Former Google, MNTN Execs Raise $5.5M to Help Brands Build TV Ads With AI 

A year ago, a group of adtech veterans from Google, X, Salesforce, and MNTN set out to answer a question performance marketers have been circling for years: What if streaming TV ads worked like Meta?

Now, their startup Upscale AI has raised $5.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding to help direct-to-consumer (DTC) and ecommerce brands use generative AI to churn out ads that run on streaming TV, while using machine learning to target ads and help brands drive performance. 

“Google, or Meta, makes the majority of their money from driving performance outcomes. If we can take the biggest platform—streaming—and drive performance outcomes, we see a huge Trade Desk-like opportunity to be the leader in the space,” Upscale’s head of business and marketing, Kevin Weatherman, told ADWEEK. 

The seed funding round was led by NVP Capital with participation from M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), Eniac Ventures, SuperAngel.Fund, and Breakpoint Capital. 

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Bringing performance ads to streaming TV

As DTC brands expand beyond their websites to platforms like Amazon and Target, one of the challenges is balancing brand awareness with driving sales.

“We identified that streaming TV is the platform that blends the best of two marketing channels that used to be siloed,” said Herman Yang, Upscale’s CEO, adding that it has the biggest audience today in the U.S.

As of April, Americans spend 36% more time watching TV than on social media, according to Exploding Topics. To that, about 40% of total TV time is spent streaming, according to Nielsen. 

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Generative AI does the heavy lifting

Upscale plugs into a brand’s existing assets, like brand websites, social channels, and Shopify, to ingest creative and commence data, such as top-selling products. It then builds a library of assets, using generative AI to understand the brand’s tone, style guide, and visual identity, automatically spinning TV-quality ads from those assets.  

Once the ad is built, Upscale’s media buying engine uses machine learning to programmatically place the spots across streaming TV.

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Ecommerce brands such as Branch Furniture, baby and toddler product maker Lalo, and performance supplement brand Fatty15 are among those using Upscale’s technology. The startup’s revenue model is based on a media take rate from brands, though it declined to disclose the percentage.

“Because we’re both plugged into brand data and generating the creative ourselves, we can go a level deeper,” said Yang. “We know what a given ad was actually designed to do, [whether it] features an influencer or highlights a specific product. That allows us to dynamically adapt creative in ways I don’t think any of the walled gardens are doing.”