Former Ramp Engineers Secure $20M for New Platform Melius After Abandoning Their First Product

Meta description: Melius raised $25 million, including a $20 million Series A from CRV and a $5 million seed from General Catalyst, to expand AI creative agents.

Tags: Melius, AI advertising, creative automation, Series A, startup funding

Featured image: Abstract technology style, translucent panels suggesting ad campaigns, images, and videos, no real people, no company logos, no text.

Melius AI platform, which generates ad campaigns, images, and videos, announced on Tuesday that it raised $25 million in total funding, including a $20 million Series A led by CRV and a $5 million seed round led by General Catalyst. The round follows a pivot from an AI-powered performance marketing tool toward creative generation, a shift that places the company in the broader race to help brands produce ads with AI.

Origins: Ramp Engineers and an Early Performance Tool

The New York-based startup began more than a year ago with co-founders Joowon Kim, Young Kim, and Arnav Ramu. In the original announcement photo, Joowon Kim is on the right, Young Kim is on the left, and Arnav Ramu is in the center. The three knew each other from working as engineers at Ramp, a corporate spending and finance software company.

Their first plan was to build an AI-powered performance marketing tool. More than six months after building that product, the founders decided the idea did not “have legs,” Kim said in remarks to TechCrunch.

Pivot: Scrapping the Codebase to Generate Creative Assets

Instead of helping marketers manage and optimize ad spend, the team moved toward generating the creative assets and campaigns themselves, which it viewed as a larger opportunity. Kim described the reset bluntly: “We scrapped the entire codebase; we burned all of it.”

Melius then quickly built an entirely new product. Nearly a year after the initial launch, it revealed a platform it describes as an “agents lab for creative work.” The company’s path now runs from a failed performance marketing idea to a tool that produces the ad material brands need.

Stealth Exit, Revenue, and the $25 Million Round

Melius came out of stealth in July and claims it reached more than $1 million in annualized revenue within two months. Kim acknowledged that Melius did not hit it out of the park initially.

The $25 million funding announcement gives the startup capital to expand that creative workflow product while it competes in a fast-moving segment of AI software.

Competition, Founder Motivation, and Market Demand

Melius is not alone in serving ad agencies, marketers, and brands with AI-generated creative assets. Competitors include rapidly growing Higgsfield, valued at $5.4 billion in August, and smaller startups such as Krea and Flora AI.

Kim is not concerned about the field. He said Higgsfield, a three-year-old that has hit over $700 million in annualized revenue, “is growing like mad,” but argued the market is large enough for multiple competitors. “There are a lot of players, which is pretty exciting,” he told TechCrunch. “That means there are customers to be won and there is demand in this space.”

Kim, who describes himself as a social media influencer, said he has been passionate about making short videos since elementary school and once dreamed of becoming a famous YouTuber. “I tried my best to make vlogs,” he said. “My dad was great at using FinalCut Pro, but I wasn’t.” Those early vlogs never quite took off, but his fascination with making digital media remained.

With Melius, Kim said he is building the tool he always wanted: a platform where anyone, including seasoned creative directors, can turn ideas into reality using plain language.

Current Stage: A Post-Pivot Creative AI Startup

At this stage, Melius is a post-pivot creative AI startup that has raised $25 million, reported more than $1 million in annualized revenue after exiting stealth, and entered a competitive market alongside Higgsfield, Krea, and Flora AI. Its timeline shows a company that changed direction, exited stealth, generated early revenue, and then used funding to formalize the new bet. The next signal will be whether the capital helps it move from an agents lab for creative work to a durable platform for ad agencies, marketers, and brands.