Aether, a Kiwi AI startup turning marketing presentations into a live documents, has raised NZ$3.8 million (A$3.4m) in Seed funding.
The AI-powered SaaS platform, cofounded by former TikTok NZ country manager Carsten Grueber, has emerged from stealth mode with backing from Icehouse Ventures, and support from Brand Fund 2.
The startup has emerged out of New+Improved, the venture studio from the people behind Tracksuit and Ideally, and has already signed contracts with enterprise customers Australia, New Zealand, and the US to build revenue to NZ $600,000 ARR, with more than half of that figure coming from the island to Aotearoa’s west.
Cofounded in 2025, Ursula von Keisenberg, the former ANZ MD at Timely and sales lead at Xero Asia, Aether’s HQ is shared between Auckland and Melbourne. The capital will be used to accelerate product development and expand the team across ANZ.
Grueber said Aether helps organisations solve three key issues: institutional amnesia (where valuable data insights are lost or under-utilised); wasted productivity on repetitive research production; and outdated information embedded in static decks.
“They say measure twice, cut once, and this should also be true of marketing workflows. As it stands, most slide decks are recut every time a presentation happens, wasting valuable resources from internal teams,” he said.
“Aether transforms presentations from static documents into living, connected assets that are accurate, always up-to-date, and ready to share. Instead of marketers spending half a week building the monthly performance report, they can spend that same time doing the actual marketing itself.”
The software integrates live data directly into presentation and document workflows, saving what Grueber estimates is up to marketers’ time spent on manual copy-paste.
Once plugged into data sets, Aether creates customisable presentations using a company’s branding within minutes, with the underlying data updated when needed.
Grueber said Aether customers are using the platform for board packs, quarterly business reviews, campaign reports, agency briefs and knowledge management.
“In minutes, Aether can take 150 marketing reports, in 12 different languages and distill it all down to the 10 slides that actually matter; assess and strengthen your latest idea, plan or brief against your marketing strategy; or create exec-ready presentations reporting last month’s performance with key charts and commentary,” he said.
New+Improved cofounder Simon Pound said Aether is the first company to be spun out of the venture studio, which developed the concept following interviews with 100s of marketing leaders and enterprise marketing businesses.
“Aether represents a bigger opportunity than any of us have seen before,” he said.
Now, with strong revenue, big global enterprise customers, and the backing of major investors, we’re ready to scale. We believe Aether could be the next breakout SaaS success story from this region.”
Icehouse Ventures partner Barnaby Marshall described the software startup as “the dream intersection of clear problem, scalable solution, and strong team”.
“Aether is solving a universal pain point, and the traction they’ve achieved with global enterprise customers before launch is remarkable,” he said.
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.