Luupli raises £444K pre-seed to power collaborative publishing and faster cross-border payouts
This article covers Luupli, a UK media startup, which has raised £444,000 in a pre-seed funding round from angel investors, friends and family and has opened a separate institutional seed round as it seeks to build infrastructure for the creator economy. It aims to support creators, particularly in underserved and emerging markets, by developing collaborative content tools, payments and IP controls to improve monetisation and cross-border payouts.
Luupli, a UK media startup, has raised £444,000 ($600,000) in a pre-seed funding round from angel investors, friends and family and has opened a separate institutional seed round as it seeks to build infrastructure for the creator economy. The company reports 42,000 lifetime beta installs and significant non-dilutive cloud and software credits, positioning it to expand into underserved markets where creator monetisation remains difficult.
Why it matters
The creator economy is growing quickly and attracting attention from platforms and investors alike. Luupli’s pitch is not just another social app: it aims to combine collaborative content tools, payments and creator-first IP controls to let communities co-create and share revenue. If the product delivers on those infrastructure promises, it could address persistent frictions around cross-border payouts and royalty management that limit creators in emerging markets.
Inside the product
Luupli’s core mechanic is a feature called Luups, which lets creators co-create and publish collaborative content natively on the platform. The company highlights an early use case in Accra, Ghana, where independent creators are producing serialized micro-drama that Luupli says would be harder to produce on mainstream social networks.
The app also includes a localisation-focused payments stack designed to reduce foreign exchange friction and speed payouts for creators in emerging markets. Luupli is developing an AI creation tool and music generator intended to enable royalty-free production with clearer IP ownership for creators.
Early traction metrics are modest but notable for a product still in beta: 42,000 lifetime installs, a 5.0 rating on Apple’s App Store and a 4.6 rating on Google Play, achieved without paid marketing or celebrity endorsements.
Who are the investors?
Luupli’s initial round comprises £444,000 raised from angel investors, friends and family. The company has not named institutional backers for the seed round it is now opening.
Alongside cash, Luupli lists more than £740,000 ($1m) in aggregated in-kind support from startup programmes and cloud partners, including Nvidia Inception, Google for Startups, Microsoft for Startups, GitHub, Mixpanel’s startup programme and Founderpass. That mix of angel capital and programme credits is common for early-stage media and creator-focused startups, where cloud intensive features and experimentation can be costly.
The rationale behind the early backing appears to be product-led traction and a founder team with operational and product experience. Luupli says the angel round was raised before wide traction, signalling investor belief at an early stage rather than priced institutional interest.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Degraft Osei Kwame Jnr, Co-Founder & CEO at Luupli, said:
We are building infrastructure for the creator economy so collaboration, ownership and monetisation can scale globally and sustainably.
In the announcement, Degraft Osei Kwame Jnr, Co-Founder & CEO at Luupli, said:
The fact that angels, friends and family invested in Luupli before we had traction speaks volumes about the belief in our mission. We’re building a platform where collaboration—not competition—drives discovery and income. We invite investors to help us democratize the creator economy for the £355.3bn ($480bn) market ahead.
The founders also bring sector and operational experience: Degraft, who leads the company, has a background in logistics, procurement and hospitality and has run sustainability programmes; Sid Pednekar, chief people officer, has experience in organisational effectiveness at TikTok; and Cletus Osei‑Kwame, chief product officer, is a product strategist who has built and scaled digital platforms. The trio positions itself as combining product engineering, talent management and operational discipline.
The bigger picture
Luupli’s move reflects ongoing interest in tools that help creators monetise beyond advertising and algorithmic distribution. The company’s emphasis on co-creation, payments and IP control aligns with a broader trend among startups seeking to provide infrastructure rather than simply audience capture.
For the UK ecosystem, the story highlights how early-stage media startups are blending angel capital with substantial in-kind support from cloud partners to stretch runway. Success will depend on whether Luupli can convert beta traction into repeat engagement, reliable monetisation flows and scalable payments in multiple jurisdictions—a common challenge for creator-focused businesses across Europe.
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