Forbes | Cherie Hu | January 19, 2016

The members of today’s creative class are more actively disrupting conventional business models, and perhaps nothing is more indicative of this change than the recent success of crowdfunding platform Patreon.

The company just raised $30 million of Series B funding, putting its total amount of funding at $47.1 million. Led by Thrive Capital, the round also included investments from Allen and Company and follow-ons by Charles River Ventures, Index Ventures, Accomplice and Freestyle Capital.

Related: Creative Patronage Startup Patreon Raises $15 Million

According to the press release, Patreon will dedicate its newly-acquired funding largely to recruiting more members for its engineering and product teams, as well as for expanding service offerings and developing a more comprehensive and connected (read: mobile) experience for both creators and consumers. “We need to bring in so many people so fast,” declared co-founder Jack Conte, a musician himself who earns over $3,800 for each video he releases on Patreon, in an interview with TechCrunch. “We need to keep up with hiring and keep up with making all of the things.”

Patreon’s premise is slightly different from those of other creative platforms that implement crowdfunding, such as Kickstarter and PledgeMusic. Instead of one-off donations to individual projects, users on Patreon pledge to give a fixed amount of money to creators on either a monthly or per-creation basis. It is perhaps a more robust vision of the familiar pay-what-you-want model; not only will artists receive compensation solely after finishing each project (unlike on Kickstarter, for instance, where “fully-funded” projects may ultimately go unfinished), but this compensation can also turn into a regular, reliable and often impressive source of income.

Related: The Subscription Model of Crowdfunding

Aside from Conte, the most notable success stories on Patreon include video game review channel Classic Game Room, which makes over $10,400 per month on Patreon, and singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer, who earns over $32,000 for each artwork she creates. This is in striking contrast to artists’ annual earnings on YouTube or Spotify, which may peak only at a few dozen dollars in more indie circles.

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