Steven.com Gets $425M Valuation // Building the Disney of the Creator Economy
October 31, 2025 by Chris Erwin
RockWater Roundup
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Today we discuss the eight-figure investment into Steven.com at a $425M valuation. We analyze deal details, strategic rationale, investment size, founder controversy, UK social and creator capital flows, and RockWater’s editorial values.
Let’s break it down…
–TARGET: Steven.com–
Overview
- Creator holding company built to scale creator media, ventures, and technology
- Incorporates FlightStory (media production), FlightCast (podcast hosting tech), and FlightFund ($100M investment fund)
- 100+ FT employees with operations across London, Manchester, NY, LA
- Founded by Steven Bartlett in 2025
Founding Story
- Steven.com founder Steven Bartlett founded Social Chain in 2014 as a teenager; then in 2016 raised $2M in funding from entrepreneur George Kofler, and over time Social Chain ended up merging with other business interests owned by Kofler, before eventually being spun out and sold to Brave Bison for £7.7M
- Launched The Diary of a CEO in 2017 with a $100 microphone to share insights on business and personal growth
- Pivoted to video-first format in 2019 after recognizing YouTube’s potential
- Established Flight Group in 2022 as a creator-focused holding company, later expanding to include FlightStory (media & brand marketing), FlightFund (venture investing), and Flightcast (creator-tech platform)
- Introduced Flight Story Studio in 2024, partnering with podcast veterans Georgie Holt and Christiana Brenton to scale premium creator-led productions.
- The 2025 funding round for Steven.com further consolidated these ventures under one umbrella and positioned the business for global expansion across media, tech, and venture verticals
Company Highlights
- The Diary of a CEO is the 2nd largest podcast on YouTube
- Has 12M+ YouTube subs, adds 600k+ subscribers each month
- 70M monthly views / downloads across all platforms (YT, IG, FB)
- 2M+ followers on LinkedIn
- Reps 250+ talent and creator clients through FlightStory
Business Lines / Service Offerings
- Overview…
- Flight Group is a creator-focused holding company with three core business units that all together build, scale, and monetize creator-led brands.
- (1) FlightStory Studio…
- Media company that acquires, scales, and builds commercial infrastructure around creator media IP
- Roster includes Trevor Noah, Davina McCall, Paul C. Brunson, Dr. Tara Swart, Africa Brooke, The Diary of a CEO
- End-to-end podcast process: production, audience growth, distribution, omni-channel optimization
- 50% of revenue from advertising and brand partnerships (LinkedIn, Oracle, Shopify), 50% from book deals, events, and products
- (2) Flightcast…
- Video-first podcast hosting platform launched October 2025
- Co-founded with Roxcodes, former MrBeast engineer
- Unified distribution: upload once, publish everywhere across YouTube, Spotify, Apple
- AI-driven analytics and automated clip generation
- (3) FlightFund…
- $100M investment fund investing in disruptive founders
- Invested in 40+ companies including SpaceX, Whoop, Groq, MrBeast, PerfectTed, ZOE, Huel
- Focus on blockchain, biotech, health, commerce, technology, space
Capital Markets History
- Oct ‘25 Raised eight-figure investment from Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group at $425M valuation
–INVESTORS: Slow Ventures & Aperion Investment Group–
Slow Ventures Overview
- Early-stage venture capital firm founded in San Francisco (2011) by ex-Facebook execs
- Known for backing breakthrough consumer, creator economy, SaaS, fintech, crypto, and wellness tech companies
- Portfolio includes Airbnb, Twitter, Slack, Ro (Roman), Allbirds, Postmates, Pillpack, Airtable
- 540+ investments, 134 exits
Slow Ventures Creator Fund Overview
- Launched in April 2025 as a $64M fund dedicated to investing in creator-led HoldCos
- Writes $1-3M checks to acquire minority stakes in scalable creator businesses
- Built within Slow Ventures, the fund aims to back creators who are evolving into founders and building multi-asset companies (e.g. content, commerce, IP)
