Cuttable Raises A$20 Million to Build an AI Ad Platform That Actually Learns

Most ads on the internet are a waste of money. A Melbourne startup has the receipts to prove it, and it just raised A$20 million to fix the problem. On October 22, Cuttable announced a Series A led by Airtree Ventures and relaunched its platform as, in its own words, the AI ad platform that learns.

The pitch is simple. Plenty of tools now use AI to generate ad creative. Almost none remember what worked and what did not. Cuttable wants to own the whole loop: figure out which ad to make next, build it, then feed the results back into the next round.

The Brutal Maths of Online Advertising

Cuttable analysed more than 280,000 ads and US$260 million in Meta spend from 680 ecommerce brands over the past year. On average, it takes a brand around 42 ads to find one that meaningfully moves the business. Just one per cent of ads earned half of all attributed revenue. Nearly half of all ads lost money, and more than a third earned nothing at all. The median ad stopped receiving meaningful spend within about two weeks, and whatever that ad taught the brand usually vanished with it.

The pressure is only getting worse. According to the analysis, brands launch 3.4 times as many ads a day in November as in October ahead of Black Friday, while the cost of a click has climbed 35 per cent over six quarters and click-through rates have fallen 22 per cent.

A Founder Who Has Done This Before

Cuttable's chief executive and co-founder is Sam Kroonenburg, a name that carries weight in Australian tech. Kroonenburg founded A Cloud Guru, the online cloud training company, and sold it in 2021 for more than US$2 billion.

His argument about advertising is blunt. "Everyone has taught AI to make ads. Almost nobody has taught the ads to learn," he said in the announcement. "Every ad a brand runs tells it something about its customers, but most teams switch it off and start the next one from scratch. We hold onto what each ad learned and put it straight into the next."

Airtree Ventures, which led the round, has history with Kroonenburg too: the firm also backed A Cloud Guru. Airtree partner James Cameron said Cuttable's growth since the seed round had been much faster than the firm's already high expectations.

Square Peg, which led the seed round, returned for the Series A, alongside Rampersand, Glitch Capital and Brand Fund by Previously Unavailable, the venture studio behind martech companies Ideally and Tracksuit, which has supported Cuttable since the seed stage.

How the Platform Actually Works

Cuttable describes the relaunch as filling in the two halves of the job it previously did not cover. Until now, the company built the ads. The new platform adds the steps on either side: working out what to make, and learning from what each ad earned.

It works in three steps. First, predict what comes next: the AI reads results across a brand's channels and works out which ads to make, or builds from the marketer's own idea. Second, build at volume: every ad is cut from the brand's own photos and footage, in every format, ready to edit and approve. Third, optimise automatically: ads publish straight to Meta or TikTok, and every result feeds back into the next round.

The integrations matter here. The platform draws performance data from Meta and TikTok, catalogue and stock data from Shopify, and information from tools such as Klaviyo, ProfitPeak, Triple Whale, North Beam and Motion. For a brand on Shopify, a product about to sell out gets a different ad to one the business needs to move.

One detail that may matter to creative teams: the platform starts from creative designed by real people, using the brand's own shoots, photography and assets. The AI does the heavy lifting and the data steers it, but every ad stays layered and editable, so the brand's team keeps its judgement and final approval.

Why the Timing Matters

The launch lands five weeks before Black Friday on November 27, the busiest stretch of the year for ecommerce advertising. That is no accident: ad costs spike, competition intensifies, and the brands that iterate fastest on creative tend to win.

Cuttable says it now works with more than 440 ecommerce brands across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe, including lululemon, Cotton On, July, Kathmandu and Conserving Beauty. The company claims brands average a 4.4 times return on ad spend after moving to the platform, with campaigns going live in a day instead of two to three weeks. Those are company figures, so treat them as a marketing claim rather than an independent result.

A Different Answer to the AI Ad Question

The broader story here is about what AI is actually for in marketing. The first wave of tools answered the question "how do I make more ads?" Cuttable is betting the more valuable question is "how do I stop wasting the ads I already made?" Its data suggests the waste is enormous: 42 attempts per winner, half the ads losing money, learnings discarded every two weeks. The A$20 million bet is that brands will pay for memory, not just creation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cuttable?

Cuttable is a Melbourne founded AI ad platform used by more than 440 ecommerce brands across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe. It turns a brand's existing photography, video and business data into on-brand ads for Meta and TikTok, then reads the results back so the next batch starts from what worked.

How is Cuttable different from other AI advertising tools?

Most AI ad tools generate creative from a text prompt. Cuttable claims to own the full loop: predicting which ads to make next from the brand's own performance data, building them in every format from the brand's own assets, publishing to Meta or TikTok, and feeding results back into the next round. The platform starts from creative designed by real people, and every ad stays layered and editable so the brand retains final approval.

How much did Cuttable raise and who led the round?

Cuttable raised A$20 million in a Series A announced on October 22, 2026, led by Airtree Ventures. Square Peg, which led the seed round, returned for the Series A alongside existing investors Rampersand, Glitch Capital and Brand Fund by Previously Unavailable. The funding will be used to grow teams in Melbourne, New York and San Francisco and to build out the platform.