Ex-Ramp engineers raise $25M for AI ad platform Melius

Overview

Melius, an AI-driven platform designed to generate comprehensive ad campaigns, images, and video content, has secured $25 million in a new funding round. The investment highlights growing investor confidence in tools that automate creative production for marketing teams.

The round brings together significant backing from prominent venture capital firms, marking a pivotal moment for the New York-based startup. Co-founders Joowon Kim, Young Kim, and Arnav Ramu are pivoting their focus from performance marketing software to generative creative tools after recognizing a larger market opportunity.

“We scrapped the entire codebase; we burned all of it,” said co-founder Joowon Kim regarding the company’s strategic pivot.

Funding Round and Valuation

The latest raise includes a $20 million Series A led by CRV and a $5 million seed round previously led by General Catalyst. This capital injection comes shortly after Melius exited stealth mode in July, having already generated more than $1 million in annualized revenue within two months of public operation.

The rapid revenue growth underscores the demand for AI solutions that can produce high-volume creative assets. While many startups in the artificial intelligence space rely on long development cycles before achieving product-market fit, Melius has moved quickly from concept to cash flow.

Investors appear encouraged by the team’s ability to pivot effectively. The decision to abandon a struggling product in favor of a more promising direction demonstrates agility, a trait highly valued in the current venture capital climate.

From Performance Tools to Creative Generation

Melius was originally founded over a year ago with a different mission. The three co-founders, who met while working as engineers at Ramp, the corporate spending and finance software company, initially built an AI-powered tool for performance marketing. Their goal was to help advertisers manage and optimize their ad spend more efficiently.

However, after more than six months of development, the team realized their initial concept lacked traction. Joowon Kim noted that the original idea simply did not have the necessary legs to succeed in a crowded market.

Instead of optimizing how marketers spent money, the team decided to focus on creating the content that the ads would display. They identified a much broader opportunity in generative AI for creative assets.

The founders made the drastic decision to discard their existing work entirely. They rebuilt the platform from scratch, launching what they now describe as an “agents lab for creative work.” This new direction allows users to generate full campaigns, including visuals and video, using plain language prompts.

Competitive Landscape and Market Opportunity

The startup ecosystem for AI-generated creative content is becoming increasingly crowded. Melius now competes against well-funded rivals such as Higgsfield, which achieved a staggering $5.4 billion valuation in August after reportedly hitting over $700 million in annualized revenue. Other notable competitors include Krea and Flora AI.

Despite the presence of deep-pocketed giants, Joowon Kim remains optimistic about Melius’s position. He acknowledges that Higgsfield is growing rapidly but argues that the total addressable market for AI creative tools is vast enough to support multiple successful players.

“There are a lot of players, which is pretty exciting,” Kim stated. “That means there are customers to be won and there is demand in this space.”

Kim’s perspective suggests that the industry is still in its early stages, with significant room for new entrants to capture market share. The sheer volume of creative content required by modern brands creates a sustained demand that may not be met by any single provider.

Founder Background and Vision

Joowon Kim’s passion for digital media dates back to his elementary school years, when he dreamed of becoming a famous YouTuber. Describing himself as a social media influencer, Kim spent his early years attempting to create vlogs, although he lacked the technical skills his father possessed with video editing software like FinalCut Pro.

Those early attempts never gained widespread traction, but they fueled a lasting fascination with the mechanics of digital media creation. This personal history informs the vision behind Melius: to build the tool he always wished he had.

The platform aims to democratize creative production, allowing anyone—from seasoned creative directors to small business owners—to turn abstract ideas into polished assets using simple text instructions. By removing the technical barriers to high-quality video and image generation, Melius seeks to empower a broader range of marketers and creators.

The combination of engineering expertise from Ramp, strategic pivots based on market feedback, and a clear understanding of creator pain points positions Melius to carve out a niche in the evolving AI landscape. As the company scales with its new funding, attention will likely focus on its ability to retain customers and expand its feature set in a competitive market.