- Instead of a standard VC equity structure, Slow takes 10% of all company earnings for up to 30 years, which aligns incentives for long-term and sustainable creator ownership
- Portfolio: invested in 6+ creator founded businesses, including Jonathan Katz-Moses (woodworks) and Marina Mogilko (linguistics)
Slow Ventures Creator Fund Investment Criteria
- Backs creators who lead with entrepreneurial mindset – not just talent but founder / CEO mentality
- Community quality: Prioritizes creators with niche, engaged verticals (e.g. woodworking, automotive)
- Seeks creators building brands with potential to expand into products, IP and tech
- Offers follow-on capital for creators who reach growth milestones and aggressively experiment with new business models
- Invests in driven creators who balance ethical growth and authenticity along with a long-term business outlook
- Fund returns are linked to transparent earnings performances, enabling strong partnerships
Capital Markets History
- Apr 2019, established Fund IV at $55M, marking expansion into both consumer and SaaS verticals
- Apr 2022, launched Fund V ($195M) and Opportunity Fund II ($130M) to scale investments in fintech, crypto, and emerging creator-tech
- Feb 2025, formed Creator Fund I ($64.3M) to back creator-led holding companies through minority stakes and revenue-linked models
- Across all vehicles, Slow manages over $400M AUM with 540+ investments and 134 exits, including Airbnb, Slack, Ro, Allbirds, Postmates, and Pillpack
- Slow maintains an overall strategic focus on creator-economy ventures, early consumer platforms, and scalable digital IP ecosystems
Apeiron Investment Group Overview
- Family office / private firm of serial entrepreneur Christian Angermayer
- Angermayer is a German entrepreneur and investor known for his investments and founding Atai Life Sciences and Crypto Finance Group
- Focus: Biotech (psychedelics), Fintech/Crypto, DeepTech (AI, space), Life Sciences, future tech, experiences, media, real estate, natural resources, sport
- Founded in Malta with offices in NY, London, Berlin, Abu Dhabi
- Manages ~$7B (2025)
Company Highlights
- Key exits include Springlane, Juvenescence, Zenhomes, Bionomics Limited, IntelGenx Technologies
- High-profile led rounds: Invyted ($25M PE, influencer/brand platform), Blackrock Neurotech (brain-computer interfaces), Beckley Psytech (mental health, DMT treatments)
Investment Criteria
- Seeks companies with disruptive technologies or business models
- Focuses on founder quality, team, and ability to execute bold, innovative visions
- Lead investor in life sciences, psychedelics, biotech, fintech, and deeptech where market impact can be transformative
Capital Markets History
- NA
–DEAL DETAILS–
Overview
- Announced October 26, 2025
- Eight-figure strategic investment into Steven.com
- $425M valuation
Strategic Rationale
- Accelerate mission to build world-class creator media & venture ecosystem
- Support three core Flight divisions: FlightStory Studio (Creator Media), FlightFund (Creator Ventures), and Flightcast (Creator Technology)
- Together they form the infrastructure to scale and commercialize creator-led IP across content, commerce, and tech.
- Continued expansion of FlightStory talent roster (250+ creators)
- Grow Flightcast platform to capture podcast hosting market share
- Offers investors exposure to one of Europe’s fastest-growing creator-led holding companies and network of established and up-and-coming creators
- From Steven Bartlett: “By bringing together creator IP, capital and our infrastructure, Steven.com is positioning itself to lead in the next era of the creator economy. My ultimate ambition is to build the Disney of the creator economy – and the strategic partners this funding round has brought on board has enabled me to take a big step in that direction”
- From Megan Lightcap, investor at Slow Ventures: “His curiosity, authenticity, and relentless pursuit of growth have made him one of the most influential voices in modern entrepreneurship and personal development. Through Diary of a CEO, his Behind the Diary channel, and constant speaking engagements and live events, he’s cultivated a deeply loyal community committed to building a happier, more expansive and successful life by applying lessons from the world’s most accomplished figures.”
