Pomegra
Melbourne ad-tech startup Cuttable raised a $20M Series A led by Airtree at a US$100M valuation to expand its AI platform for Meta and TikTok ads.
Key Takeaways
- Cuttable raised a $20M Series A led by Airtree Ventures, valuing the company at US$100M (about A$142M).
- Square Peg, Rampersand and Glitch Capital also took part; total funding now stands near $30M.
- The platform serves about 450 brands and says it has originated US$370M in paid ad spend.
Lead
Cuttable, the Melbourne-founded ad-tech company co-founded by A Cloud Guru creator Sam Kroonenburg, has closed a $20M Series A round, announced on 22 October 2026. Airtree Ventures led the round. Square Peg, which led Cuttable's seed, returned alongside existing backers Rampersand and Glitch Capital. The deal values the company at US$100M, or roughly A$142M, according to local startup press.
The money funds a relaunch of the platform, which turns a brand's existing product photos and videos into ads for Meta and TikTok, then uses performance data to decide which ads to produce next.
What Does Cuttable Actually Do?
Cuttable generates and publishes social ads from a brand's own creative library, and it feeds results back into the next batch. The software reads a brand's Meta account and Shopify orders, builds new ad variants from existing assets, and waits for human approval before anything goes live. It then analyzes performance and recommends what to publish next.
Kroonenburg has been explicit that this is not a pure generative-image tool. "We're absolutely anti-AI slop as a company," he told SmartCompany, positioning the product as a remix engine for real brand material rather than a synthetic-content factory. That choice matters for ecommerce brands wary of off-brand output.
The pitch is speed and iteration. Cuttable says customers average a 4.4x return on ad spend after switching, and that campaigns go live in a day rather than the two to three it takes with manual production.
How Big Is the Business Behind the Round?
Cuttable reports about 450 brands across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe, including lululemon, Cotton On, Kathmandu and July. The company says its platform has originated US$370M in paid advertising spend.
Revenue and annual recurring revenue were not disclosed. That gap deserves attention. A US$100M valuation for a company founded in 2024 implies investors are pricing in growth and the founding team's record, not published financials. Ad spend routed through a platform is also not the same as revenue earned from it, and the share Cuttable keeps is undisclosed.
Why Did Airtree Step In at This Stage?
Airtree's lead reflects a bet that creative production is the last unautomated stage of paid social. Bidding, targeting and budget allocation on Meta and TikTok have been largely handled by the platforms' own algorithms for years. Producing a steady stream of fresh ad variants remains labor-intensive for most brands, and that is where Cuttable inserts itself.
The funding history supports a fast-moving story. The company raised a seed round of $5.5M after launching in 2024, followed by a $4.5M top-up in August 2025. The Series A arrives roughly 14 months after that extension and brings cumulative funding to about $30M. Square Peg's return as a Series A participant signals the seed lead saw enough traction to double down rather than cede the pro-rata.
Kroonenburg's background also does work here. He co-founded A Cloud Guru, which sold in 2021 for more than US$2 billion, and he co-founded Cuttable with Jack White and Ed Ring. Founder pedigree often shortens the diligence cycle in Australian rounds, though it does not substitute for retention data that Cuttable has not published.
What Are the Risks and Competitive Pressures?
The main risk is platform dependence. Cuttable sits on top of Meta and TikTok, and both companies are building their own AI creative tools inside their ad managers. If Meta's native generation improves, third-party creative tools face pressure on pricing and differentiation. Cuttable's counter is its learning loop and brand-specific training, but that advantage depends on data it can only access through the platforms' APIs.
A second risk is concentration in ecommerce, where ad budgets swing with consumer demand. The 4.4x return on ad spend figure is self-reported and covers customers who moved to the platform, which skews toward those who stayed.
What Comes Next for Cuttable?
Cuttable plans to grow teams in Melbourne, New York and San Francisco and to recruit more brands, with the US the main commercial target. Expect the relaunched product's learning features to be the test: whether recommended ads measurably beat what human teams choose, and whether that holds as customers scale spend.
Outlook
Cuttable has moved from a seed-stage tool to a US$100M company in under two years, backed by a lead investor and returning insiders. The valuation rests on a credible founder, 450 brands and a large ad-spend figure, while revenue stays private. The next milestones are US expansion, disclosure of recurring revenue and proof that its performance loop outlasts the ad platforms' own creative tooling.
