Startup Hightouch Cuts Design Teams Out of Ad Creation Process
Hightouch, a seven-year-old startup, launched an AI service in late 2024 that lets marketing professionals generate custom ad content without involving brand designers or ad agencies. The company now works with Domino's, Chime, PetSmart, and Spotify.
The product has scaled quickly. Hightouch added $70 million in annualized recurring revenue over 20 months, reaching $100 million total ARR, according to the company.
"Before generative AI, it was impossible for someone without many years of design skills to create consumer-level assets," said Kashish Gupta, Hightouch's co-CEO. Gupta leads the company alongside co-CEO Tejas Manohar, a former engineering manager at Segment.
Why Standard AI Models Fall Short
Many brands initially tried using general AI models to generate ads, only to find the results didn't match their brand standards. These broad systems lack knowledge of specific brand identities.
"Foundation models didn't know about specific consumer brands, whether it was colors or fonts, tone, or assets," Gupta said. "The LLMs would hallucinate products that didn't exist, and you can't do advertising and emails on products that don't exist."
How Hightouch Maintains Brand Consistency
Hightouch connects directly to customers' existing design tools, including Figma, photo libraries, and content management systems. The platform learns a company's specific brand identity from these sources.
Hightouch's AI agents then use existing photos, designs, and customer data to help marketers build personalized campaigns without waiting for designers or developers.
The approach prioritizes realism over pure AI generation. Domino's, for example, never generates pizza images-it uses existing photos and places them in AI-generated backgrounds. This avoids the generic look associated with fully AI-created content.
Growth and Funding
Hightouch now employs approximately 380 people. The company raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by Sapphire Ventures in February 2025, valuing it at $1.2 billion.
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