Affinity Labs raises $2M to build AI-powered software brands with creators

London startup Affinity Labs has closed a $2 million pre-seed round to push its creator-led software model further. Fuel Ventures led the deal, Antler joined in, and the company also picked up a £497,787 Innovate UK grant through UK Research and Innovation.

The money brings in some unusual backers for a young software shop: angel investors from Google DeepMind, Meta and Playfair VC, plus creator Marcello Ascani and Devran Amaratunga Karaca, who runs creator economy company Kyra. Affinity Labs was founded by Edoardo Ricci, Ahmed Eltom and Sunny Panchal, and its pitch is simple enough even if the machinery behind it is not. It pairs software products with content creators, then uses those creators’ existing audiences to help launch and scale the brands.

The company says it has already launched four creator-led brands. One, Interior Design Clinic with Olivia Bowen, reached No. 34 in the App Store’s Lifestyle category. Another, Archives with Basel Ghazoghli, has drawn more than 75,000 users and landed in the top 200 in Education. Affinity Labs says revenue across its portfolio has been growing by an average of 100% month on month over the last three months.

The real bet here is the tech layer. Affinity Labs says its proprietary AI system handles stages of the product lifecycle, from spotting software ideas and matching them with creators to building, running and scaling the products. That’s meant to cut the time and effort needed to run several software brands at once. The company plans to use the funding to grow its portfolio, support existing products and add to its product, growth and engineering teams. Part of the cash, including the Innovate UK grant, will go into that AI development work. And the next step is bigger still: first products with US creators are due in late 2026, with a target of more than 200 creator-led software brands by 2030.