Smartkarma AI Primers, Smartkarma

αSK Primers

Smartkarma AI Primers

Smartkarma

Smartkarma unites the fragmented investment industry, connecting institutional investors, independent research providers, and corporates within a single network.

Research Reinvented

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
  <li>
<a href="https://smartkarma.com/entities/circle">Circle</a> is rapidly scaling in the creator economy, having achieved $68M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by May 2026, marking an 83% year-over-year increase while reaching profitability.</li>
  <li>The company offers an all-in-one community management platform for creators, bundling features like courses, memberships, events, and newly added AI agents and a website builder, which strengthens its value proposition.</li>
  <li>Positioned as a premium B2B solution, <a href="https://smartkarma.com/entities/circle">Circle</a> is strategically targeting professional creators and brands, differentiating itself in a highly competitive market that includes larger players like Patreon and specialized platforms like Kajabi.</li>
</ul><p><em>This content is AI-generated and displayed for general informational purposes only. Please verify independently before use.</em></p>


  
Circle is rapidly scaling in the creator economy, having achieved $68M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by May 2026, marking an 83% year-over-year increase while reaching profitability.
  The company offers an all-in-one community management platform for creators, bundling features like courses, memberships, events, and newly added AI agents and a website builder, which strengthens its value proposition.
  Positioned as a premium B2B solution, Circle is strategically targeting professional creators and brands, differentiating itself in a highly competitive market that includes larger players like Patreon and specialized platforms like Kajabi.
This content is AI-generated and displayed for general informational purposes only. Please verify independently before use.

Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing, Sacra

Sacra

Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing

Bringing transparency to private markets so investors, founders, and employees can build on conviction. Sacra delivers deeply researched insights on the private companies shaping tomorrow's markets. By surfacing the data, context, and operator perspective that are missing from private markets today, we help secondary buyers and sellers price equity accurately and unlock liquidity for the people building these businesses.

Private Capital Markets

<ul><li>Sacra estimates Circle hit $68M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in May 2026, up from $55M at the end of 2025 (+83% YoY) while hitting profitability, valued at $250M as of 2023 for a 21x multiple on ~$12M ARR—compared to Patreon at $179M in 2025 revenue, up 28% YoY, valued at $4B as of their 2021 Series F for a 38x multiple on $105M revenue, Whop at $142M annualized revenue in October 2025, up from $56M in 2024, valued at $1.6B as of February 2026 for a 11x multiple and Stan at $35M ARR in 2025, up 24% YoY.</li><li>In addition to bundling courses (vs. Thinkific), paid events (vs. Eventbrite) and payments (vs. Gumroad) into its community platform, Circle now has integrated email marketing (vs. Kit and Beehiiv), AI agents, and a website builder (July 2025, vs. Wix &amp; Squarespace), completing as a community-centric creator all-in-one against the course-centric all-in-one of Kajabi, the email-centric all-in-one of Kit (formerly ConvertKit) and the link-in-bio-centric all-in-one of Linktree.</li><li>The creator economy has fractured between degen economy marketplaces &amp; storefronts like Whop, digital economies selling courses &amp; tips around prediction markets, sports betting &amp; crypto, versus buttoned-up and more professional community platforms like Circle, whose positioning enables it to go upmarket into B2B, where SMBs &amp; enterprises build community &amp; market to their customers using creator tactics.</li></ul>

Sacra estimates Circle hit $68M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in May 2026, up from $55M at the end of 2025 (+83% YoY) while hitting profitability, valued at $250M as of 2023 for a 21x multiple on ~$12M ARR—compared to Patreon at $179M in 2025 revenue, up 28% YoY, valued at $4B as of their 2021 Series F for a 38x multiple on $105M revenue, Whop at $142M annualized revenue in October 2025, up from $56M in 2024, valued at $1.6B as of February 2026 for a 11x multiple and Stan at $35M ARR in 2025, up 24% YoY.In addition to bundling courses (vs. Thinkific), paid events (vs. Eventbrite) and payments (vs. Gumroad) into its community platform, Circle now has integrated email marketing (vs. Kit and Beehiiv), AI agents, and a website builder (July 2025, vs. Wix &amp; Squarespace), completing as a community-centric creator all-in-one against the course-centric all-in-one of Kajabi, the email-centric all-in-one of Kit (formerly ConvertKit) and the link-in-bio-centric all-in-one of Linktree.The creator economy has fractured between degen economy marketplaces &amp; storefronts like Whop, digital economies selling courses &amp; tips around prediction markets, sports betting &amp; crypto, versus buttoned-up and more professional community platforms like Circle, whose positioning enables it to go upmarket into B2B, where SMBs &amp; enterprises build community &amp; market to their customers using creator tactics.

