Adtech and martech startups are raising millions of dollars from venture capital firms on the back of the AI wave.
Many of these companies are developing under-the-hood tech, such as agentic AI tools designed to streamline marketers’ workflows and boost productivity. Others are working on creative platforms that let marketers create ads and even virtual influencers using generative AI. Some are working in the new area of “generative engine optimization” (GEO), helping brands optimize their visibility in AI search results.
“We want to disrupt the traditional ad agency,” Bolbi Liu, founder of AI adtech startup AdsGency, told Business Insider. In October, AdsGency announced it raised a $12 million seed round, led by XYZ Venture Capital.
Advertising agency giants are aware that they must embrace AI or risk being left behind. Large agency groups, from UK-based WPP to French holding company Publicis and US ad giant Omnicom, have pledged to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in AI over the next few years. Publicis is hunting for AI companies to acquire.
There’s big money to be made. A Boston Consulting Group survey of 200 senior marketers, conducted this year, found that 71% of chief marketing officers plan to invest at least $10 million annually in generative AI over the next three years, up from 57% of respondents in the 2024 edition of the study.
Business Insider has interviewed the founders of startups building tools to disrupt advertising and marketing with AI. These founders shared the pitch decks they used to impress investors and raise venture capital funding.
Read 14 pitch decks advertising and marketing AI startups used to raise millions:
ShopMy founders Harry Rein, Tiffany Lopinsky, and Chris Tinsley.
Courtesy of ShopMy
AI and social commerce are fueling millions of dollars in investments in the creator economy.
Startups from generative AI video tools to live shopping platforms closed massive deals in 2025.
Here are 13 creator economy startups that, combined, raised about $2 billion this year.
The creator economy is riding an AI-fueled high.
In 2025, eight startups building artificial intelligence tools to automate the content creation process each announced at least $50 million in funding — a combined $1.2 billion — from venture capital and private equity investors.
Synthesia, a generative AI video startup based in London, confirmed its $180 million funding round in January, while ElevenLabs, a text-to-voice startup, closed a $180 million Series C round. Other AI startups, like Moonvalley, Krea, and Higgsfield, also announced sizable investments this year.
While AI is dominating investor interest, the topic still carries friction within the creator economy. Some of these AI startups, which offer features such as human-like avatars, run the risk of posing a threat to content creators themselves. Influencer marketing, still the primary financial engine of the creator economy, has yet to reach a consensus on how and when AI should be utilized.
Top creators aren’t sitting by idly for AI to take over. YouTuber MrBeast and his team initially sought to raise $200 million earlier this year at a $5 billion valuation, according to investor materials viewed by Business Insider. The MrBeast team declined to comment on the fundraise.
It’s not just AI that’s attracting giant checks from VCs.
Social commerce startups building live shopping and affiliate marketing platforms are also raking in funding. Whatnot, a platform where people sell on stream in categories like fashion and collectibles, such as Pokémon Cards or Labubus, raised a total of $490 million across two later-stage rounds this year. The social shopping platform was most recently valued at $11.5 billion.
Meanwhile, ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platform, continues to gain market share in the influencer marketing space. The startup raised a total of $147.5 million in funding this year.
US social commerce sales are expected to cross $100 billion next year, according to estimates from EMARKETER, Business Insider’s sister company. The category is gaining steam in the US, fueled in part by the growth of TikTok Shop.
Whatnot cofounders Logan Head and Grant LaFontaine.
Whatnot
This year’s fundraising blitz for creator AI and social commerce startups follows similar buzz for the categories in 2024 when investors threw money at startups like Captions, Flip, and OpusClip. Several startups in those business areas, including ElevenLabs and ShopMy, raised money two years in a row.
Business Insider analyzed 2025 fundraising data from PitchBook and other industry sources to highlight the biggest creator industry investment rounds from the year. We’re highlighting 13 startups that raised $50 million or more in 2025; combined, their funding crossed $1.9 billion. We focused on companies whose products significantly impact the businesses and content creation processes of creators and their partners.
