New York-based marketing and technology company Brandtech Group has raised $115 million to accelerate its efforts to create products and services grounded in generative artificial intelligence technology. 

The funding round was led by French finance and data group Fimalac and several other firms. Fimalac acquired a majority stake in digital media agency Jellyfish in November 2019 and orchestrated the sale of the agency to Brandtech Group last year.   

Brandtech has been steeped in AI technology since its founding in 2015 by David Jones, who had previously lead Havas Group as CEO. 

Last year Brandtech acquired Pencil, a GAI creative and distribution software as a service platform. According to Brandtech, that platform has made over a million GAI ads to date, with $1 billion in media spend across 5,000 brands.  

“The mobile phone made everyone a creator [and] gen AI makes everyone an ad agency,” said Jones. “That may not be very good news for traditional legacy agencies with 100,000 employees, but it's going to be great for the world of marketing in general. Gen AI is going to profoundly change, not just every aspect of marketing, but the whole of business.” 

Separately, the company announced that it has hired Matthieu Bucaille as its new Global CFO. He joins following a 25-plus year career at financial firm Lazard.