When an ad agency creates ads for a client, they don’t just create one ad, they might create hundreds of iterations for numerous platforms, which can be quite a manual effort. Creatopy, which uses AI to automate ad creation, has raised $10 million in Series A funding co-led by European venture capital firms 3VC (based in Austria) and Point Nine (based in Germany).
The startup was developed in Romania, but has a US presence with TopCo, which currently serves over 5,000 brands and agencies who use it to create, customize and automate advertising and visual content production.
Amid a proliferation of web-based and now social media channels, ad formats are constantly changing due to pressures such as the need for A/B testing and personalization. As a result, a number of solutions have emerged that aim to become a sort of “enhanced canvas” for ad creation. These include Celtra (Boston-based, $25M raised) and Bannerflow (Stockholm-based, angel-backed), all of which specialize in optimizing and scaling digital advertising.
Today, millions of businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses, are engaged in online advertising, and managing the creative of these ads has become a challenge.
“We primarily cater to top brands and agencies,” CEO Dan Oros said. “Now Canva is trying to get into this space with Canva For Business, but that means they have to completely change their business model.”
He said Creatopy's focus on ad agencies could give it an advantage: “When you think about ad creation, there are a few pillars. One is creating the ad. The second, and this is very important, is scaling, personalization, automating at scale. How do you go from one asset to thousands of different variations and sizes at once? Then there's the delivery piece, how do you place those ads on Facebook, Google Display, other publishers, etc., right?”
His view is that Canva is going to have problems because it's focused on the long tail of design: “Canva is focused on the long tail, the creation part, and that's it. We're focused on the scaling part, the automation and the service delivery part.”
Oros recently took over the CEO role from founder Daniel Demian (who remains VP of product), founding designer Gery Meleg (who remains VP of design), and Gabriel Ciordas (managing director).
Orosz is an experienced operator, having previously spent 6 years at Google and YouTube, where he was responsible for marketing projects in Central and Eastern Europe, and before that at BlaBlaCar, where he expanded the company in Eastern Europe, Hungary, Croatia and Romania.