AI startup Affinity Labs raises £1.5m led by Fuel Ventures with support from Antler
This article covers Affinity Labs, an AI startup building software for creators, which has raised £1.5m in a pre-seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures with participation from Antler and a grant from Innovate UK. The funding will be used to expand its portfolio of creator-led software brands, grow product, growth and engineering teams, and develop its proprietary AI factory ahead of planned US launches in late 2026.
Affinity Labs, an AI startup building software for creators, has raised £1.5m in a pre-seed funding round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Antler and a grant from Innovate UK. The London-based company says the cash will expand its portfolio of creator-led software brands, grow its product, growth and engineering teams, and fund its proprietary AI factory; it also plans first US launches in late 2026.
Why it matters
The deal highlights a shift in how creator-originated businesses are being developed. Rather than licensing a creator brand to consumer goods, Affinity Labs aims to apply that model to software—pairing creators’ audiences with an AI-driven product engine to accelerate launches. If the approach scales, it could create a repeatable route for creators to move into digital products without building traditional engineering or growth teams in-house.
The round also shows continued public and private backing for AI-led startups in the UK: Innovate UK provided grant funding through its Growth Catalyst: Investor Partnerships programme, signalling state interest in translating research and tech into commercial products.
Inside the product
Affinity Labs builds and co-founds software brands with creators, using an AI-native platform it describes as automating much of the product lifecycle. The company says the system helps identify what to build, which creators to partner with, and then supports growth and operations; each launch is intended to make the platform more efficient for the next product.
To date Affinity Labs has launched four creator-led products. Interior Design Clinic, co-founded with Olivia Bowen, reached number 34 in the App Store’s Lifestyle category. Archives, co-founded with Basel Ghazoghli, has passed 75,000 users and ranks in the top 200 Education apps on the App Store. The company reports portfolio revenue averaged 100% month-on-month growth over the last three months. Upcoming launches include products with Saudi lifestyle creator @yasmeen_alshafai and New York travel creator @isaaclikes_.
### Who's backing the round
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Fuel Ventures with participation from Antler and a grant provided by Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation) through its Growth Catalyst: Investor Partnerships programme. The announcement also lists angel investors from Google DeepMind, Meta and Playfair VC, as well as creator Marcello Ascani and Devran Amaratunga Karaca, CEO of creator-economy company Kyra.
A significant share of the investment is earmarked for Affinity Labs’ proprietary AI factory; the company gives a specific Innovate UK grant figure of £497,787. The funding will also be used to expand launches, double down on the fastest-growing products and scale the product, growth and engineering teams. Affinity Labs has signalled a target of more than 200 brands by 2030 and plans its first US creator launches in late 2026.
In the announcement, Piers Lawford, Senior Associate at Fuel Ventures, said:
The playbook for building consumer software companies is changing, the next generation will solve for distribution from day one, and that is exactly what Affinity Labs has done with their creator partners, who already own the world's attention. They pair that distribution with serious commercial and AI engineering pedigree, and the early traction across their first four brands shows the model working. This is exactly the kind of ambitious, category-defining team we back, and we believe Affinity Labs can lead this market globally.
In the announcement, Hannah Leach, Partner at Antler, said:
Edo, Ahmed and Sunny represent the ideal founding team to execute on this vision, blending deep technical execution with exceptional commercial drive. By pairing top-tier creator distribution with a scalable group-level AI engine, Affinity Labs is creating a brand-new playbook for software creation. We backed them from inception because we saw their potential to reshape how software brands are launched and scaled, and we are delighted to continue supporting them as they expand globally.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Edoardo Ricci, Co-founder & CEO at Affinity Labs, said:
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. This funding lets us scale what we have proven with our first brands and takes us one step closer to our long-term ambition of building the world's largest house of creator-led software brands.
Ricci frames the company’s advantage as the combination of creator distribution and an AI-driven product engine; the team will use the round to accelerate development and expand creator partnerships.
The bigger picture
Affinity Labs is pitching into a large creator-economy opportunity: Goldman Sachs Research has projected the creator economy could approach $500bn by 2027. Consumer brands launched by creators—such as Skims and Rhode—provide templates for how audience trust can translate into commerce, but software remains a comparatively undeveloped avenue for creator monetisation. Affinity Labs’ stated ambition to build hundreds of creator-led software brands seeks to address that gap.
The involvement of Innovate UK and specialised angel investors underlines a trend in the UK of public and private capital supporting AI-enabled productisation of creative talent. As the startup scales its AI tooling and prepares US launches, its progress will be one to watch for anyone tracking how creators monetise audiences beyond sponsorship and merchandise.
The deal also contributes to a broader UK and European narrative: public innovation funding, niche investor syndicates and creator-driven distribution models are increasingly intersecting with AI engineering teams to create new company formation routes. How well that model translates outside English-speaking markets and into sustainable businesses will shape whether this approach becomes a template for other startups in the region.
They've invested in Affinity Labs
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