MAI, a company focused on automating performance marketing with artificial intelligence, has launched its flagship product and announced a $25 million seed funding round. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins, with additional participation from Gaorong Ventures, UpHonest Capital, and other investors. This funding will be used to grow MAI’s product and engineering teams and accelerate the development of its AI agent platform.
The company’s core product is a set of AI agents designed to manage and optimize digital advertising campaigns, particularly Google Ads. These agents work autonomously, allowing small and mid-sized businesses to access the same advanced marketing tools typically reserved for large enterprises. MAI’s agents are already managing millions of dollars in ad spend each month and helping clients increase sales by up to 40 percent.
MAI’s technology addresses a growing challenge in the digital commerce space. As e-commerce continues to grow and distribution channels become more fragmented, direct-to-consumer brands and consumer apps face intense competition. Digital advertising has become the primary method for acquiring customers, but managing campaigns is time-consuming and often confusing. Business owners must either spend hours each week adjusting ads themselves or pay high fees to agencies.
To solve this, MAI’s AI agents integrate with a company’s business data and operate around the clock. They automatically set up, monitor, and adjust ad campaigns based on performance. Budgets, bids, and creative assets are continuously optimized to maximize results. The agents also learn the unique characteristics of each business, tailoring their strategies to specific products, customer segments, and goals. If something goes wrong—like a broken discount code or a product running out of stock—the system detects it immediately and flags the issue before it affects ad performance.
MAI’s platform is built to scale. It can manage thousands of products and creative variations simultaneously, enabling lean teams to handle enterprise-level complexity. Since its soft launch in late 2024, MAI has doubled its customer base and attracted a wide range of users. Brands such as Dreo, DrWoof, Fanka, Flamingo, NutritionFaktory, Patpat, Velotric, and Vivaia are already using MAI’s agents to manage their ad spend and drive revenue.
By automating the most tedious aspects of performance marketing, MAI is enabling small businesses to compete more effectively in a crowded digital landscape. The company’s long-term vision is to democratize access to high-performance marketing tools, making them available to any business regardless of size or budget. With strong investor backing and early traction, MAI is well-positioned to transform the way digital advertising is managed.
KEY QUOTES:
“Digital advertising is one of the biggest growth levers available to businesses, but it’s also one of the hardest to master. We’ve spent our careers building ad platforms and e-commerce engines at companies like Google and Instacart, and saw firsthand how advanced technology helped the largest companies grow. However, those same tools have historically been out of reach for small and mid-sized businesses. That’s why we built MAI. Our agents do the heavy lifting, driving results autonomously, so business owners can focus on building their companies.”
Yuchen Wu, co-founder and CEO of MAI
“With MAI, we’re giving customers an army of AI agents that are solely focused on one thing: improving their bottom line by optimizing digital ads. Our customers get the results of a full-time expert team that drives growth without the overhead, so they can focus on building their business rather than babysitting ads.”
Jian Wang, co-founder and CTO of MAI
“Working with agencies always felt expensive and opaque with lots of fees and little clarity on results. With MAI we can see clearly that the ads just work. The impact to the business is felt almost immediately.”
Mike Bires, CEO NutritionFaktory
“Performance marketing is the lifeblood of modern commerce, yet for too long, the tools that drive scale have only been available to the largest enterprises. Yuchen and Jian bring a rare combination of deep ad platform expertise and firsthand empathy for the challenges growth businesses face. MAI’s approach is bold and refreshingly pragmatic. We’re excited to back Yuchen and Jian as they build this out.”
Josh Coyne, partner, Kleiner Perkins
