Ex‑Ramp Engineers Raise $20M Series A for Generative Ad Platform Melius

Melius, a New York‑based AI platform that creates ad campaigns, images and video, has closed a $20 million Series A led by CRV, adding to a $5 million seed from General Catalyst for a total of $25 million.

From finance engineering to creative AI

The three founders – Joowon Kim, Young Kim and Arnav Ramu – met as engineers at Ramp. Their first product, a performance‑marketing optimizer, was abandoned after six months because it “didn’t have legs.” They rewrote the entire codebase to build what they call an “agents lab for creative work,” letting marketers turn plain‑language briefs into finished assets.

The market for generative creative tools is crowded – Higgsfield, Krea and Flora AI are already scaling – but Kim argues the total addressable market is large enough for multiple winners. He points to Higgsfield’s $700 million ARR as proof of demand.

Why it matters for GPU / AI infrastructure: For GPU cloud providers such as AiGpu, the surge in video‑generation workloads translates into sustained demand for high‑throughput inference clusters. Startups that can spin up thousands of GPU hours per campaign create a predictable, high‑margin revenue stream for infrastructure partners.