AUCKLAND, Today: Aether, a new AI-powered platform for marketing managers, has launched out of stealth with a $3.8m seed round led by Icehouse Ventures. The tool helps teams build presentations faster and unlock institutional knowledge.
Born out of venture studio New+Improved — creators of Tracksuit and Ideally — Aether already has enterprise customers in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. and more than $600,000 in annual recurring revenue.
The platform tackles three common pain points: institutional amnesia, wasted time on repetitive reporting, and outdated information locked in static decks.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,” said Carsten Grueber, Co-founder and CEO of Aether.
“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,” said Grueber, formerly Country Manager of TikTok New Zealand.
“Aether represents a bigger opportunity than any of us have seen before. Now, with strong revenue, big global enterprise customers, and the backing of major investors, we’re ready to scale.” – Simon Pound
By integrating live data into presentation workflows, Aether eliminates the copy-paste grind that can consume up to 40% of marketers’ time. Branded decks can be created in minutes and updated instantly as data changes.
Early customers are already using Aether for board packs, campaign reviews and business reports — jobs that typically drain time and slow decision-making.
The founding team brings strong SaaS experience. Co-founder Ursula von Keisenberg was ANZ Managing Director at Timely and led sales at Xero Asia. CRO Daniel Alexander-Head previously held senior roles at Qualtrics and Vision Critical.
“Aether represents a bigger opportunity than any of us have seen before,” said New+Improved co-founder Simon Pound. “Now, with strong revenue, big global enterprise customers, and the backing of major investors, we’re ready to scale.”
The seed raise will accelerate product development and grow the team across Australia and New Zealand. “This is the dream intersection of clear problem, scalable solution, and strong team,” said Barnaby Marshall, Partner at Icehouse Ventures.
Share this Post
