Serbian-founded B2B media startup Astute has raised $1.2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round from Flyer One Ventures, Silicon Gardens, Marathon Fund, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, alongside strategic angel investors, as Vestbee was informed.
- Founded by Vida Stanić and Abhishek, Astute aims to build infrastructure for the growing new media ecosystem, where audiences are increasingly turning to independent creators across newsletters, podcasts, LinkedIn, and X.
- The company's platform uses two AI agents to automate creator partnerships. One supports creators by handling partnership-related administration, while the other works as a new media manager for B2B companies.
- Astute's company-side AI agent monitors more than one million creator posts per minute, identifies relevant conversations around companies and competitors, develops creator strategies, and helps secure partnerships such as editorial placements, podcast appearances, interviews, advertising opportunities, and event collaborations.
- The platform also tracks campaign performance, including impressions, conversions, brand score, and visibility in AI search engines.
Details of the deal
- The funding will be used to launch and scale Astute’s AI-powered platform, helping B2B companies build media strategies, connect with creators, secure partnerships, and measure results.
- With its new platform, Astute is betting that as traditional B2B marketing channels become increasingly crowded, companies will need to build stronger distribution through independent creators and their existing audiences.
“There is no better team to be building this company. Vida has been the marketer who needed this and could not buy it. Abhishek has been the creator on the other end of the table. But beyond the founder market fit, as a team they have a winning combination of ambition, resilience and talent that we love backing at F1V," explains Vital Laptenok, General Partner at Flyer One Ventures.
