Ex-Ramp engineers raise $20M for platform Melius after scrapping their first product
- ID
- 32535
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 07 Oct 2026, 6:34 AM
- Fetched
- 07 Oct 2026, 7:03 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/06/ex-ramp-engineers-raise-20m-for-platform-melius-after-scrapping-their-first-product/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 07 Oct 2026, 7:03 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_startup_foundersai_agent_usersvibe_coders
What happened
Melius raised a total of $25 million — a $20 million Series A led by CRV plus a $5 million seed led by General Catalyst — after scrapping its first AI performance-marketing product and rebuilding as an "agents lab for creative work." The New York-based startup, founded by ex-Ramp engineers Joowon Kim, Young Kim, and Arnav Ramu, says it hit more than $1 million in annualized revenue within two months of emerging from stealth in July. It competes with Higgsfield, which was valued at $5.4 billion in August and has over $700 million in annualized revenue, plus Krea and Flora AI.
Why it matters
For SaaS founders, the concrete detail is that Melius killed its entire codebase more than six months in and rebuilt around creative generation rather than ad-spend optimization; treat that as a case study, not a template, because the article gives no pricing, API, or model details. For AI agent and creative-tool users, Melius is not yet actionable to adopt from this text alone — wait for product benchmarks or availability before switching. No Malaysia/SEA angle appears in the text, so local builders should read it as a global market signal only.
Discussion angle
Ask whether killing a six-month-old codebase is a rational response to weak product-market fit or a luxury only $25M-funded teams can afford — and what local SaaS founders would need to see before making the same call.