Patreon, Inc. has just closed a $30 million funding round, enabling the subscription-based crowdfunding platform to continue growing and supporting artists and content creators. This latest funding round was led by Thrive Capital, along with new contributions from investors from its previous funding round, including Charles River Ventures, Index Ventures, Accomplice and Freestyle Capital.

“We need to bring in so many people so fast,” Patreon CEO Jack Conte said of the platform’s need for growth in an interview with TechCrunch. “We need to keep up with hiring and keep up with making all of the things.”

As of June 2015, Patreon was averaging 15,000 new creators and over 16 million pageviews each month, with an average pledge of $5 per campaign. Patreon’s user base includes web comic artists, podcasters, game designers, musicians, writers, and many types of content creators.

While platforms like Kickstarter PBC and Indiegogo, Inc. are great for funding big projects with clear goals, Patreon allows users to fund more open ended campaigns.  Most commonly, Patreon is used for paying the living expenses of content creators so that they can work on their projects without having to worry about finding a 9-to-5 day job.

Aside from more traditional artists and musicians, Patreon is also home to a number of web video creators, and while platforms like YouTube allow users to monetize their content to a degree, Conte says that Patreon offers something that is both complementary to that revenue and better suited to supporting creators.

“[YouTube Red] is a very different product,” Conte said, referring to YouTube’s recently introduced ad-free subscription model. “The idea of paying a subscription instead of ads is just very different from paying to support an artist.”

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