Fave

Fave operates a social platform and marketplace built for superfans of musicians, artists and entertainers. Users create and share fan content such as concert clips, fan art and fan stories, connect with like-minded fans of the same artist, compete in challenges, and accumulate points that establish their standing within a fandom. A "Fan Verification" system ranks users as Fan, Verified Fan or Verified Superfan based on activities including streaming, concert and event attendance, evidence of meeting an artist, and other demonstrations of fandom; these actions are also recorded as badges documenting fan milestones. Higher rankings unlock perks supplied by artists and brand partners, such as concert tickets, exclusive events and early access.

The platform includes a fan-run marketplace where users resell concert tickets and sell or promote handmade merchandise, including Etsy shops, covering both physical and virtual goods. Alongside the consumer app, Fave provides artists and their teams with data on their fandom — fan names, activity levels and how fans express loyalty — plus tooling that uses generative AI and an in-house "predictive fan intelligence" system to suggest ways to improve an artist's fan strategy. Artist teams can also message fans directly. As of October 2023 the company was preparing to open this artist toolset more broadly after onboarding major entertainment companies, and planned to extend beyond music fandoms into film and TV talent, content creators, and eventually sports teams and fashion brand partnerships.

The company was established in 2020 and is based in Dietikon, canton of Zurich, Switzerland, with additional locations listed in Zürich and Wilmington, Delaware. It is incorporated as Fave Technologies, Inc. and was entered in the Swiss commercial register in May 2021.

Founding story

Fave was founded by Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, who described herself as a devoted fan growing up and set out to create a place where fans could express their fandom beyond likes and comments on existing social networks. Before Fave she spent seven years at Google, five of them at YouTube working on creator monetization and analytics products, and earlier launched music and entertainment apps at Viacom and worked on music distribution at UMG. She received a master's degree from USC at age 20, was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020, and has been listed among the "Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs in the World" and "Top 50 Women Product Managers in Europe."

Business model

Fave operates a two-sided model: a free-to-join consumer fan app with a fan-to-fan marketplace, and a set of paid data and outreach tools for artists, labels and entertainment companies. Fans are monetized through marketplace transaction fees, while artists and rights holders gain access to fandom data, generative-AI-based fan intelligence and direct fan messaging. Artists may also take a share of fan marketplace sales.

Fave charges a transaction fee on sales in its fan marketplace — 2.4% as of October 2023, after prior experiments at 5%, 10% and 0%. An earlier description of the model cited a 10% cut of transaction fees from both fans and creators. Artists have the option to take 10% of their fans' marketplace sales, which some direct to charity or back to the fandom.

Traction

More than 50,000 fans had joined the platform as of October 2023, while still in beta. Fave stated its partners cover more than one-third of the entire music market. Its 2021 seed round was oversubscribed by 200 percent, and the company reported a $15 million valuation in October 2023.

Latest developments

In October 2023 Fave confirmed $2 million raised in an ongoing round expected to surpass $6 million, with returning investors Female Founders Fund, Warner Music and Sony Music and new participants including Lyor Cohen, Shiva Rajaraman, Alexandra Moore, Xoogler.co, Goodwater and Gaingels. The company said proceeds would deepen its artist-facing tools, add new tools, and support expansion beyond music into film and TV talent and content creators, with sports teams and fashion brand partnerships planned later.