Gradial raises $5.4 million to bring AI to enterprise marketing workflows

Gradial, an artificial intelligence startup focused on streamlining marketing workflows, announced today that it has raised a $5.4 million seed funding round led by Madrona, with participation from General Advance, Outsiders Fund and Space Capital.

The company is building a platform that integrates with existing content management systems like Adobe and WordPress to automate routine marketing tasks. This allows creative teams to focus their time on core brand strategy rather than repetitive workflow steps like updating webpages or migrating content across channels.

“We saw an inflection point in the world of how the future of work is going to evolve,” said co-founder and CEO Doug Tallmadge. “And we wanted to take these language models beyond just answering questions or chatting, and really use them as an engine to complete and execute work.”

Co-Founders bring SpaceX, Microsoft experience

Gradial was founded by Tallmadge, Anish Chadalavada and Deip Kumar, who bring engineering experience from SpaceX, Microsoft and other leading technology companies. 

“The hardest part of solving a problem should be thinking about what you want, not trying to configure it in your software tools. Our mission is to enable marketing at the speed of thought,” said Tallmadge.

Their time at SpaceX and Microsoft shaped Gradial’s customer-centric approach. “The real driving factors, the focus on the customer, that’s something that I think Microsoft has done a really exceptional job. And it’s something we’ve brought into our kind of work and Gradial as well allowing, you know, the customer to help define the direction that we go,” said Chadalavada, who is co-founder and COO.

Workflow automation key to unlocking creativity

Gradial is currently working with select Fortune 500 customers and plans to use the funding to expand its engineering team.

The company aims to free up resources for creative teams by handling tedious workflow steps algorithmically. Marketing departments can then reallocate time and headcount towards high-level brand strategy.

“By streamlining that process, we can help unlock more time and resources for them to go do the things they love to do, like creative strategy, more collaboration, more customer-focused campaign building, which has been really, really awesome,” said Chadalavada.

As AI capabilities continue advancing, the founders envision marketing teams seamlessly executing and building on ideas in real time.

“It’s gonna be an exciting time, and I think you’re gonna see that really accelerate over the next 10 years to a point where, you know, you can really do that just at the speed of thought,” Tallmadge said.

Gradial provides a glimpse of the future where brands differentiate themselves through instantly personalized and authentic customer experiences, largely powered by AI on the backend.