New York-based startup Melius announced on October 6, 2026 that it has raised $25 million in total funding. The company's founders are former Ramp engineers: Joowon Kim (CEO), Young Kim (CTO), and Arnav Ramu (COO). They are now applying their fintech experience to creative AI. Melius is building an AI agent platform for creative work: agents independently produce ad campaigns, images, and videos. The announcement came on October 6, 2026 — the company emerged from stealth in July 2026, meaning the news landed less than three months after that milestone.
Funding breakdown: $20M Series A and $5M seed
The bulk of the funding — a $20 million Series A round — was led by CRV. The company had previously closed a $5 million seed round led by General Catalyst. Genius Ventures, Vine Ventures, and Anti Fund participated in both rounds. Melius has thus raised $25 million in total. The CRV-led $20 million Series A is the company's largest single round to date. According to TechCrunch, the funds will go toward two priorities: growing the team and accelerating the go-to-market strategy. The announcement came on October 6, 2026 — the company combined both rounds and presented them publicly as $25 million in funding. The company is now in an active growth phase — it says thousands of creative teams create brand assets on the Melius platform every day. The funding is meant to sustain exactly this pace: the team will grow, and bringing the product to market will move to a new stage.
Six months of work burned: scrapping the first product
The Melius founders initially built an AI-powered performance marketing product. Work on the product lasted six months — after which the team abandoned the direction entirely: the existing codebase was destroyed and the platform rebuilt from scratch. CEO Joowon Kim described the decision in blunt terms:
"We destroyed the entire codebase; we burned it all." — Joowon Kim, TechCrunch The rebuilt platform is presented as an "agents lab for creative work." Under the new concept, AI agents help creative teams automatically create ad campaigns, images, and videos. The company now describes itself first and foremost as an agents lab for creative work — a strategy radically different from its earlier marketing direction. The new name reflects the company's mission: building AI agents for creative teams.
The founders: from Ramp experience to creative AI
All three founders worked as engineers in fintech — at Ramp — before Melius. They are now transferring that engineering experience to creative AI. Joowon Kim leads the company as CEO, Young Kim is responsible for the technical direction, and Arnav Ramu for operations. The three founders' roles are divided as follows: strategy and management with Joowon Kim, technology with Young Kim, operations with Arnav Ramu. Joowon Kim describes himself as a social media influencer. He says he has been interested in making short videos since childhood: "my parents were good at FinalCut Pro, I wasn't." That very interest later laid the groundwork for the idea of AI agents for creative work.
Market landscape: strong competition and growing demand
The creative AI agent market is seeing strong competition. In August, Higgsfield was valued at $5.4 billion — the three-year-old company's annual revenue exceeded $700 million. Krea and Flora AI also operate in this space. Joowon Kim welcomed the crowded field: "It's great that there are many players — it means there are customers and demand." In an official announcement on GlobeNewswire, Melius disclosed its metrics: less than three months after emerging from stealth in July 2026, the company's annualized revenue run rate (ARR) crossed the million-dollar mark. Thousands of creative teams now create brand assets on the platform every day. While Higgsfield reached over $700 million in annual revenue in three years, Melius hit a million-dollar annualized run rate less than three months after emerging from stealth. The company plans to spend the $25 million on team growth and expanding go-to-market efforts to sustain that pace.