Post-Deal Operations
- Steven Bartlett maintains 90%+ ownership and majority control
- Steven.com operates as a US-incorporated parent company with HQs between London and LA, reflecting its growth ambitions in North America
- FlightFund continues deployment across 40+ portfolio companies
–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–
- We estimate the total investment to be $10-15M.
- Here’s how we got there (reminder, no deal details were shared, so this is speculation)…
- Steven says he kept 90% of the company post deal, and that the implied valuation was $425M.
- Observers may think that implies an investment of $42.5M for 10% of the Flight Group, but we doubt that’s the case here.
- Instead, Bartlett likely had already given out a few points of equity to advisors, early investors, and / or team members.
- Also, we know that Slow raised a Creator Fund of $64M, and they’ve given public guidance that they’re writing $1-3M initial checks in exchange for roughly 10% equity / earnings, into a planned 20 to 30 initial investments.
- This aligns with typical venture fund dynamics, since the capital dedicated to initial investments is typically after reserving for management fees over the next 5 to 10 yrs, and also for follow-on investments in case an “Opportunity Fund” (dedicated for follow-ons) isn’t raised.
- For Slow specifically, they may have flexed up a bit from their typical check size since there’s strategic value in the deal – Bartlett has a very large and fast-growing audience, and has a strong network of creators through his various business lines. With Slow’s launch of their new dedicated creator fund, the fund likely sees much value in more brand awareness of their fund via the deal, including getting in front of Bartlett’s creator network.
- So maybe the Slow check was in the $3-5M range, and then Aperion wrote a check of around the same size, or a bit larger…this gets to the reported “eight-figure” range reported in the trades, and how we get to our $10-15M estimate.
- Further, based on the *high* valuation of $425M, Slow and Apeiron may not get 10% of Flight Group, but there may be strong structural protections like liquidation preference, anti dilution ratchets, warrants, PIK interest, and participating preferred. Investors are savvy and know how to protect their $$ – it’s a good reminder for all of you builders to focus on these other critical deal terms when evaluating an investment into your biz.
- Also, reminder that I don’t know any financial performance data of Flight Group, nor do I know any specific terms of the deal other than what’s reported in the trades. I therefore can’t assess valuation multiples and how they compare to market precedent. The above is based on gut instinct from being in this industry for 20+ years. Take with a grain of salt.
- NOTE: thank you to Scott Van den Berg of Hotstart VC, who gave me smart POV on how to think about this potential funding round based on his professional investing experience.
- Individual creators are evolving into full-scale media and business empires.
- The creator economy is projected to surpass $528B by 2030, with more than 200M active creators globally.
- Steven.com’s $425M valuation reflects a growing class of creator-founded companies scaling beyond content by combining media, tech, and new ventures all under one roof, and raising institutional capital to drive outsized growth.
- Examples of other creator-specific investments include…
- Good Good Golf raising $45M from Creator Sports Capital to expand its content, retail, and live experience businesses (our deal analysis).
- Dude Perfect raising $100M+ from Highmount Capital to build its first Texas theme park and expand its global live-tour franchise (our deal analysis).
- Epic Gardening raising $17.5M from TCG to expand their media footprint and grow through M&A (our deal analysis of their recent acquisitions)
- MrBeast’s planned IPO at a $5B valuation. This is a holdco that includes businesses ranging from content creation (YouTube channel, “Beast Games” on Amazon Prime”), a CPG division (Feastables, Lunchly), software and tech (Viewstats), investing (Backbone, Juice Funds), philanthropy, and more. Again, this is another interesting model to inspire where Bartlett can take his Flight Group business – start with a large media funnel, and with the power of distribution (which is increasingly the main value driver and differentiator in a world where product is getting commoditized via AI and low startup costs)…use that to launch a variety of different businesses all under one roof.
- Steven Bartlett is a bit of a controversial figure, particularly in the UK.
- I posted about this deal on LinkedIn this past Monday. I quickly got a bunch of DMs about it, primarily from execs based in the UK.
- I learned there’s a history of claims of Bartlett misrepresenting his success. This includes his role in building Social Chain to a 9-figure valuation and eventual IPO. You can go down the rabbit hole here.
