内容来源：https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/06/ex-ramp-engineers-raise-20m-for-platform-melius-after-scrapping-their-first-product/

内容总结：

纽约AI广告创意平台Melius完成2500万美元融资，由CRV领投2000万美元A轮。该公司由三名前Ramp工程师创立，最初做广告投放优化工具，后因发现原方向“走不通”而彻底推翻代码库，转向用AI生成广告创意素材和营销活动。转型后产品上线两个月内年化营收突破100万美元。面对Higgsfield等强劲竞争对手，联合创始人金周元表示市场足够大，可以容纳多个玩家。

中文翻译：

Melius是一个用于生成广告活动、图像和视频的AI平台，周二宣布累计融资2500万美元，其中包括由CRV领投的2000万美元A轮融资，以及由General Catalyst领投的500万美元种子轮融资。

尽管这家初创公司声称在7月结束隐身状态后的两个月内年化收入已突破100万美元，但联合创始人Joowon Kim（图右）承认，Melius最初的表现并不算一鸣惊人。

这家位于纽约的公司一年多前首次推出时，Kim和他的联合创始人Young Kim（图左）以及Arnav Ramu（图中）打算打造一款AI驱动的效果营销工具。三人是在Ramp担任工程师时结识的，Ramp是一家企业支出和财务软件公司。

联合创始人告诉TechCrunch，产品开发出来六个多月后，他们认定最初的想法“走不通”。

团队没有继续帮助营销人员管理和优化广告支出，而是选择聚焦于他们认为更大的机会：打造能够生成创意素材和广告活动本身的工具。

“我们把整个代码库全删了，全部烧掉，”Kim说。Melius随即着手开发一款全新的产品。在首次推出近一年后，它发布了一个平台，将其描述为“创意工作的智能体实验室”。

Melius远不是唯一一家帮助广告公司、营销人员和品牌用AI生成创意素材和广告活动的初创企业。竞争对手包括快速增长的Higgsfield——该公司在8月估值达到54亿美元——以及Krea和Flora AI等其他小型初创公司。

Kim并不担心竞争。

他承认，成立三年的Higgsfield年化收入已超过7亿美元，“增长得疯狂”，但据Kim说，这个市场规模太大，足以容纳多个竞争者。

“参与者很多，这很令人兴奋，”他告诉TechCrunch。“这意味着有客户可以去争取，这个领域有需求。”

至于为什么前Ramp工程师要打造一款广告生成产品，自称社交媒体网红的Kim说，他从小学起就热衷于制作短视频，曾梦想成为一名知名的YouTube博主。

“我竭尽全力去拍vlog，”他说。“我爸很会用FinalCut Pro，但我不行。”

那些早期的vlog始终没能火起来，但他对制作数字媒体的痴迷一直未减。

如今，借助Melius，他正在打造自己一直想要的那个工具：一个让任何人——包括资深创意总监——都能用大白话把想法变成现实的平台。

英文来源：

Melius, an AI platform for generating ad campaigns, images, and videos, announced on Tuesday that it raised a total of $25 million in funding, including a $20 million Series A led by CRV and a $5 million seed round led by General Catalyst.
While the startup claims to have hit more than $1 million in annualized revenue within two months of coming out of stealth in July, co-founder Joowon Kim (pictured on right) admits that Melius didn’t hit it out of the park initially.
When the New York-based company first launched over a year ago, Kim and his co-founders, Young Kim (pictured on left) and Arnav Ramu (pictured center) set out to build an AI-powered performance marketing tool. The three knew each other from working as engineers at Ramp, the corporate spending and finance software company.
More than six months after building the product, the co-founders decided their original idea didn’t “have legs,” Joowon Kim told TechCrunch.
Instead of helping marketers manage and optimize ad spend, the team chose to focus on what it saw as a much larger opportunity: building the tools that generate the creative assets and campaigns themselves.
“We scrapped the entire codebase; we burned all of it,” Kim said. Melius quickly went to work on an entirely new product. Nearly a year after its initial launch, it revealed a platform that it describes as an “agents lab for creative work.”
Melius is far from the only startup helping ad agencies, marketers, and brands generate creative assets and campaigns with AI. Competitors include rapidly growing Higgsfield, which was valued at $5.4 billion in August, as well as other small startups, including Krea and Flora AI.
Kim isn’t concerned about the competition.
He acknowledged that Higgsfield, a three-year-old company that has hit over $700 million in annualized revenue, “is growing like mad,” but according to Kim, the size of the market is so large that it can support multiple competitors.
“There are a lot of players, which is pretty exciting,” he told TechCrunch. “That means there are customers to be won and there is demand in this space.”
As for why former Ramp engineers are building an ad-generation product, Kim, who describes himself as a social media influencer, says he has been passionate about making short videos since elementary school and once dreamed of becoming a famous YouTuber.
“I tried my best to make vlogs,” he said. “My dad was great at using FinalCut Pro, but I wasn’t.”
Those early vlogs never quite took off, but his fascination with making digital media remained.
Now, with Melius, he’s building the tool he always wanted: a platform where anyone, including seasoned creative directors, can turn their ideas into reality using plain language.