The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2021–2026
Passionfroot bets AI noise makes B2B creators the channel; $15M Series A
Berlin startup bet AI commoditizing software would push B2B buyers to discover products through creators; revenue up 13x in a year.
Passionfroot
What the business is
Passionfroot is a Berlin-based B2B creator marketplace: brands find, brief, pay and measure specialist creators through an AI-assisted platform with a global payment wallet.
Starting capital：€3M pre-seed (Dec 2021) led by Creandum with Supernode Global; $15M Series A led by Insight Partners (July 2026) with Creandum, Supernode Global and s16vc; $21M+ total raised.
How it started
Jen Phan, Jens Joseph Mannanal and Michelle Tian founded Passionfroot in Berlin in January 2021. The first product was a no-code platform helping creators track projects and cashflow, and in December 2021 it raised a €3M pre-seed round — then the largest for a European creator-economy startup at that stage.
What happened
The company repositioned as a B2B creator marketplace, building a proprietary creator graph from thousands of campaigns, a wallet for cross-border payments, and Zest, an AI agent that finds creators and builds, executes and monitors campaigns. In the year to July 2026 revenue grew 13x, Passionfroot paid at least $10M to creators in 18 months, and clients included ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer and Gamma.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Passionfroot was founded in Berlin in January 2021 by Jen Phan, Jens Joseph Mannanal and Michelle Tian. Its first product was a no-code platform helping creators track projects and cashflow, and in December 2021 it raised a €3M pre-seed round led by Creandum — at the time the largest pre-seed for a European creator-economy startup.
The company then repositioned around what demand was showing: brands wanted to work with B2B creators, so Passionfroot built a two-sided marketplace with a proprietary creator graph derived from thousands of campaigns, a wallet for paying creators across borders, and Zest, an AI agent that finds suitable creators and builds, executes and monitors campaigns. By July 2026 revenue had grown 13x in a year, the platform had paid at least $10M to creators in 18 months, and clients included ElevenLabs, Figma, Replit, Framer and Gamma.
In July 2026 Passionfroot raised a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners, taking total funding past $21M. CEO Jen Phan moved to New York to lead US expansion, the company opened a São Paulo office, and it was building measurement for how campaigns influence AI citations and brand mentions in AI-powered answers. Insight's thesis: as AI commoditizes software and floods categories with new products, B2B buyers discover tools through LinkedIn, Substack and podcasts — putting creators at the center of B2B marketing.
What has to be true
- AI is commoditizing software and flooding categories with new products, so B2B buyers discover tools through creators — LinkedIn, Substack and podcasts became the channel.
- A marketplace owns both sides: a creator graph from thousands of campaigns plus payment rails and measurement beats a tool that only helps a single creator.
- The pivot followed demand data: brands kept asking to work with B2B creators, so Passionfroot rebuilt around that instead of the original admin tool.
- Revenue up 13x in a year with $10M+ paid to creators showed product-market fit before the Series A.
What can be applied
When AI commoditizes every software category, the scarce asset is discovery and trust — the marketplace that owns demand beats the tool that optimizes supply.
Aftermath
As of 2026-07-22, Passionfroot had raised a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners, taking total funding past $21M. Co-founder and CEO Jen Phan was relocating to New York, where the company was opening its US office, with a second new office in São Paulo and plans to grow its headcount beyond 15. The company was also building measurement for how campaigns affect AI citations and brand mentions in AI answers, plus AI features for creators such as monetization tips and content ideas.
Sources
- Passionfroot raises $15M to expand its B2B creator marketplace to the US
- telli sammelt 15 Millionen ein - Passionfroot erhält 15 Millionen - Lockheed Martin investiert in Spread
- This creator platform raised €3m — and half its angels are women or minorities
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