- I don’t like focusing on the negative, and in success, “haters will always hate”. It’s clear that Bartlett has achieved success in his career, and he’s great at building an online audience and PR machine.
- But, in the spirit of transparency, these claims are worth highlighting, and I can see why some people are turned off.
- Nevertheless, there’s a path to good ROI for investors on this deal based on macro creator economy tailwinds, Barlett’s massive media machine, and the future growth plan of Flight Group. We’ll track how it nets out.
- This makes me want to discuss some inner workings of RockWater…
- A founder’s note on our RockWater editorial values.
- The editorial brand that me and our RockWater team have worked to cultivate over the past decade, is one of overall positivity on the creator space.
- Why? Because I was an early builder in this industry, I love the community, I know that it is the way of the future, and being a part of this industry has transformed my career and overall life much for the better (you can read more about my story on my LinkedIn about page).
- This positivity is coupled with data-based financial and market analysis that goes deeper than other trades – we can do this because of our unique creator co builder x Wall street backgrounds.
- Therefore, we strive to provide transparency to dealmaking in the new and fast-growing creator ecosystem via our weekly newsletter, LinkedIn posts, and social videos. It’s key to understand how and why capital is flowing, to what types of companies, and what are the companies’ underlying fundamentals…because it’s a special moment when money changes hands in a business deal, leading to an exchange of ownership and control. These moments define precedent for, and inspire how, future companies are built, and how and why future business deals get done.
- Therefore, we believe that our analysis is critical to ensuring more good deals get done. And because irrational exuberance and hype cycles are bad for everyone…just see the result in the industry downturn from 2022 to 2024.
- As a result, this sometimes requires us to raise provocative questions and challenge reported assumptions. When we take this approach, we strive to find the right balance in editorial tone. We also note when we’re speculating, since the challenge in private company analysis is a lack of deal and data transparency (though transparency is improving as we discussed in our analysis of public co Gamesquare buying Click Management).
- We don’t want to be a company that writes “take-down” pieces. That’s not productive to the industry, and I’m well aware of where our bread is buttered aka what biases we have due to our business model – we’re an M&A advisor and we make $$ when companies hire us for strategic advisory. To point out the obvious, we’re not an independent trade publication nor journalist team; though many “independents” have their own biases from sponsorship sales, incentives to get interviews with top execs, etc. Biases exist everywhere.
- That all being said, we know that in order to build trust with our readers, and in turn out prospective and existing clients, we must have integrity in how we analyze and discuss companies and industry dealmaking.
- So put all of the above together, and that is a fine line to walk!
- We haven’t perfected it. Unexpected friction happens.
- But what’s exciting to our RockWater team, and which aligns with overall creator economy trends, is that our editorial and media is part of a new model emerging in news and business coverage.
- You can see this everywhere; just see our deal analysis on Paramount buying The Free Press. And just yesterday, in Kaya and Jasmine launching Scalable Pod, after leaving The Information, and EMARKETER, repsectively (I’m so pumped for them, such a smart move).
- More specifically as it relates to RockWater’s content, I believe that an advisory firm in the trenches on dealmaking, which includes daily CEO buyer / seller / investor calls, gives us an unmatched POV on the industry, which you readers (aka builders in our industry) should have some access to. The more practical learnings we can share (while respecting client and partner confidence), the better we can all build and make $$ together, and in turn, delight the modern media consumer that we’re all building for.
- I believe our team does a darn good job here. I hope you feel the same!
- I genuinely enjoy building and figuring out this new M&A advisory x content x events model, and am extremely grateful that all of you are along for the ride 😉
- Ok, back to industry analysis…
- Rise in Euro creator and social M&A.