<ul><li>Sacra estimates that Circle hit $68M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in May 2026, up from $55M at the end of 2025 and up ~80% year-over-year.</li><li>Circle generates revenue through subscription plans for its all-in-one community platform, with pricing ranging from $49-$399+ per month.</li><li>Circle offers a 14-day free trial, allowing potential customers to experience the platform&#39;s full functionality before committing to a paid plan.</li></ul>

Sacra estimates that Circle hit $68M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in May 2026, up from $55M at the end of 2025 and up ~80% year-over-year.Circle generates revenue through subscription plans for its all-in-one community platform, with pricing ranging from $49-$399+ per month.Circle offers a 14-day free trial, allowing potential customers to experience the platform&#39;s full functionality before committing to a paid plan.

<ul><li>Communities as businesses split into three models: vertical professional networks (B2B marketers, roofing contractors, Airbnb hosts), training programs (software engineering bootcamps, becoming a life coach, starting an AI agency), and personal improvement clubs (support groups for new parents, meditation communities, health condition support) that monetize via access to peers & structured programs as an alternative to the burnout-inducing content treadmill that comes from creating & selling newsletters, courses and digital downloads.</li><li>Originally built for YouTubers & course creators, now community platforms are seeing demand crossover into B2B and the enterprise with Fortune 500 companies creating professional networks for practitioners, customer communities for education & support and partner & ecosystem hubs.</li><li>We hit profitability a few months ago, and are now at $50M+ ARR.</li></ul>

Communities as businesses split into three models: vertical professional networks (B2B marketers, roofing contractors, Airbnb hosts), training programs (software engineering bootcamps, becoming a life coach, starting an AI agency), and personal improvement clubs (support groups for new parents, meditation communities, health condition support) that monetize via access to peers & structured programs as an alternative to the burnout-inducing content treadmill that comes from creating & selling newsletters, courses and digital downloads.Originally built for YouTubers & course creators, now community platforms are seeing demand crossover into B2B and the enterprise with Fortune 500 companies creating professional networks for practitioners, customer communities for education & support and partner & ecosystem hubs.We hit profitability a few months ago, and are now at $50M+ ARR.

Sid Yadav, co-founder & CEO Of Circle, On The 3 Types Of Community Businesses

<ul><li>Sacra estimates that Stan hit $40M in annual recurring revenue in April 2026, up from $35M at the end of 2025.</li><li>Stan reached profitability at approximately 40% EBITDA margins, remaining capital-light with its $5M seed from Forerunner (2022) as its sole round of institutional funding.</li><li>Whop's marketplace model - which aggregates demand across creator products rather than requiring creators to bring their own traffic - surpassed Stan in revenue scale in 2025 and is growing roughly 10x faster.</li></ul>

Sacra estimates that Stan hit $40M in annual recurring revenue in April 2026, up from $35M at the end of 2025.Stan reached profitability at approximately 40% EBITDA margins, remaining capital-light with its $5M seed from Forerunner (2022) as its sole round of institutional funding.Whop's marketplace model - which aggregates demand across creator products rather than requiring creators to bring their own traffic - surpassed Stan in revenue scale in 2025 and is growing roughly 10x faster.

United States

Community software for creators to sell memberships, courses, and events to audiences

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

Circle (CIRCLE US)

Primer: Circle (CIRCLE US) - Aug 2026

Circle is rapidly scaling in the creator economy, having achieved $68M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by May 2026, marking an 83%...

αSK Primers

Circle At $68M ARR

TL;DR: After bundling courses, paid events, and payments into its community platform, Circle has kept stacking, adding email marketing, AI agents,...

Sacra

Primer: Circle - 16 Jul 2026

Community software for creators to sell memberships, courses, and events to audiences

Sacra

Sid Yadav, co-founder & CEO Of Circle, On The 3 Types Of Community Businesses

What is Circle in short and what was the founding insight that led you, Rudy, and Andy to start it coming out of Teachable...

Sacra

Primer: Stan - 17 Aug 2026

Storefront tool for creators to sell downloads, courses, and bookings from link-in-bio

Sacra

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)