Three years after selling A Cloud Guru for $2 billion, cofounder Sam Kroonenburg is back in early-stage startup land with an AI-based adtech and $5.5 million in Seed funding to kick it off.
His new play is Cuttable, an automated content marketing agency that’s like Canva-for-ads, so users can create digital advertising rapidly, at a lower cost.
Kroonenburg signed on as co-CEO alongside Jack White, cofounder of Melbourne ad agency Sunday Gravy, with former Swisse marketer Ed Ring rounding out the founding team.
The Seed round was led by Square Peg with participation from Rampersand and strategic investors from the ad industry.
Kroonenburg’s pitch on Cuttable is that it combines ads with AI to deliver high-quality digital ads at scale.
“Cuttable represents a new frontier in advertising, where technology and creativity converge to deliver unparalleled results for marketers and agencies,” he said.
“The opportunity at Cuttable was too good to pass up. I first came on board as a first investor, but as I got closer, I saw how much of a role automation and AI can play in advertising.”
Cuttable already has clients including Wesfarmers, Catch.com.au and OnePass, Medibank, Nando’s, Penfolds, Powershop, and DiDi, but Jack White argues that agencies shouldn’t see AI as an existential threat to their creative departments and business.
“Cuttable’s aim is to enable every agency and brand to return to the glory days of advertising, when they could both spend the time needed to craft the big brand idea. We know the financial savings Cuttable creates for marketers can be reinvested into creating bigger brand opportunities moving forward,” he said.
“Brands and agencies can now create their own digital advertising and content with Cuttable, and what would typically take weeks or months to create now takes just minutes.”
Cuttable has begun development on its next AI-powered feature, tentatively titled “the brand brain,” which will allow marketers to go from brief to an ad live in a few clicks. The tool will continuously capture and understand a brand’s strategy and objectives, to support clients with strategy, campaign design, video design, copywriting, asset creation, and publishing.
Square Peg cofounder Paul Bassat is jumping on Cuttable’s board as part of the investment.
“Over the last year, we have spent a lot of time with the Cuttable cofounders and were excited by their combination of deep domain expertise, tech acumen, grit and laser focus on using AI to fundamentally reshape advertising,” he said.
Rampersand partner Taryn Pieterse sees Cuttable as having the potential to transform how agencies and marketers advertise on digital platforms.
“AI and precision technology continues to push the boundaries on what’s possible in traditional advertising, and the Cuttable team are at the forefront of this change,” she said.
NOW READ: A Cloud Guru founder Sam Kroonenburg signs on as a partner in SecondQuarter Ventures
Trending
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.