | Independent |
| CreatorIQ | Enterprise intelligence | Los Angeles, United States | Chris Harrington | Independent |
| impact.com | Enterprise intelligence | United States | David A. Yovanno | Independent |
| Meltwater | Enterprise intelligence | San Francisco, United States | John Box | MW Investment B.V. |
| Sprout Social | Enterprise intelligence | Chicago, United States | Ryan Barretto | Listed (NASDAQ: SPT) |
| Traackr | Enterprise intelligence | San Francisco, United States | Pierre-Loïc Assayag | Independent |
| beehiiv | Owned audience | New York, United States | Tyler Denk | Independent |
| Kajabi | Owned audience | Newport Beach, United States | Kenny Rueter and Jonathan Cronstedt | Independent |
| Kit (formerly ConvertKit) | Owned audience | Boise, United States | Nathan Barry | Independent |
| Linktree | Owned audience | Melbourne, Australia | Alex Zaccaria | Independent |
| Patreon | Owned audience | San Francisco, United States | Jack Conte | Independent |
| Spotter | Owned audience | Los Angeles, United States | Aaron DeBevoise | Independent |
| Stan | Owned audience | Los Angeles, United States | John Hu | Independent |
| Substack | Owned audience | San Francisco, United States | Chris Best | Independent |
| Whop | Owned audience | Palo Alto, United States | Steven Schwartz | Independent |
| Canva | AI-native creation | Sydney, Australia | Melanie Perkins | Independent |
| Descript | AI-native creation | San Francisco, United States | Laura Burkhauser | Independent |
| ElevenLabs | AI-native creation | London, United Kingdom | Mati Staniszewski | Independent |
| HeyGen | AI-native creation | Los Angeles, United States | Joshua Xu | Independent |
| OpusClip | AI-native creation | San Francisco, United States | Young Zhao | Independent |
| Runway | AI-native creation | New York, United States | Cristóbal Valenzuela | Independent |
| Synthesia | AI-native creation | London, United Kingdom | Victor Riparbelli | Independent |
No platform matches these filters.
Where it is built
24 cities; San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles hold 17 of the 50
- San Francisco7
- New York5
- Los Angeles5
- LondonBillion Dollar Boy4
- Toronto#paid2
- Sacramento2
- Melbourne2
- Paris2
Map: Wikimedia Commons, public domain (CC0).
Ownership
Who bought whom
8 of the 50 platforms now belong to an ad holding company, a consultancy, private equity or a rival.
The data
Read the numbers properly
Five short reports. Each figure carries its definition, its date and its source.
-
$32.6bn
Market size
Global influencer marketing industry, 2025 (estimate) -
4%
Creators
of creators earn more than $100,000 a year (of about 50 million, 2023) -
8%
AI search
of visits with an AI summary included a click on a result, against 15% without one -
70
Deals
creator-economy acquisitions in the first half of 2026, up 23% on a year earlier -
2 Aug 2026
AI disclosure
Article 50 transparency duties apply
How it is made
Researched from primary sources, checked every 90 days
Every profile starts from the company's own pages and filings. Leadership and ownership are confirmed against a recent source, every figure links to where it came from, and no company paid to appear.
Photo: dar der on Unsplash