TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and Dancing With The Stars has announced its latest creator contestant. Are you ready to see Alix Earle compete for the mirrorball trophy?

Today’s News

MONEY MOVES

Caspar Lee is leveling up his venture capital firm with a $45M fund 

The creator-investor: If you tuned into YouTube in the 2010s, then you might remember Caspar Lee as one of the platform’s premier vloggers.

Since his initial rise to fame, however, the South African creator has expanded his influence far beyond viewers’ feeds. He’s launched a talent firm called Margravine (alongside fellow creator Joe Sugg), taken on an investor role at marketing startup Influencer, and launched an early-stage venture capital firm—aka Creator Ventures—with cousin Sasha Kaletsky.

Now, more than a decade after breaking out on YouTube, Lee is once again positioning himself at the forefront of the creator economy. 

The $45M fund: Lee and Kaletsky have raised $45 million to launch a new fund for their three-year-old venture capital firm. In a LinkedIn post, Lee described that war chest as Creator Ventures’ “Fund II” and noted that it will connect the firm to “the next great consumer internet founders.” The creator listed several of the Limited Partners who contributed to Creator Ventures’ new fund, including“ Level Ventures, Cendana Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, Sequoia Capital, Isomer Capital, and existing LPs from Fund I.”

The investments: Fund II adds fresh capital on top of two previous cash injections. Between a $1 million “Fund 0” and an ensuing “Fund I,” Creator Ventures has grown the total assets under its management to $65 million.

Across previous investments in creator economy and consumer tech spaces, Lee and Kaletsky’s firm has taken stake in several buzzy companies, including the newsletter platform beehiiv and the generative AI startup ElevenLabs. The size of those investments has ranged from $200,000 to $2.5 million.

🔆 PRESENTED BY TRIBECA X 🔆

Tickets just dropped for Tribeca X: NYC’s definitive summit for brands and creators

Tribeca X is right around the corner. The two-day summit will propel forward the business of brand storytelling, bringing together creative visionaries to drive innovation, spark meaningful dialogue, and influence the cultural agenda during the 2025 Tribeca Festival .

Tribeca X is the nexus where brands and entertainment meet.

From June 9-10, participants will network with top-tier executives and visionaries while immersed within the creative buzz of the Tribeca Festival. Here’s what your festival checklist could look like:

• Gain unparalleled insights from Mattel's CEO on cultural storytelling
  
  

• Listen in on Paris Hilton’s tips for building media empires
  
  

• Discover the power of legacy with Lena Waithe 
  
  

• Explore storytelling beyond the screen with Bryan Cranston 
  
  

• Connect with CMOs like Raja Rajamannar, founders like Kenneth Cole, and leaders from the Kansas City Chiefs and the creator economy

At the center of it all: Championing the impact of brand storytelling with the Tribeca X Award.

Experience the best of Tribeca: passes include a ticket to two festival premieres and an invitation to the Tribeca X awards ceremony.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Culinary YouTube star Nick DiGiovanni has launched Nick’s Kitchen, a website that blends text, images, and video. (Tubefilter)

• Parent company Fenix International, Ltd. is reportedly in talks to sell OnlyFans to a U.S. investor group for roughly $8 billion. (Gizmodo)
  

  
  

• According to a recent report, some TikTok employees have been warned to expect layoffs affecting the platform’s e-commerce divisions. (Entrepreneur)
  
  

• Pop musician Kesha aims to launch a platform called Smash, which she describes as “LinkedIn for music creators with a Fiverr-style marketplace.” (Wired)

THE BIZ

For the first time, brands spend the biggest chunk of their YouTube budgets on CTV ads

The trends: According to Nielsen, YouTube has been the #1 streaming service in the U.S. for two years straight. New data presented at Brandcast shows that YouTube also generates more watch time than any linear or broadcast TV network, with TVs beating out mobile phones to become the primary device used by U.S. viewers to watch YouTube.

The stats: We already knew all that. What we didn‘t know is that, for the very first time, brands are spending more on YouTube’s connected TV ads than ads on mobile.

That data comes from Tinuiti, which manages ~$4 billion in annual digital ad spend. The marketing firm found that during Q1 2025, brands spent 43% of their YouTube ad campaign dollars on TV screens (as compared to 42% on mobile). That figure has nearly doubled since Q1 2024, when brands were spending just 24% of their campaign dollars on YouTube’s TV ads.

Those stats don’t necessarily mean brands are spending more on YouTube overall. TV ads’ rise over the last year was counterbalanced by a drop in mobile phone ads (from 51% in Q1 2024 to 42% in Q1 2025). Desktop ad spend also dropped year-over-year from 19% to 10%, and tablet-specific spend dwindled from 7% to 5%.

The takeaway: Given those qualifiers, a one percent difference between mobile and TV ad spending might not seem like a lot—but it’s the overall trend behind that figure that signals an important industry shift. Tinuiti’s data shows that TV viewers and marketers are aligned on both sides of the screen; as people’s watch habits gravitate more toward TV, advertisers are spending accordingly to reach them.

CREATORS HQ

Dubai is offering to secure Golden Visas for creators

The initiative: A $40.8 million United Arab Emirates-based government initiative is on a mission to bring 10,000 content creators to Dubai. Creators HQ is promising a range of benefits to creators who join its program, including access to coworking spaces and creative studios in the Emirates Towers, a pass to its 1 Billion Followers Summit, and entry into 300+ biz dev events throughout the year.

Another major perk: Creators HQ also says it’ll help members secure the coveted UAE Golden Visa.

The visa: UAE Golden Visas can be difficult to obtain without assistance. People like real estate investors and entrepreneurs have to invest specific amounts of money—or prove their businesses’ worth—to secure one. But for content creators (who are considered people with “outstanding specialized talents”), the procedure involves getting an approval letter from Dubai’s department of culture and arts (in large part by proving the influence of their social media channels).

Creators who receive Golden Visas can live and work in Dubai for 10 years without needing a sponsor. They also have the ability to stay outside the UAE for more than six months while still keeping their visa valid and can sponsor their spouses, children, and employees.

The offering: Creators HQ says it will walk creators through every step of acquiring a Golden Visa. (And since content makers have to pass muster to join Creators HQ, it’s likely their credentials will already be evaluated and they’ll be fast-tracked to get a letter of approval.) Once a creator is approved, the initiative says it will also provide assistance with the normally lengthy and expensive process of relocating to Dubai.

Applications are open here for creators who want to join the initiative and move to Dubai.

FYI: Creators HQ is a Tubefilter partner

WATCH THIS 📺

Google’s Veo 3 AI model is scary good at generating videos

The new model: On Tuesday, Google introduced Veo 3, a new AI model that can generate videos complete with sound effects, background noise, dialogue, and other forms of audio. The result—as shown in this video posted to X by Min Choi—is eerily realistic.

So, should creators be worried? Unrealistic genAI videos are already popular enough to rank among YouTube’s most-watched fare, meaning clips like Veo 3’s could gain even higher levels of traction. There’s also a good chance the model’s training material includes a significant number of YouTube videos (although Google has been cagey about that subject so far). If that’s the case, it will be up to YouTube to carefully regulate the dispersal of AI videos—and ensure humans don’t lose their place in the content ecosystem.

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Today's newsletter is from: James Hale, Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.