14 AI adtech and martech startups raising millions - and what marketers should do next
The money is moving. AI is reshaping how media is bought, ads are made, and how marketers work day to day. Venture-backed startups are building agents, creative tools, and GEO playbooks that will change your stack faster than your next planning cycle.
Agency giants are reacting, too. WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom have committed massive AI investments, and acquisitions are on the table. A recent survey found 71% of CMOs plan to spend at least $10 million per year on generative AI over the next three years - up from 57% in last year's study. Budgets are shifting. Skills and workflows have to follow.
The Fluency team, from left: Mike Lane, CEO; Brian McVey, chief revenue officer; Eric Mayhew, president; and Scott Gale, chief technology officer.
Where startups are building - and why it matters
Most tools fall into a few buckets. Agentic AI that automates campaign setup and optimization. Generative video and creative at production speed. GEO (generative engine optimization) to win visibility inside AI chats and answers. Plus reputation intelligence, lifecycle retention, attribution, and native ads inside AI chat apps.
This isn't a side project. It's the next operating system for how teams brief, create, launch, and measure.
Funding snapshot: 14 AI startups to watch
Series B
- Vibe - adtech platform for buying ads on streaming TV: $50 million
Series A
- Fluency - AI agents to automate campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok, and more: $40 million
- Hedra - generative AI video expanding enterprise tools for marketers: $32 million
- Dig - LLMs to spot reputational risks and disinformation: $14 million
- LTV.ai - AI-personalized SMS and email on behalf of brands: $5.2 million
- CreatorDB - influencer marketing platform doubling down on AI tools: $4.67 million
Seed
- AdsGency - agentic AI that automates buying on Meta and Google: $12 million
- Azoma - GEO platform simulating chatbot visibility and creating AI-optimized content: $4 million
"Pre-Series A"
- Epiminds - agentic AI for performance marketing agencies: $6.6 million
- Paramark - AI attribution to tie ad spend to sales: $6 million
- Nexad - native ads built for AI chat apps: $6 million
- Octave - agentic go-to-market platform for customer profiles and strategy: $5.5 million
- Artificial Societies - AI personas for product testing and brand propositions: $5.35 million
- Eikona - lifecycle marketing models focused on retention: $5 million
What this means for marketing teams
- Media: Agents will handle setup, budgets, and creative rotation across platforms. Your edge becomes constraints, strategy, and data signals - not button clicks.
- Creative: Video and image production will compress from weeks to hours. Treat brand guidelines like code and enforce them inside tools.
- Search: GEO matters. If AI answers customers' questions, your brand needs to show up in those answers.
- Measurement: New channels (AI chat ads, agent-driven media) require updated attribution and clean incrementality tests.
How to evaluate AI vendors (quick checklist)
- Control: What levers can I lock? Budgets, bids, placements, negative keywords, brand safety.
- Data: What first-party signals can I feed in? How is data stored, scoped, and deleted?
- Transparency: Do I get event-level logs, versioning of prompts/configs, and audit trails?
- Performance: What is the baseline and test design? Show pre/post and a holdout, not just a blended ROAS slide.
- Governance: IP, bias, and compliance guardrails. Human approvals at key checkpoints.
- Integration: Native hooks for GA4, MMPs, CRM/CDP, and creative asset libraries.
30/60/90 pilot plan you can run next quarter
- Days 1-30: Pick one use case (e.g., Meta prospecting creative or Google search buildouts). Lock success metrics and a clean holdout. Prep data and brand rules.
- Days 31-60: Run side-by-side against your current process. Weekly reviews, change logs, and creative learnings captured.
- Days 61-90: Expand to a second channel or market if targets are met. Automate approvals and roll findings into a playbook.
Don't get left behind
Budgets are shifting. Tooling is getting smarter. The teams that win will standardize prompts, codify brand rules, clean their data, and pilot fast with guardrails in place.
If you want structured upskilling for your team, this program is a solid starting point: AI Certification for Marketing Specialists.
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