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In the tech world, two of the biggest storylines in the last year have been the industry downturn and the advances in generative artificial intelligence—and both have had a big impact on Indianapolis marketing-tech startup Demandwell.
Now, armed with a $1.55 million round of venture funding that closed last month, Demandwell is leaning into AI and the possibilities it represents.
“We’re using this money to really invest into AI and how that can help our business,” said Demandwell CEO and co-founder Mitch Causey.
The recent funding round, led by Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha, follows a $5 million seed round that Demandwell raised in early 2022. (That previous round included $4 million in new investment, plus a previously issued $1 million in debt that converted to equity.)
The market downturn of the past year means customers have cut back on the search engine optimization services that Demandwell provides, which in turn forced Demandwell to do some layoffs and belt-tightening of its own.
But at the same time, the proliferation of AI tools like ChatGPT has opened up new opportunities for the company.
“Everyone creating content right now needs a cheaper and more time-efficient way to create content,” Causey said. “That’s where AI is really coming into play, now more than ever.”
Late last month, Demandwell launched an AI-powered writing service that can generate marketing content much cheaper and faster than humans could. Causey said he recently used generative AI to create 50 pieces of content in 75 minutes.
Demandwell also offers a new AI management service in which the company both uses AI to generate the copy and has its human staff edit and revise the copy so that it’s ready to use. As a price comparison, Causey said content that’s both written and edited by humans costs $400 per piece, as compared to just over $100 for AI-generated copy that’s edited by humans.
Demandwell still offers “fully human” content creation, Causey said.
The firm currently has 19 employees, about half of whom live in Indiana. The others are remote workers who live out of state. The headcount compares to 18 employees at the beginning of last year, Causey said, and reflects both significant layoffs and some hiring since then.
The recent venture investment will allow Demandwell to continue its work with AI.
“There’s a lot of training of the AI that has to be done,” Causey said. “It’s actually not as plug-and-play as it may seem.”
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