A buzzy US startup using artificial intelligence (AI) to create social media ads has acquired a martech business founded by two Australians with deep experience at Atlassian, Canva, and Facebook.
Creatify, which allows brands to generate social media videos with the help of 700 AI avatars, has scooped up Gala Labs, the developers of agentic marketing assistant Peggy.
Related Article Block Placeholder
Article ID: 321146
Founded by Tanmay Jain and Jake Bloom in 2022, Gala Labs’ digital tool allows marketers to analyse Facebook ad performance and research competitors.
Instead of using complex dashboards, Peggy was built on top of Slack, allowing users to ask questions and receive answers in a plain English chat format.
Creatify leaders say the Gala Labs acquisition will help its users not just create content, but discover what is working best and develop marketing strategies using audience data.
Smarter business news. Straight to your inbox.
For startup founders, small businesses and leaders. Build sharper instincts and better strategy by learning from Australia’s smartest business minds. Sign up for free.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Peggy’s system will deliver “smart, data-driven creative decisions that flow seamlessly into execution,” said Ben Pashman, Creatify’s head of business development.
The deal’s dollar value was not disclosed.
But news of the acquisition comes two months after Creatify unveiled a $23.6 million (US$15.5 million) Series A round, led by Kindred Ventures and WndrCo — the investment vehicle of DreamWorks co-founder and Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg.
A demonstration of ads generated through Creatify. Source: Supplied
The acquisition is the latest addition to a high-profile resume for both Gala Labs founders.
Before developing the Peggy agent, Jain held product management roles across Atlassian, Amazon, and Canva, where he helped launch its video product.
Bloom served as a developer at Atlassian and decamped to California to build new products at Facebook.
He then worked as head of engineering at diabetes care platform Steady Health — which was acquired by multibillion-dollar healthcare business Carbon Health.
Speaking to SmartCompany from his new home base in London, Jain said he and Bloom were inspired by the changing landscape of digital marketing.
Related Article Block Placeholder
Article ID: 299281
After an iOS14 update shook up traditional targeting strategies, “your main lever to optimise your returns on your marketing were very much around your ability to test large waves of content,” said Jain.
“That seemed to me very similar to a number of things that I did as a product growth person at Canva and Amazon.”
After failing to find a suitable analytics tool on the market, Jain and Bloom initially built the Peggy agent for themselves.
“A big focus for us was using Peggy should feel like interacting with one of your best employees,” said Jain.
“Omnipresent, with a deep understanding of how your ads were performing on Meta, and what sort of angles your competitors might be potentially testing on the Facebook ad library.”
A snapshot of Peggy’s chat output, as demonstrated by Gala Labs. Source: Supplied
They eventually rolled it out to major clients, including Linktree and D2C mattress company Leesa.
Creatify is the right home for Gala Labs and the Peggy technology, as the startup creates an all-in-one AI experience, Jain continued.
Bringing that kind of ad analysis to Creatify will create a “smart loop” helping brands “iterate through in a much, much faster cadence”.
Both Jain and Bloom will assist Creatify through the transition before pursuing new challenges.
