Upscale AI
End-to-end AI platform for creating and running performance ads on Streaming TV.
Website: https://www.upscale.ai/
Cover Block
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Upscale AI |
| Tagline | End-to-end AI platform for creating and running performance ads on Streaming TV |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, United States |
| Founded | 2020 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Media / Entertainment (AdTech) |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Amit Mastud, Sandeep Singh, Yeshu Singh |
| Funding Label | Seed |
| Total Disclosed | ~$5.5M [BusinessWire, May 2025] |
Links
- Website: https://www.upscale.ai/
- Product (Studio): https://studio.upscale.ai/
- Careers: https://www.upscale.ai/careers
- Whitepaper: https://www.upscale.ai/whitepaper
- PitchBook profile: https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/464356-72
- Crunchbase profile: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/upscale-579e
Executive Summary
Upscale AI is a San Francisco company building an end-to-end AI platform for creating and running performance advertising campaigns on Streaming TV [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025]. The pitch combines generative AI for video creative production and machine-learning-driven programmatic buying against connected TV (CTV) inventory [BusinessWire, May 2025]. Founded in 2020 by Amit Mastud, Sandeep Singh, and Yeshu Singh, the team includes veterans from Google, Twitter, Salesforce, Moloco, and MNTN [BusinessWire, May 2025]. Upscale launched publicly in May 2025 alongside a $5.5 million seed round led by NVP Capital with participation from M12, Eniac Ventures, SuperAngel.Fund, and Breakpoint Capital [The SaaS News, May 2025]. The product, Upscale Studio, targets commerce brands seeking to treat TV as a measurable performance channel [BusinessWire, May 2025]. The business model is SaaS plus media spend management, utilizing an insertion-order-based onboarding motion [Upscale AI Careers, retrieved 2025].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by BusinessWire, The SaaS News, PitchBook, and the company's own website.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS (with managed media component) |
| Industry / Vertical | AdTech / Connected TV |
| Technology Type | Generative AI + ML programmatic bidding |
| Geography | North America (HQ San Francisco) |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Three co-founders, AdTech and big-tech veterans |
| Funding | $5.5M seed, May 2025 |
How the Company Got Here
Upscale AI was incorporated in 2020 and operated in stealth until its public launch in May 2025 [PitchBook, retrieved 2025] [BusinessWire, May 2025]. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and led by co-founders Amit Mastud, Sandeep Singh, and Yeshu Singh, whose backgrounds include Google, Twitter, Salesforce, Moloco, and MNTN [BusinessWire, May 2025]. Upscale's positioning sits at the intersection of ML-driven programmatic platforms and performance CTV products. The company is currently running a beta program [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by BusinessWire, PitchBook, and the company website.
Product and Technology
Upscale Studio is an end-to-end workflow for creative generation and programmatic execution on Streaming TV inventory [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025]. The platform uses generative AI to produce video assets and ML models to deliver performance outcomes over real-time programmatic bidding [BusinessWire, May 2025] [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025]. The target customer profile is commerce brands that want to extend measurement discipline to CTV [Upscale AI Careers, retrieved 2025]. The onboarding motion involves signing an initial Insertion Order and assisting brands with creative asset setup [Upscale AI Careers, retrieved 2025]. The product is delivered through web applications at studio.upscale.ai and app.upscale.ai [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product positioning confirmed by BusinessWire and the company website; tech-stack and partner detail not publicly disclosed.
Market Research and Opportunity
Connected TV ad spend in the United States is a rapidly growing segment of digital advertising. Upscale targets performance marketers seeking closed-loop measurement and bid-time optimization, the reduction of creative production costs via generative AI, and the efficiency of programmatic buying across streaming inventory [BusinessWire, May 2025]. Adjacent markets include major DSPs (The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, Google DV360), performance-CTV specialists (MNTN, Tatari, Strategus), and AI video generation tools (Runway, Synthesia, Google Veo, OpenAI Sora).
| Sizing claim | Value |
|---|---|
| Upscale seed round | $5.5M |
| US CTV ad spend | Tens of billions USD annually |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Funding figure confirmed; market sizing relies on analogous categories.
Competitive Landscape
Upscale is positioned as an integrated alternative to a stack currently assembled from creative agencies, CTV specialists, and measurement vendors. The incumbent layer in performance CTV includes MNTN, Tatari, and Strategus [BusinessWire, May 2025]. On the open programmatic side, The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP dominate premium CTV inventory access. A second layer consists of AI video generation tools like Runway, Synthesia, HeyGen, Google Veo, and OpenAI Sora, which produce assets but do not buy media. Upscale's edge is workflow integration: generating, trafficking, and measuring creative inside one console.
Data Accuracy: ORANGE -- Competitor identification is inferred from the founding team's prior employers and category context.
Opportunity
Upscale aims to become the default performance layer for Streaming TV advertising. The company leverages existing customer behavior: commerce brands expect closed-loop performance measurement and cheaper, faster creative iteration [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025].
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-market commerce land-and-expand | Upscale wins 100-plus DTC and mid-market retail brands | Beta-to-paid conversion | Customer profile actively seeks CTV solutions |
| Agency channel partnership | Agency adopts Upscale as default CTV layer | Signed agency partnership | Team's MNTN and Moloco lineage |
| Strategic acquisition target | Larger DSP or streaming platform acquires Upscale | M12 involvement | Adtech consolidation rewards integrated tools |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Scenario framing is grounded in cited launch materials and category comparables.
Sources
- [BusinessWire, May 2025] Upscale AI Launches With $5.5M in Funding and Unveils 'Upscale Studio' | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250510370327/en/Upscale-AI-Launches-With-$5.5M-in-Funding-and-Unveils-Upscale-Studio-the-First-AI-Native-Platform-to-Create-and-Run-Performance-TV-Ads-on-Streaming-Channels
- [The SaaS News, May 2025] Upscale AI Raises $5.5 Million in Funding | https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/upscale-ai-raises-5-5-million-in-funding
- [PitchBook, retrieved 2025] Upscale.AI 2025 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/464356-72
- [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025] Upscale AI homepage | https://www.upscale.ai/
- [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025] How it works | https://www.upscale.ai/how-it-works
- [Upscale AI Careers, retrieved 2025] Careers | Upscale AI | https://www.upscale.ai/careers
- [Upscale AI, retrieved 2025] Join Beta | https://www.upscale.ai/join-beta
- [ZoomInfo, retrieved 2025] Upscale AI - Overview | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/upscale-ai-inc/544620653
- [Crunchbase, retrieved 2025] Upscale - Crunchbase Company Profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/upscale-579e
Articles about Upscale AI
- Upscale AI Wants to Turn Every Streaming TV Ad Slot Into a Performance Buy — The San Francisco startup raised $5.5M from NVP Capital and Microsoft's M12 to make CTV behave like Google Ads.