Here are 13 creator economy startups that raised some of the largest rounds in 2025, in alphabetical order:
Animaj is an animation company that distributes on YouTube and other kid-friendly platforms, and uses generative AI to speed up production time. It announced an $85 million funding roundin June led by HarbourView Equity Partners and Bpifrance Large Venture, with participation from other investors, including JP Morgan and Marquee Ventures.
ElevenLabs is a text-to-voice AI startup that began the year with a $180 million Series C funding round. In September, it announced a $100 million employee tender offer at a valuation of $6.6 billion.
Fixated is a talent-management firm that raised $62.8 million in a two-part round this year, according to the company.
Higgsfield, a generative AI video startup, announced that it had raised a $50 million Series A round in September. The investment, led by GFT Ventures, will help the startup expand its enterprise offerings and accelerate its “global engineering and go-to-market momentum,” per the company.
Krea, an AI creative tool kit for video and image editing, announced in April that it had raised $83 million to date, including its most recent Series B round from investor Bain Capital Ventures and a Series A with investment from Andreessen Horowitz.
Manychat, which automates SMS and social media DM marketing for brands, raised a $140 million growth capital round this year led by private equity firm Summit Partners. The funding will help the social commerce and marketing startup expand its global presence and further build its agentic AI tools.
Moonvalley is building AI video tools for Hollywood and raised an $84 million round led by General Catalyst, which included support from the industry, including talent agency CAA.
Moonvalley, a generative AI video startup working with Hollywood, raised $84 million in 2025.
Courtesy of Moonvalley
PixVerse, an AI video creation platform, announced in September that it raised a $60 million Series B round led by Alibaba with participation from Antler.
ShopMy, an affiliate marketing platform, announced two investment rounds this year. In January, ShopMy disclosed that it raised a $77.5 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Later in October, the startup announced it raised an additional $70 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, bringing the company’s total raised in 2025 to $147.5 million.
Newsletter platform Substack raised a $100 million Series C round led by BOND and The Chernin Group. The platform was valued at $1.1 billion, minting the startup as a unicorn.
The generative AI music platform Suno announced in November a $250 million Series C round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Nvidia’s NVentures and Lightspeed, among other investors.
Synthesia, a generative AI platform that can turn text into videos and create AI avatars and voiceovers, confirmed in January that it had raised a $180 million round led by NEA, with participation from World Innovation Lab and Atlassian Ventures, among other investors. The company declined to comment on an October Forbes report that it had raised an additional $200 million.
Whatnot, a social shopping platform that’s gained momentum as the US market warms to live shopping, raised a total of $490 million from investors this year. The company announced a $265 million Series E round in January and, by October, had closed another $225 million Series F round at a valuation of $11.5 billion — doubling its valuation from January.
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet plans to more than double its store count in the coming years.
Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet was a top destination for last-minute holiday shoppers this year.
The retailer saw its foot traffic on the Saturday before Christmas rise by nearly 21%.
Ollie’s has spent 2025 opening dozens of new stores and has more in the pipeline.
One of the top last-minute shopping destinations this holiday season wasn’t Walmart or Target but a discount retailer that describes itself as “semi-lovely” and its regulars as an “army.”
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet notched the biggest foot-traffic increase on Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas, according to location data firm Placer.ai. Ollie’s saw footfall at its stores increase nearly 21% over the same day in 2024, Placer found.
Other retailers that saw big Super Saturday foot traffic were Bath & Body Works at 11%, Ross at 9%, and Dollar General at 8%, Placer.ai found.
The findings show that last-minute shoppers gravitated to retailers that market themselves as offering good value for money, particularly ones focused on low prices, such as dollar stores, as well as off-price retailers like Ollie’s, which sources excess or closeout inventory from manufacturers or other retailers to keep prices low.
“Value-based offerings like off-price retailers continue to be a favorite for shoppers looking for last-minute items,” Elizabeth LaFontaine, Director of Research at Placer.ai, said of the data.
