Ukrainian AI startup Zeely has won an international startup competition organized by Deel and J.P. Morgan in Paris and received $1 million in investment from Deel. The competition brought together more than 50,000 startups from around the world and became one of the largest international platforms for early-stage technology companies.
Following the selection process, 84 startups reached the final, with Ukrainian company Zeely taking first place. The jury included representatives and partners of leading global venture capital funds and technology companies, including Andreessen Horowitz and Tencent.
Zeely is developing an AI Marketing Intelligence Platform — an artificial intelligence-based platform for creating and scaling digital advertising. The solution is primarily aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and allows entrepreneurs to launch advertising campaigns without specialized technical skills.
The company says its platform is already used by more than 1 million users, while the United States remains the startup’s key market. Zeely’s core product is a mobile AI application that automates the creation of advertising materials, marketing creatives and business promotion using artificial intelligence.
The startup was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Dmytro Samoiliuk, Yaroslav Samoiliuk and Alina Bondarenko. Before launching Zeely, the team had worked in digital marketing and performance marketing for more than eight years, which helped build expertise in automating advertising processes for small businesses.
The company currently employs more than 170 specialists. According to the team, Zeely is demonstrating strong growth momentum, expanding more than sixfold year-on-year, making it one of the fastest-growing Ukrainian AI startups.
The investment raised from Deel is planned to be used for further scaling of the platform, development of AI functionality and expansion of the company’s presence in international markets, primarily in the United States.
This is not Zeely’s first financing round. In April 2023, the startup raised $1 million in seed investment from Ukrainian venture funds Vesna.Capital, ZAS Ventures and Angel One Fund, Belarusian Imaguru Ventures, as well as a number of business angels.
Zeely’s victory in the international competition and its new funding reflect growing interest from global investors in Ukrainian AI companies despite the country’s challenging macroeconomic and wartime environment.
