Workflow, a British company building AI software for design, marketing, and product teams today announced it has raised over €2.8 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by early Venrex with the support of included 8VC/ The round also saw investors back-exited founders Will Taylor, Allis Yao and Paul Sangle
At its core, Workflow is more than just a productivity tool; it’s a platform designed to address the specific challenges faced by creatives, providing a centralised hub for task management, digital asset organisation, and review processes. By leveraging artificial intelligence, Workflow’s platform is capable of scanning creative work and offering constructive feedback, covering aspects such as brand consistency, accessibility, design best practices, and even spelling and grammar.
Enhancing quality and efficiency
The platform integrates with popular design software, including Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud, allowing teams to streamline their workflows and save time. For creative professionals, this time-saving potential is substantial, freeing them up to focus on the deeper, more meaningful aspects of their work.
“With the adoption of AI in creative tools, the amount of creative work is growing at a remarkable pace. Last year alone, more photographs were generated than have ever been taken by human photographers. We’re now asking, ‘What infrastructure is needed to manage this unprecedented volume?’,” explained Will Taylor, co-founder of Workflow.
In addressing the scaling challenge, Workflow identifies a gap in issue-checking, an area that remains a manual and time-intensive task. “There’s no Grammarly for creative work, and this tedious work is still done by eye. Beyond issue-checking, we believe AI can provide insights analogous to a panel of experts,” added Taylor. “We see the role of AI as enhancing people’s creative processes, not replacing them.”
Bringing accessibility to ‘non-creatives’
In an industry increasingly affected by AI, generative technologies are lowering the barriers for ‘non-creatives’ to produce quality digital content. More than 100 million professionals in roles not traditionally associated with creative work are now finding creative tasks integrated into their responsibilities. Workflow’s platform aims to serve these users just as effectively as it serves professional creatives.
“To develop our AI reviewer, we spent a lot of time with creatives, mapping out where the review process slows down. Dyslexic and non-native English speakers benefit from spell-checks, junior designers look for best practice guidance, and marketers in regulated sectors need legislative checks,” explained Paul Sangle, co-founder and CPO of Workflow. “Every individual has unique areas where AI can step in as a partner to support their work.”
Building a product for the creative process
With extensive experience leading product, design, and marketing teams, Workflow founder Will Taylor saw firsthand how a lack of suitable tools affected productivity in his previous company, Rota, which was later acquired by Broadlake Private Equity. The gap between creative and engineering workflows was evident, and Workflow was born from this insight.
“Automated testing and centralised review have become industry standards in software development,” noted Allis Yao, Workflow’s co-founder and CTO, previously with Instagram. “For creatives, the process is decades behind. Our goal is to enable creatives to work faster, elevating their focus away from minor issues so they can dedicate time to more meaningful work.”
Through its AI capabilities, Workflow automates routine tasks like identifying hard-to-spot errors, which shortens feedback cycles and allows teams to focus on high-level ideas rather than correcting minor mistakes. The company’s vision extends further: soon, creatives will be able to review work for regulatory compliance and advertising standards, bringing previously inaccessible information directly to the designer’s fingertips.
Investment to drive further development
Workflow secured funding after its beta version gained traction with brands, agencies, UX/UI design schools, and startups. This new capital will propel the development of its AI-powered review system, positioning Workflow to meet the growing demands of creative teams managing increasingly large volumes of digital assets.
Alistair Russell, an investor at Venrex, said: “With Workflow, we saw an opportunity to invest in the future of creative work and in the near term address issues we consistently see appearing in some of the world’s largest brands and our portfolio companies. Workflow’s narrow focus on this sector and the increasing demand for creative output, which is expected to increase 4.5 times by 2030, meant we couldn’t wait to back the experienced team at Workflow. These founders have built and exited companies before and have a vision that made this opportunity impossible to pass up.”
As Workflow continues its journey, it aims to be a steadfast partner for creatives worldwide, streamlining processes, enhancing quality, and setting a new standard in creative collaboration.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/11/london-based-workflow-raises-e2-8-million-to-make-creative-work-faster-using-ai/
