Creators have mastered attention. What most of them have not built is a business that runs without them on camera. London startup Affinity Labs wants to fix that by co-founding software companies with creators, and it just raised $2 million to scale the idea.

The pre-seed round was led by Fuel Ventures, with Antler co-investing, Tech.eu reported. Angel investors from Google DeepMind, Meta and Playfair VC joined, along with creator Marcello Ascani and Kyra CEO Devran Amaratunga Karaca. Affinity Labs also secured a £497,787 grant from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Creators as Co-Founders

The model is simple to explain and hard to execute. Every product Affinity Labs launches is co-founded with a creator who brings an existing, engaged audience. Affinity Labs supplies the technology, product and operations needed to turn that audience into a paying software brand.

"Creators are the most underleveraged founders in the world," CEO Edoardo Ricci said. "Affinity Labs exists to be that infrastructure, we co-found every product with a leading creator."

Ricci runs the company alongside COO Ahmed Eltom and CTO Sunny Panchal.

AI Does the Heavy Lifting

What makes the approach scalable is a proprietary AI-powered development system that automates stages of the product lifecycle, from identifying software ideas and matching them with creator partners to building, operating and growing the products. That automation is what lets a small team run a portfolio rather than a single app.

Early Traction

Affinity Labs has launched four creator-led brands so far. Interior Design Clinic, built with Olivia Bowen, reached No. 34 in the App Store's Lifestyle category. Archives, built with Basel Ghazoghli, has more than 75,000 users and ranks among the top 200 Education apps. According to the company, portfolio revenue has averaged 100% month-over-month growth over the past three months, meaning it has roughly doubled each month.

Why It Matters

The creator economy has largely monetized through brand deals, merch and consumer products like beverages and cosmetics. Software is a different animal: higher margins, recurring revenue and products that can grow even when the creator takes a break. If AI lowers the cost of building apps far enough, a creator's audience may become the most valuable distribution channel a new software company can have.

What's Next

Affinity Labs will use the funding to expand its portfolio, support existing products and grow its product, growth and engineering teams. Part of the capital, including the Innovate UK grant, will go toward its AI product development technology.

The company plans to launch its first products with U.S. creators in late 2026 and has set an ambitious target of more than 200 creator-led software brands by 2030. For American influencers wondering what comes after the sponsorship era, that could make Affinity Labs a name worth knowing.

Source

Tech.eu — "Affinity Labs raises $2M to build AI-powered software brands with creators"