GIGR Secures $5.4 Million in Pre-Seed Funding
Turning ad creative into a feedback-driven system, starting with interactive ads
San Francisco-based startup GIGR (dba. Playad) has successfully raised $5.4 million in pre-seed funding to boost the development of their innovative marketing agents. These agents are designed to assist teams in creating, testing, and refining advertising creatives with significantly less manual effort and guesswork.
The funding round was primarily led by BRV Capital Management and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, with contributions from notable angel investors such as Bora Chung, known for his role at Krafton, and Jihun Yu, founder of Hyprsense.
Building a Modern AI-Driven Marketing Workflow
From one-off assets to a workflow that learns
In an era where crafting effective ad creatives can be slow and fragmented, GIGR aims to streamline this process. Traditionally, teams navigate from briefs to revisions and later combine performance insights—often uncovering challenges in clarity regarding what the next steps should be. GIGR believes that the future of marketing lies not in introducing another single tool, but in pioneering an AI-native workflow that translates performance signals into quicker iterations. This approach ensures constant improvement in creative endeavors.
The platform that GIGR is developing is a multi-agent marketing workflow that effectively supports the entire creative lifecycle - from briefing to production, experimentation, evaluation, and iterative improvement. This design allows teams to conduct more tests and derive insights at a faster pace.
Innovative Interactive Ads as a Starting Point
Why Playad starts with interactive ads
Initially focusing on interactive advertisements, GIGR's product, Playad (launched in late 2025), targets a zone where signals are strongest. Interactive ads have gained popularity, particularly in the gaming sector, as they tend to produce higher conversion rates at a lower cost per install (CPI) by allowing users to engage with products directly. Beyond surface-level success, these formats offer deeper insights into user behaviors, including taps, swipes, and choices, making it much simpler to understand not just if a creative was effective, but why it resonated with users.
Despite their potency, interactive ads historically suffered from high costs and lengthy build times, often requiring specialized skills. Playad aims to empower marketers by making these creative solutions more accessible and faster to iterate upon, transforming creative processes from hurdles into consistent workflows at significantly lower costs. Moreover, Playad is designed for rapid experimentation, facilitating A/B testing of interactive ads by allowing teams to swiftly create multiple variations.
The Future with Playad: More Than Just Interactive
While the initiation focus is on interactive formats, Playad has aspirations of evolving into a comprehensive AI-native creative platform. This allows teams to navigate and iterate over various formats, including image, video, and interactive types, all within a unified system.
"Marketing performance increasingly depends on how quickly teams can learn from creative - and act on it," said Steve Chung, co-founder of GIGR. "We're building AI agents that make iteration the default, allowing teams to swiftly incorporate successful strategies from the marketplace into future creatives without compromising on quality."
Achieving Speed and Confidence in Marketing
Customers feel the difference in speed and in confidence
Speed remains a primary draw for customers adopting Playad, but it's the enhanced workflow that promotes recurring use. Teams can produce iterations faster, conduct more experiments, and create a tighter feedback loop between creation and performance metrics.
In practice, clients have reported significant benefits, including an astonishing reduction in production costs—some experiencing decreases of up to 90%—alongside improved efficiency in audience acquisition.
"We're not merely looking to increase output of assets," stated Jay Cho, CEO and co-founder of GIGR. "Our aim is to establish a framework where every launch fosters learning that directly optimizes subsequent creative decisions. Creative is the principal lever for enhancing return on advertising spend (ROAS) in today’s landscape, and we're striving to alleviate uncertainties that businesses face within digital advertising."
Meet the GIGR Team
Team
The founding team at GIGR is comprised of seasoned professionals across high-growth startups and various technology companies, all united by a singular goal: to eliminate the bottlenecks between creative iteration and ad performance.
This team is distinguished by a seven-founder structure, comprising individuals who have worked together for years, each contributing their expertise and fully vested in reimagining inefficient marketing workflows.
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Jay Jaeyeon Cho (Co-founder, CEO) previously directed AI game studios at Bagelcode and played a vital role in its growth trajectory to over 50 million users and an annual revenue close to $70 million. His perspective integrates a product-focused approach at the crossroads of gaming, AI, and performance marketing.
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Steve Nam Hyuk Chung (Co-founder, Business) brings over ten years of experience across investment banking, strategy, and business development from institutions like Bank of America, PlayStation, YouTube, and 20th Century Fox. With an educational background at MIT and Wharton, his efforts are directed at transforming creative insights into scalable business systems.
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Jayden Hyun Jae Park (Co-founder, Engineering) has led engineering teams in building systems ready for production, having served as a tech lead at Devsisters, gaining substantial expertise in evolving AI-driven products from prototypes to practical applications.
- The remaining founders - Simon, Arthur, Daniel, and Youn - each offer deep technical prowess and a resolute builder mentality, sharpened through outstanding engineering training at Stanford and POSTECH, along with extensive problem-solving experiences.
About GIGR (Playad.ai)
GIGR is devoted to establishing a multi-agent AI platform for marketing, launching with an AI-empowered creative workflow that transforms interactive ads into practical tools while accommodating iterative processes across various formats, including image, video, and interactive.
Learn more about GIGR and its innovations at https://playad.ai.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is GIGR?
GIGR is a startup focused on creating multi-agent AI marketing workflows aimed at enhancing advertising creativity and performance.
What funding did GIGR raise?
GIGR raised $5.4 million in pre-seed funding to develop its AI marketing platform.
What is the main product offered by GIGR?
The main product, Playad, focuses on simplifying interactive ads to improve marketing outcomes.
How does Playad enhance marketing efficiency?
Playad streamlines the creative process, enabling faster iterations and better data-driven decisions for teams.
Who are the founders of GIGR?
The founding team includes Jay Jaeyeon Cho, Steve Nam Hyuk Chung, Jayden Hyun Jae Park, and other highly skilled individuals with diverse experience in technology and marketing.
