Florida Funders is backing Passes, the latest startup by Lucy Guo, co-founder of the $7 billion artificial intelligence data management firm Scale AI and general partner of the venture capital firm she founded Backend Capital.
Tampa-based Florida Funders’ Fund 2 LLC participated in the $9 million seed round led by Austin, Texas-based Multicoin Capital and joined by Anti Fund, Craft Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and 11:11 Media.
Miami-based Passes, an invite-only paywall platform that connects creators and fans, will use the capital for product development, recruitment, and growing the platform's overall user base, according to a statement.
Follower count doesn’t always dictate how much a creator can make on a paywall platform, according to Guo. Certain content creators who launched on Passes with fewer than 50k Instagram followers have made more than $120k from their superfans, she said.
Passes bridges the gap between creators, brands and superfans, according to Florida Funders Partner Saxon Baum.
“Lucy Guo plays an integral role in Miami’s tech ecosystem—and combined with her entrepreneurial spirit—we couldn’t be more thrilled to back her and this platform,” he said.
Guo led Scale AI through significant growth until her exit from the company in 2018. Scale AI raised $325 million in 2021, which doubled its valuation to more than $7 billion within four years of its founding in 2016.
Last month, Florida Funders, among the largest venture capital firms in Tampa Bay, invested in Orlando space technology startup NUVIEW alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.
Florida Funders fully deployed its first fund and closed a second $60 million fund in the last year, which has made more than 43 investments so far. The firm said it's actively scouting for its next investments, despite a sharp dropoff in venture investing activity beginning last year.
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