With 645 stores, Pennsylvania-based Ollie’s isn’t the biggest name on Placer.ai’s list. But it is one of the fastest-growing names in retail.
Ollie’s opened 86 new stores in 2025, all of which were open in time for the holiday shopping season, CEO Eric van der Valk said on a company earnings call earlier this month. Some of those were locations that previously housed Big Lots stores before that chain filed for bankruptcy and shed many of its stores.
Ollie’s plans to grow its store count by at least 10% each year until it hits 1,300 stores, more than double its current footprint, van der Valk said on the earnings call.
Net sales for the retailer’s third quarter, which ended on November 1, rose almost 19%.
Ollie’s website describes its stores as “no frills, semi-lovely” stores that use a “treasure-hunt” strategy to attract customers.
That approach was on display during a visit to one Ollie’s store in Wisconsin earlier this year. Business Insider observed handwritten signs promoting deals as well as merchandise in shipping boxes on the sales floor — a strategy that other retailers, such as Aldi, use as a cost-saving measure instead of fully unpacking items onto shelves.
The chain stocks a range of goods, from toothpaste and breakfast cereal to toaster ovens.
The chain’s free loyalty program, “Ollie’s Army,” provides discounts as well as access to members-only “Ollie’s Army Night” shopping events. The retailer held one such event during the holiday shopping season that included a discount of at least 15% on everything in the store.
“Customers are looking for value, manufacturers need ways to manage their supply chain, and the retail sector is consolidating,” CEO van der Valk said on this month’s earnings call. “Ollie’s benefits from these powerful secular trends.”
Do you have a story to share about Ollie’s Bargain Outlet or another retailer? Contact Alex Bitter at abitter@businessinsider.com.
Google is quietly rolling out a feature that lets some users change their Gmail addresses.
The update is detailed on Google’s Hindi support page.
Users can change their Gmail address up to three times without losing their data.
It looks like you may soon be able to change that old email address you made in high school.
Google account users have long been unable to change their email addresses without creating a whole new account, but Google seems to be quietly rolling out an option to update them. That’s according to a support page published by the company, which outlines a new process to change the email or username used to identify your account.
The update on Google’s account help page says certain account holders can now change their @gmail.com address without losing access to their data or services. The feature was first reported in the Google Pixel Hub Telegram group in a message that said the update is being gradually rolled out to users. As of Friday morning, the modified instructions were available on the Hindi version of Google’s support page.
The support page suggests this option is currently only available in some regions, including Hindi-speaking areas.
According to a translated version of the Hindi support page, the new email must end in @gmail.com, and it can only be changed up to three times. Once the address has been changed, it’s irreversible.
To make the change, you would visit your Google Account page, click “Personal Info,” and go to the “Email” section, according to the Telegram message.
It’s unclear when it will roll out more widely, and Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. As of Friday morning, the English support page said usernames ending in @gmail.com usually can’t be changed.
Once the change is made, the Hindi page said, your old Gmail address will be used as an alias to receive emails. You can reuse your old Google account email address at any time, but you can’t create a new Gmail address for the next 12 months.
You can sign in to Google services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Play, or Drive with your old or new email address.
Anduril employees are Slack messaging “all day, every day, all the time,” COO Matt Grimm said.
John Keeble/Getty Images
Anduril COO Matt Grimm said that he sorts for the most recent unread Slack messages.
The strategy isn’t foolproof, Grimm said, but “it works enough to get the pulse of what’s going on.”
He said he can’t read every Slack message, as Anduril has 7,000 employees across 14 time zones.
How to weed through Slack’s never-ending parade of pings? Anduril’s COO has some advice.
Matt Grimm has overseen the defense technology company since its starting days. He cofounded Anduril with Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, and Joseph Chen. Before Anduril, Grimm worked at Palantir.
In a walkaround interview with Sourcery, Grimm said that he often popped into Slack channels where employees didn’t expect to see him.
