Affinity Labs, a London-based company founded by Edoardo Ricci (CEO), Ahmed Eltom (COO) and Sunny Panchal (CTO), has closed a $2 million pre-seed funding round to expand its creator-led software brand portfolio and advance its AI-driven product development platform. Fuel Ventures led the investment, joined by Antler and a £497,787 grant from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The round also drew backing from angel investors at Google DeepMind, Meta and Playfair VC, alongside content creator Marcello Ascani and Devran Amaratunga Karaca, CEO of creator economy platform Kyra.
The startup's model mirrors how creators have built consumer brands in beauty, food and beverages—but applies it to software. Affinity Labs partners with creators to co-found digital products, leveraging their audiences and trust to launch and grow software businesses without requiring creators to develop technology infrastructure themselves.
To date, Affinity Labs has launched four creator-led brands. Interior Design Clinic, developed with Olivia Bowen, reached number 34 in the App Store's Lifestyle category. Archives, co-founded with Basel Ghazoghli, has surpassed 75,000 users and ranked among the top 200 apps in the Education category. The company reports that revenue across its portfolio has grown at an average rate of 100 per cent month on month over the past three months.
At the core of Affinity Labs' operations sits a proprietary AI system that automates key stages of product development—from identifying software opportunities and matching creators to building, running and expanding products. The technology aims to cut the time and resources needed to launch and manage multiple software brands simultaneously.
Creators are the most underleveraged founders in the world. They have the audience, the trust and the loyalty but what they have lacked is the infrastructure to turn that into value. Affinity Labs exists to be that infrastructure, we co-found every product with a leading creator and put our AI factory behind it, so each brand launches with the built-in organic distribution that consumer products typically spend years building.
Edoardo Ricci, CEO and co-founder of Affinity Labs
Affinity Labs will deploy the funding to grow its brand portfolio, accelerate existing product performance and expand its product, growth and engineering teams. A portion of the investment, including the Innovate UK grant, will go toward developing its AI-powered product development technology further.
Looking ahead, the company plans to launch its first products with US creators in late 2026, with an ambition to establish more than 200 creator-led software brands by 2030.
Source: Tech.eu
