Where the Credits Finally Roll

Today’s featured startup is giving the creative world its long-overdue backstage pass.

Project Overview

Nova is an app designed to help creative freelancers build and grow their careers.

“Creatives” here includes a broad range of professionals: directors, cinematographers, photographers, editors, producers, videographers, stylists, makeup artists, designers of all kinds, sound engineers—essentially everyone involved in crafting visuals, videos, or websites. Nova serves both solo freelancers and small creative agencies.

The app offers three core features:

1. Professional Networking – Nova helps creatives connect within the industry and organize their contacts into custom lists (for example, by role or skillset), making it easier to build teams or find trusted collaborators.

2. Job Matching – Users can find freelance gigs in their city and on specific days when they’re available. Companies post job listings, and freelancers can respond directly through the app.

3. Portfolio Showcase – Creatives can publish their work to establish credibility and attract new clients.

Nova began as a private Instagram group for posting job leads. The demand turned out to be massive—within a year, the group grew to 19,000 followers and helped creatives land over 8,000 paid gigs worth nearly $10 million in total.

Building on this traction, Nova launched its standalone app on March 16 and announced a $1.75 million pre-seed round. Around 50 corporate clients have already joined the platform, regularly hiring freelancers for branded content. Nova appears to be moving toward a monetization model centered around paid job listings—while keeping the platform free for freelancers.

What’s the Gist?

Nova’s appeal is obvious for early-career creatives looking to build a portfolio and start earning. But its founder argues the platform is just as valuable for seasoned professionals who need to quickly assemble a team for their next project.

That insight hints at a broader trend: creative work is no longer the realm of isolated artists. To deliver content that’s competitive today, you need cross-functional collaboration—from cinematographers and editors to stylists and VFX artists.

The problem? These behind-the-scenes roles are often invisible. On a typical social video, they don’t even get credited—because there are no credits. That makes it surprisingly hard to find them. Nova is solving that by making these professionals discoverable, visible, and connected.

A growing share of that content will be video—which requires increasingly specialized teams. The demand for platforms like Nova will only rise.

Unless, of course, AI replaces everyone. (Spoiler: it probably won’t.)

Key Takeaways

Will AI completely replace creative professionals? Unlikely. More realistically, it will raise the bar for what counts as “professional.”

Think back to Instagram. Before it, someone with basic Photoshop skills and a few plug-ins could call themselves a photo artist. But Instagram leveled the field—suddenly, everyone could produce decent photos. That forced real pros to step up and create something Instagram couldn’t.

AI is having the same effect. It’s not eliminating creative jobs—it’s creating a new wave of professionals who use AI tools to deliver higher-quality work, faster.

Take Hive3, for example—a startup that started by hosting creative contests where submissions had to be AI-generated. Now they’re building a community of AI-powered creatives. The company raised $10 million last year.

This points to a broader movement: marketplaces and communities for freelancers who leverage AI to boost both quality and speed. And it’s not just in creative work. Last year, Gushwork launched a marketplace for AI-powered business process outsourcing and raised $2.1 million. While they’ve since narrowed their focus to SEO content, the larger concept remains promising.

In fact, it may be even more viable in creative industries. The next wave of innovation could well come from platforms that combine Nova’s community-driven networking with Hive3’s AI-first creativity—giving rise to a new kind of talent marketplace, built for the AI era.

Company Info

Nova

• Website: itsnova.com

• Last round: $1.75M, 14.03.2024

• Total investment: $1.75M across 1 round