Astute Raises $1.2M Pre-Seed to Bring AI-Powered Creator Marketing to B2B

Astute Raises $1.2M Pre-Seed to Bring AI-Powered Creator Marketing to B2B

Astute has raised $1.2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round and launched its B2B creator platform.

Founded by Vida Stanić, former growth lead at Fluidstack, and Abhishek Manikandan, Astute aims to help B2B companies build relationships with creators across newsletters, podcasts, LinkedIn, X and other emerging media channels.

The funding round includes Flyer One Ventures, Silicon Gardens, Marathon Fund, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and several strategic angel investors.

Building AI-Powered B2B Creator Marketing

Astute is building what it describes as a B2B new media company for a market with more than 20 million independent channels.

The platform is designed to help companies discover relevant creators, manage partnerships and track the impact of creator-led marketing.

The company believes B2B marketing is moving beyond traditional advertising, public relations and search engine optimisation as audiences increasingly rely on independent voices across newsletters, podcasts and social platforms.

Two AI Agents for Creator Partnerships

Astute uses two AI agents to automate different parts of the creator marketing process.

One agent supports creators with partnership tasks such as scheduling, contracts and follow-ups.

The second helps B2B companies track more than one million creator posts each minute, identify relevant mentions, build creator strategies and find opportunities for editorial placements, interviews, podcast appearances, advertising and event partnerships.

The platform also provides reporting around impressions, conversions, brand score and company visibility in AI search engines.

Founder Experience Behind the Product

Vida Stanić founded Astute after experiencing the difficulties of B2B creator outreach firsthand.

During her previous work in growth, Stanić spent evenings searching Substack for creator contact information and contacted hundreds of creators, often receiving only a small number of responses after weeks of outreach.

She later led growth at Fluidstack as the company grew rapidly.

Co-founder Abhishek Manikandan graduated from Oxford and previously worked as a machine learning engineer at The Trade Desk. He also built a B2B engineering audience that generated more than 15 million YouTube views.

Growing B2B Creator Economy

Astute is entering a market where creator marketing is increasingly moving into B2B.

Global influencer marketing spending is projected to reach $40.51 billion in 2026, according to figures cited by Tech Funding News.

Astute believes B2B companies will increasingly use creators as audiences shift toward newsletters, podcasts, LinkedIn, X and other independent media channels.

The company also expects AI agents to increasingly influence how users research and discover products, potentially increasing the importance of creator content in AI-driven recommendations.

Competition in B2B Creator Marketing

Astute enters the market alongside established competitors.

Berlin-based Passionfroot raised $15 million in Series A funding in July 2026, led by Insight Partners, and its AI agent Zest manages creator campaigns from start to finish.

Astute is entering the market with significantly less funding and has not disclosed revenue figures, while Passionfroot already has an established enterprise customer base.

Astute's opportunity will depend on how quickly it can convert its AI-powered approach and founder-market fit into customer adoption.

What Comes Next

The $1.2 million pre-seed round will support Astute as it develops its B2B creator platform and builds its position in the emerging creator economy.

The company's broader vision is to make creator partnerships a scalable distribution channel for B2B companies while using AI to automate discovery, outreach, partnerships and measurement.

Astute now faces the challenge of establishing itself in a market where larger competitors are already well funded and building similar AI-powered creator tools.