“They will see me chirp in on some random thread in some random channel,” Grimm said. “People will be like, ‘How the hell did you see this?'”
Grimm said he sorts his Slack messages by both unread and most recent. When he’s between meetings, walking between buildings, or has five minutes to spare, he said he’ll read the messages in that order.
The strategy isn’t “foolproof,” he said, and with about 7,000 employees at Anduril, he said he can’t read every message. This method is for reading through channels. If something really needs his attention, Grimm said he trusts that he’ll receive a direct message.
“It works enough to get the pulse of what’s going on,” he said.
Other corporate leaders have their own Slack strategy. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sends long-form Slack essays that fuel debate.
“You can go back and read all the past ones, and it tells the history of Anthropic,” said Sholto Douglas, a Member of the Technical Staff at the AI firm.
Others intentionally set a distance. Canva CEO Melanie Perkins doesn’t have Slack on her phone, so she can “actually tune out” when she shuts her laptop. If there’s an emergency, someone will call her, she said.
Slack cofounder Cal Henderson told Business Insider that his three biggest tips for using the workplace communications app are ranking channels, setting strict response hours, and experimenting with video clips to replace meetings.
As 2025 comes to a close, Slack users can also receive their own form of Wrapped by checking who sent the most messages in their workspace.
In the Sourcery interview, Grimm acknowledged that it was impossible to read every single Slack message sent across Anduril’s channels.
“We’re in like 14 time zones,” Grimm said. “They’re just all day, every day, all the time.”
Steve Carroll and his family are chasing Mosaic status and 350,000 points as part of JetBlue’s “25 for 25” flight challenge.
Courtesy of Steve Carroll
Steve Carroll and his son visited 25 unique JetBlue cities to lock Mosaic status for 25 years.
He spent about $7,000 on the adventure and finished it in Fort Myers on December 8.
He blazed creative routes, flying to Nantucket for breakfast, DC for lunch, and Orlando for dinner.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Steve Carroll, a New York-based nurse practitioner who chased JetBlue’s “25 for 25” challenge to earn 350,000 points and Mosaic status for 25 years by flying to 25 unique cities by December 31. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Breakfast in Massachusetts, lunch in DC, dinner in Orlando, and back home by midnight. That was one of the epic days that my 10-year-old son and I flew for JetBlue Airways’ “25 for 25” challenge.
It was thrilling to plan and execute these trips, with layovers so tight we sometimes barely had time for a bathroom break. Finding a flourishing community chasing this challenge was one of the best parts.
The promotion, created for JetBlue’s 25th anniversary, is simple: Fly to 25 unique cities in the airline’s network between June 25 and December 31, and you’ll earn Mosaic 1 status for 25 years plus a lump sum of 350,000 points.
There are some rules: You must connect your loyalty number to each flight; basic fares don’t qualify; flights must be operated by JetBlue (not its partners, such as Cape Air); and only arrival airports count.
Still, I realized it could be an unforgettable experience for my son Jackson and I. He already loves JetBlue (I think the TV screens do it for him), and his 100th and 200th flights ever were on JetBlue.
Plus, Mosaic status until age 35 means he and his friends could enjoy the perks — like free bags, complimentary drinks, dedicated security and check-in, early boarding, and seat upgrades — on future spring break or summer trips in college. (Editor’s note: You must be a Mosaic 3 member or higher to receive complimentary Mint upgrades and a Mosaic 4 for lounge access when JetBlue’s open in late 2025.)
The math also checked out. Completing the challenge earned each of us a reward of 350,000 points, at least $3,500 in travel apiece, plus the additional points earned from our flights.
Combining the cash I paid plus the 100,000 JetBlue points I already had, the whole challenge cost around $7,000, but I was essentially reimbursed in points.
Jackson and Steve will visit their 25th destination on Thanksgiving.
Courtesy of Steve Carroll
I started the challenge already holding Mosaic, but securing long-term status now gives me more freedom to put everyday spending on other cards and build points with brands like Hyatt via Chase.