- There’s an increasing amount of creator and social M&A within Europe. We’ve been covering this in our analysis of M&A deals, including…
- Italian-based SAAS aggregator Bending Spoons buying Vimeo for $1.38B (our deal analysis)
- Audioboom buying Adelicious for £10M (our deal analysis)
- Dot Digital buying Social Snowball for $25M (our deal analysis)
- WeAreEra buying New Kith (our deal analysis)
- Brave Bison buying The Fifth for £7.6M (our deal analysis)
- Whalar buys Business of Creativity for $20M (our deal analysis)
- SAMY Alliance buying Content Lab plus its parent co $310M buyout by Bridgepoint Group (our deal analysis)
- Electrify Video buying Veritasium (our deal analysis) and raising $85M for M&A and growth
- I also think of other Euro-based movers and shakers we haven’t yet written about, like KOMI Group, Billion Dollar Boy, Spin Brands, LunarX, Wild Vision, among many others. I look forward to writing more about their growth and any planned deal activity over the next couple years.
- SIDE NOTE: As RockWater has ramped up its global client work over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed developing more Euro-based relationships, from Spain and France to Germany and Armenia. And as it relates to the UK, I’ve always felt that people from the US and the UK have a unique and immediate camaraderie. Perhaps this builds from the longstanding alliance between our countries for multiple centuries. To this end, one of my earliest int’l memories was when some random English bloke randomly walked up and introduced himself to me during my 1st week of my Spain study abroad program. We became fast friends and still talk regularly, now going on for 20+ years. Funny enough, he was actually an ad agency founder, and sold his biz years ago. Perhaps he was a subconscious catalyst in my founding of RockWater. Cheers Tim Slee 👋
- BTW…we hope to plan a London-based networking event in the spring. Stay tuned.
- Is there an existing template of UK to US expansion when building a diversified creator services ecosystem?
- This deal also makes me think of Whalar Group, which since 2016 has been building a company to power the modern creator ecosystem.
- From Whalar’s mission statement a couple years ago…
- “At Whalar Group, we believe the future belongs to Creators: those who do the hard work of dreaming loud, then wrestling those dreams into the real world. Passionate, diverse, modern storytellers who create vibrant culture and value-driven communities. Brave entrepreneurs who demand a new creative playground and a new economy, the Creator Economy. Eight years ago Whalar Group was born to help liberate these creative voices, to take their thinking to the world. We’re proud to be a truly unique Creator ecosystem, where entrepreneurship, technology and creativity meld to create limitless possibilities.”
- Whalar was first incorporated in the UK, like Steven.com. Then, the company moved its business HQ to the US *I think* a couple years ago before they took on larger investment.
- And now, Steven.com will be incorporating in the US with this recent investment and planned expansion.
- My bet is that these moves to the US are because the US creator business ecosystem is significantly larger than that of Europe.
- Further, more and larger investors are based in the US, and many US investors prefer to have their portfolio companies based in their backyard for a variety of reasons; proximity between investors and co leadership, US business culture, access to a large exec and team hiring pool, US legal precedent and case law, access to strategic partners, etc.
- And on top of that, Whalar just raised at a $400M valuation back in May from other prominent US investors (Marc Benioff founder of Saleforce, Shopify, and Hollywood producer Neal Mortiz), and this week Steven.com just raised from a prominent US investor at a $425M valuation.
- Yes, there are definitely parallels between the spirit, business goals, and service offerings of Flight Group and Whalar.
- …and that’s totally fine. The creator economy is a fast-growing industry with incredible headroom to grow into. Reminder that current estimates for global market size are around $300B, and it feels like we’re just getting started.
- Some key differences are that Steven.com has built out a massive owned & operated media funnel through The Diary of a CEO podcast and overall social footprint, as well as through the creator and IP incubator FlightStory.
- In contrast, Whalar’s tentpole asset is its large global influencer marketing agency, which now includes other business units like talent management (our deal analysis when they bought UK-based Sixteenth), an operating system for creator businesses (Foam), a venture studio, a video game studio, and most recently, a coworking plus production space in LA and Brooklyn (The Lighthouse, and I’ll be at the grand opening in Brooklyn next Wed Nov 5).
- Overall, a couple different approaches towards a similar end game. And of course, even more models will emerge for how to create a diversified creator services ecosystem.
- Looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out, and what we can learn from the various business models.
- Alright, that’s enough writing for today’s newsletter…
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris@wearerockwater.com
