Cincinnati startup Flamel.ai announces $2M pre-seed round

Covington, OH (January 16, 2023) — A new artificial intelligence-powered startup that launched in Greater Cincinnati late last year has raised $2 million in fresh financing as it continues to build out its product offering.

Flamel.ai, a Covington-based AI-generated content design studio, announced the pre-seed round Monday. The funding was led by Omaha, Neb.-based Dundee Ventures, with participation from Allos Ventures and Elevate Ventures, both based in Indianapolis; Flywheel Fund, headquartered in Bloomington; and others.

Flamel’s platform aims to make social media marketing easier for businesses of all sizes. In a matter of seconds, Flamel’s platform currently allows users to create a Facebook or Instagram post, and later, radio ads and TikTok videos (the latter, CEO Paul Ehlinger said, is the hardest technical lift).

Unlike existing tools, such as Canva, no templates are needed. Users don’t need an eye for design or advertising. Flamel generates the text and image at the same time, creating an original image using latent diffusion models.

Ehlinger said the funds will allow the company to grow its team and build out its product. This week, Flamel (pronounced Flah-MEL) opened access to its private beta, with more than 100 brands signed up.

The company will continue to expand access on a rolling basis.

“We are thrilled to have the support of such high-quality investors as we begin to launch our platform,” Ehlinger said in a release.

Flamel was featured by Cincy Inno in December. Ehlinger, a Northern Kentucky transplant and former Allos Ventures investor, founded the company in the fall alongside chief technology officer Derek Whitley. Both said they have experienced difficulties maintaining high quality and quantity social media marketing for their businesses. It’s “a time consuming and arduous task,” Flamel said, “while at the same time being table stakes (a minimum requirement) for any brand hoping to create a meaningful online presence.”

For Dundee Ventures, this is at least its second Greater Cincinnati investment. The seed-stage-focused firm, which also has a presence in St. Louis, has funded “Amazon-as-a-service” startup Amify. Dundee in 2021 said it was raising a new $50 million fund to invest in startups in the Midwest.

“We couldn’t be more excited to back Paul and Derek as they bring the power of artificial intelligence to marketing content,” Matt Shandy, principal at Dundee Ventures, said in the release. “Flamel will allow anyone to generate high-quality content at scale.”

Original story can be found here.