JetBlue’s new partnership with United Airlines also means I can tap into reciprocal benefits on United — an attractive perk since we live close to the airline’s Newark, New Jersey, base.
To maximize our time, we mostly flew on weekends and sometimes took up to five flights across a Saturday or Sunday. We took closer to 35 flights overall because of the overlap at some departure and connecting airports.
Our flights stretched west to Los Angeles, north to Portland, Maine, and south to Fort Lauderdale. We’ve also checked off airports like Cleveland, Norfolk, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Manchester in New Hampshire, Raleigh in North Carolina, and Buffalo in New York.
Our most ambitious weekend was over Veterans Day in November, when we planned 18 flights and 11 new cities. The government shutdown, however, canceled five of them, but we managed to rebook and still add several new destinations.
Aside from those cancellations and a huge delay that forced us to postpone a trip, the challenge has been remarkably smooth. And we’ve met a great community of people also clamoring for 25 years of Mosaic status.
We recently flew in Mint business class to Los Angeles as our 23rd city and completed the challenge on December 8 in Fort Myers, with about three weeks to spare.
Piecing together itineraries is like a game of Tetris
I already had a few JetBlue trips on my calendar to start, but then I created a master list of airports in the Northeast along with their city pairs. I live just north of New York City.
The goal was to create snaking routes that efficiently hopscotch across the US; we’re trying to avoid international flying. I’d sit up in bed when I couldn’t sleep and just map out my options.
Over time, I’ve figured out a few tricks: book one-ways, sit near the front, and choose the first and last flights of the day. Most fares averaged about $100 per person.
The flight home to LaGuardia was Jackson’s 200th flight.
Courtesy of Steve Carroll
I have lounge access that made longer layovers easier, though I occasionally booked “illegal” itineraries with very tight connections. Connecting airports, regardless of the time spent there, count as unique destinations.
But before I risked it, I checked the historical arrival times. One trip I planned included a 12-minute layover at New York-JFK, but we still made it because our flight from Hyannis, Massachusetts, landed half an hour early, as expected.
Weather-tracking helped, too. I adjusted my flight if I anticipated a disruption, which my status allows me to do for free. An unofficial tool called “25for25.ai” was also helpful; you can plug in your starting point and block destinations you’ve already hit.
Living in the New York area made the challenge far more doable. Airports, like White Plains, LaGuardia, Newark, New York-JFK, and Islip on Long Island, are all considered separate, unique cities.
New York-JFK and Newark are especially useful since they offer so many connections. There’s also Hartford, Connecticut, and Philadelphia nearby. That’s seven of the 25 we just drove to.
Smaller airports like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts require more creativity because they offer limited frequencies.
One of our biggest travel days began in White Plains, New York, where we flew to Nantucket and had breakfast in town. We then headed to DC for lunch at the airport, and finally to Orlando for dinner, also at the airport.
My partner joined us on that trip, making it a family day in the skies. We crossed paths with about 15 other challengers on our legs to DC.
There is camaraderie in the challenge
What was extremely helpful was the dedicated Mosaic Facebook group, where other participants in the challenge shared routes and road warrior stories. It’s not hosted by JetBlue.
The challenge fostered a vibrant and supportive community. (Editor’s note: JetBlue told Business Insider that over 500 people have completed the promotion so far.)
My son and I sometimes saw other challengers on our flights and ate lunch together in the airport between legs. We helped a family of four explore the town during our layover in Nantucket.
We exchanged numbers with almost every person we met so we can stay in touch. I didn’t expect to find such a large and enthusiastic community, but it was one of the best parts of the challenge.
I have a little tag on my bag that somebody made for me that says ‘JetBlue 25 for 25.’ When people saw it, they were like, ‘Oh, you’re doing the challenge.’
It was nice getting help along the way, and I appreciate being able to help others, too, as we cheered them on to finish by the holidays.
