Ex-Ramp engineers raise $20M for platform Melius after scrapping their first product
The startup crossed over $1 million in anualized revenue within two months of its post-pivot launch.
Melius, an AI-driven platform designed to create ad campaigns, images, and videos, recently secured $25 million in funding. The funding round included a $20 million Series A led by CRV, and a $5 million seed round spearheaded by General Catalyst. The startup revealed that it had already achieved over $1 million in annualized revenue just two months after exiting stealth mode in July.
Co-founder Joowon Kim admitted that the company didn't initially hit its target when they first unveiled Melius a year ago. The New York-based team, originally engineers at Ramp, a corporate spending and finance software company, decided to pivot their product after discovering their initial idea lacked potential. Kim explained that they "scrapped the entire codebase; we burned all of it."
The engineers then redirected their efforts towards building a platform that focuses on generating the creative assets and campaigns themselves. Melius has transformed into an "agents lab for creative work." Despite competition from established players like Higgsfield, which recently hit $700 million in annualized revenue, Kim remains optimistic about the market's size, stating that multiple competitors can coexist.
Kim's interest in the startup stemmed from his passion for creating short videos since childhood and his desire to develop a tool that could make digital media generation accessible to everyone, including experienced creative directors.
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