AI startup Melius has raised $25 million to expand its platform for creating advertising campaigns, images and videos, after its founders abandoned their original product and rebuilt the company around AI-powered creative production.
The funding includes a $20 million Series A led by CRV and a $5 million seed round led by General Catalyst. Melius said it has surpassed $1 million in annualized revenue within two months of emerging from stealth in July.
From Performance Marketing to AI Creative Tools
Melius was founded by Joowon Kim, Young Kim and Arnav Ramu, who previously worked together as engineers at financial technology company Ramp.
The founders initially set out to develop an AI-powered performance marketing platform designed to help marketers manage and optimize advertising spending. However, after more than six months of development, they concluded that the original concept did not have enough potential.
Rather than continue refining the product, the team made a much bigger decision: they discarded the entire codebase and started again.
The result was a completely different platform focused on generating the creative assets and campaigns themselves. Melius now describes its product as an “agents lab for creative work,” allowing users to turn ideas into advertising content through natural-language instructions.
Melius Enters a Crowded AI Advertising Market
The company is entering an increasingly competitive market as brands, agencies and marketers adopt AI tools for video production, image generation and campaign development.
Among its competitors is Higgsfield, which has rapidly expanded its AI video and creative business and was valued at $5.4 billion following a major funding round in August. Other companies in the space include Krea and Flora AI.
Melius co-founder Joowon Kim remains confident that the market is large enough to support multiple companies. He pointed to growing demand for AI-generated creative content as evidence that competition could expand the overall market rather than simply divide existing customers.
Founder’s Longtime Interest in Digital Media
Melius’ focus on creative production also reflects Kim’s personal interest in digital content. The founder has described himself as a social media creator and said he became interested in producing short-form videos at an early age.
He previously experimented with vlogs and dreamed of becoming a YouTube creator, although those early efforts did not develop into a professional media career.
That experience eventually helped shape Melius’ vision: creating a platform where people can transform creative ideas into finished digital campaigns without needing extensive technical or production skills.
The company’s latest funding will support the continued development of that platform as Melius competes for a growing share of the AI-powered advertising and creative technology market.
