Melius raises $25M to build AI tools for ad images and videos

In short: Melius says it raised $25 million to build AI software that helps people create ads, images, and videos.

What happened

Melius, a New York based startup, announced it raised $25 million in funding. The round includes a $20 million Series A led by CRV and a $5 million seed round led by General Catalyst.

Melius sells an AI platform for making ad campaigns and creative materials like images and videos. Think of it like a helper that can take a written idea and turn it into the pieces you need to run an ad, similar to how a template helps you start a document, but for marketing content.

The company was started by three former engineers from Ramp, a corporate spending and finance software company. Co-founder Joowon Kim told TechCrunch the team scrapped its first product after more than six months of work because it did not seem promising. They rebuilt from scratch and shifted focus from helping marketers manage ad spending to helping them generate the ads themselves.

Melius also said it passed $1 million in annualized revenue within two months after launching its new direction in July. Annualized revenue is a simple projection, it means taking recent revenue and estimating what it would look like over a full year if things stayed the same.

Why it matters

More companies are using AI tools to speed up making ads, which can lower the time and cost to produce images and short videos. This can change what you see online, since more ads can be made faster, and it may also increase competition among brands for attention.

Source: TechCrunch AI