Creator finance startup Karat has laid off staffers after raising $70 million earlier this year

• Creator finance startup Karat Financial laid off staffers this month, four people familiar with the matter said.
• The cuts came a few months after the company raised $70 million in new funding.
• Karat declined to comment.

The creator finance startup Karat Financial laid off staffers this month, four people familiar with the matter told Insider.

Three of these people, who included current and former employees, estimated that 10% or more of the company was cut, but did not have a precise figure from management. Karat declined to comment on the layoffs.

The startup, which provides financial services such as taxes and bookkeeping for creators, was founded in 2019 by Eric Wei and Will Kim.

Karat raised a $70 million Series B round this year, announcing in July that it had secured a $40 million equity round and $30 million in debt financing led by TriplePoint Capital.

The startup has been a darling of the creator-economy scene, having raised capital from some prominent creators like Nas Daily and Josh Richards, as well as from big tech execs like Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin.

Karat’s cofounders are also angel investors themselves, and the “Karat House,” a mansion in Los Angeles, has become a hotspot for industry events — from a Discord creator community event to a recent book party for tech journalist Taylor Lorenz.

Karat is the latest company to make cuts in a series of layoffs that have swept the creator economy, from startups like Grin and Cameo to the most prominent social-media companies like Meta and Snap. Though the creator economy was valued earlier this year at $250 billion by Goldman Sachs, its growth has cooled along with broader market uncertainty.

Despite the cuts, Karat appears to still be hiring for several open positions, according to its website.