Hidden Ventures

Investing your ValuesDesigning the PortfolioCultivating Agency & LeadershipEmpowering People

Jun 27

Backing the tools that help creators create, earn, and flourish in the creative economy.

Hidden Ventures was a fund started by Access Ventures focused on the future of creative work. We invested in pre-seed and seed stage startups building the next wave of creative tools, products, and services, the kind that unlock creativity and help creators build, earn, and flourish in the creative economy.

Why we built it

We believe creatives of all kinds, artists, designers, and developers, are the people who push our communities to be better. They challenge, imagine, and make the things that give a place its character. But too often the tools and services they rely on are built without them in mind. Hidden Ventures existed to change that, by funding the founders who are equipping the next generation of creative work.

This was an extension of what we have done at Access Ventures for years. We have long invested in emerging, impactful startups and worked directly with creatives and artists, which gives us a real feel for what they need. When we back the right tools, the effect compounds: creators make new work, add jobs, and drive innovation. Our test was simple. If creatives win, we win.

What Hidden Ventures did

Hidden Ventures invested in mission-aligned startups that want to see creators thrive, across four areas:

For creators: art, photography, video, media, music, and podcasts.
For designers: fashion, UX, graphic design, and AR/VR.
For developers: games, software, and the web.
For commerce: marketplaces, payments, services, and software.

Many of these deals were highly relational, so the fund pairs Access Ventures' investment experience with venture partners drawn from the creator community itself. That combination helped us find and win competitive rounds while staying close to the people the tools are meant to serve.

Why it mattered to us

Creative work is one of the ways people express their gifts, contribute to their communities, and build a livelihood on their own terms. By investing in the infrastructure of the creative economy, Hidden Ventures put capital behind that kind of flourishing, helping more creators do their best work and share in the value they create.