Saudi-based creator marketing platform Halo AI has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Raed Ventures and Shorooq Partners, with participation from former executives of Snapchat, Microsoft, and Airbnb, along with senior executives from Amazon, it announced during the 1 Billion Followers Summit today.
Founded in 2024 by Vito Strokov, Rami Saad, and Alex Gadalin, who previously worked at AWS, Meta, and Snapchat, Halo AI uses artificial intelligence to streamline collaborations between brands and creators.
The startup has already partnered with prominent regional brands including Kitopi, ToYou, 1/2M, and Syarah. Its platform enables brands to achieve a 97 percent campaign completion rate compared to the industry average of 65 percent, with campaigns going live within 48 hours.
The startup, which launched in Saudi Arabia, plans to use the fresh funds to expand into Dubai and Kuwait, followed by other markets across MENA, Europe, and North America. It also claims to be the first platform in the region to guarantee creator payments within 72 hours.
Vito Strokov, co-founder and CEO of Halo AI, said, “After decades of building ad products at Meta and Snapchat, we recognized that traditional approaches couldn’t solve the fundamental inefficiencies in creator marketing. Our agentic AI operates as an intelligent partner in the collaboration process, making autonomous decisions about creator-brand matches, optimizing campaign performance in real-time, and consistently delivering breakthrough results.”
Tina Daher, Principal at Shorooq, commented, “The creator economy represents one of the most dynamic and transformative opportunities of our time, but it has long struggled with inefficiencies in scaling meaningful brand-creator collaborations. Halo AI’s pioneering technology is a game-changer, bringing unmatched precision, scalability, and efficiency to this space.”
Wael Nafee, General Partner at Raed Ventures, added, “The creator economy is booming, and brands are seeking authentic connections with their audiences. We’re proud to lead their fundraising round and confident Halo AI will become a definitive platform in this rapidly growing market.”
According to the company, the global creator economy reached $250 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $480 billion by 2027, with 84 percent of brand deals occurring in the small and medium creator segment. Halo AI claims its AI-driven solutions enable scalable creator collaborations while improving quality and reducing costs, with an 85 percent reduction in manual work.
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