Agentio secures $40 million from Forerunner as it scales its creator marketplace beyond YouTube

Views connected sponsored videos connected YouTube person risen 28% year-on-year, and the fig of sponsored videos has grown by 54% year-on-year successful the archetypal fractional of 2025, according to a study from Tubefilter. What’s more, advertisement walk done creator channels has been steadily rising and is adjacent acceptable to outperform accepted media successful immoderate cases.

Buoyed by these signals, Agentio, a startup that connects brands with YouTube creators for sponsored videos, has raised its 3rd backing circular of $40 cardinal successful arsenic galore years. The Series B circular is led by consumer-focused VC Forerunner with information from existing investors Benchmark, Craft Ventures, AlleyCorp, Antler, and Starting Line. This circular brings Agentio’s full fundraising to $56 million, valuing the institution astatine $340 million.

The startup was founded successful 2023 by CEO Arthur Leopold, erstwhile president astatine personage endowment marketplace Cameo, and CTO Jonathan Meyers, a erstwhile Spotify technologist who led the company’s automated contented selling team. Since its past backing circular successful November 2024, Agentio has grown fivefold.

Image Credits: Agentio

The startup said that brands person seen awesome gains successful their campaigns connected Agentio. For example, the institution said that Bombas, a socks and apparel brand, saw 5.3x amended instrumentality connected advertisement walk and a 90% nett caller lawsuit complaint from Agentio campaigns arsenic compared to video advertisement spending connected different platforms. Agentio besides said that brands that typically instrumentality implicit six months to walk their advertisement budgets connected Meta and Google, could bash it successful a fewer months done Agentio’s level with amended returns.

“The situation historically earlier Agentio was for brands to spouse with creators astatine scale. Our content since we founded the institution has been to usage AI to automate the advertisement buying process for brands to get the champion outcomes. As AI contented has started to proliferate successful people’s feeds, we are seeing that brands recognize that this level of spot that creators person with their audiences is unbeatable,” Leopold told TechCrunch implicit a call.

The institution didn’t supply nonstop figures but said that it has present paid tens of millions of dollars to creators. It noted that implicit the people of past year, creators joining Agentio person been capable to much than treble their marque concern net wrong six months. Plus, the clip to the archetypal bid creators get has gone from 45-50 days past twelvemonth to little than a time this year. This is besides a broadside effect of the level scaling — having capable proviso and request to facilitate accelerated matching and higher earnings.

On the merchandise side, Agentio has concentrated connected integrating reasoning models and multimodal understanding. With the former, it has built a run manager that helps marketers trade campaigns utilizing AI, a diagnostic that is present array stakes across all ad platforms.

Image Credits: Agentio

Last year, Agentio shipped an AI-powered diagnostic to lucifer brands with creators that could lucifer their marque information standards. This year, the institution shipped an AI-powered contented reappraisal diagnostic that tin cheque a draught submitted by creators and find if it hits the little and is harmless to upload.

“Previously, brands had to delegate a idiosyncratic to ticker each azygous creator video to marque definite they were pursuing the run brief,” Meyers, who is Agentio’s CTO, said. “Now, our cause checks each these parameters that prevention clip for brands and allows them to rotation retired and standard campaigns rapidly.”

He besides mentioned that due to the fact that of AI and amended profiling of some brands and creators, the institution hasn’t had to constrain itself to a peculiar benignant of creator oregon company. Through their information matching, it has matched brands with creators who mightiness person been traditionally ignored. For instance, a wellness supplement marque would typically enactment with fittingness and wellness creators. However, Agentio could suggest they besides people creators who enactment outdoors. While astir of the brands Agentio serves are consumer-centric, the startup said that it has besides started seeing request from organizations successful the B2B space.

After spending 2 years mostly serving YouTube, the institution is besides beta investigating Meta platforms, mostly focusing connected video formats similar Reels. The institution volition facilitate a transportation betwixt creators and brands and usage Meta concern ads that don’t amusement up connected the main provender to beforehand a merchandise oregon a service.

The institution said that since a batch of creators connected Agentio already person a beingness connected societal networks similar Instagram, it has been capable to standard campaigns much easily. In 2026, it plans to enactment much platforms similar TikTok and Snap.

Eurie Kim, managing spouse astatine Forerunner, said that the VC steadfast had been tracking Agentio for implicit a twelvemonth arsenic the startup served different companies successful its portfolio.

“We’d been tracking Agentio for implicit a year, gathering a narration with Arthur and Jonathan by introducing them to immoderate of our biggest brands, who instantly became customers and champions of the platform. Unlocking aggregate channels was a wide awesome for america that Agentio could beryllium the AI-powered media readying level of the future, starting with the astir invaluable selling plus of the future: creators,” Kim told TechCrunch implicit email.

Agentio said that since past year, it has scaled its squad from 12 employees to 35 employees, and it plans to summation its headcount to beyond 100 successful the adjacent year.