BluePill, a new Seattle-based marketing startup that helps brands predict consumer behavior, raised $6 million in a seed round led by Ubiquity Ventures.
Founded earlier this year, BluePill helps marketers test ideas, products, and ads in minutes using artificial intelligence instead of traditional focus groups.
BluePill builds a custom AI consumer audience for each brand using real-world data — such as social conversations, surveys, and customer inputs — modeled after a brand’s target segment.
Clients log into the platform, upload a new concept, campaign, or packaging design, and receive instant feedback predicting how their audience would respond — essentially running a massive, simulated focus group.
The company is also developing ready-made, domain-specific AI audiences (like “U.S. moms” or “Gen Z snack buyers”) that brands can directly query for insights without building custom models.
BluePill says its simulated audiences achieve 93% accuracy compared to human panels. The company is working with consumer brands including Magic Spoon, Kettle & Fire, and the Seattle Mariners, which use the platform to test fan engagement ideas and in-stadium activations.
“Our edge is validated, accurate insights — and the fact that we deliver these in minutes for a fraction of the cost makes it a no-brainer,” said BluePill founder and CEO Ankit Dhawan.
BluePill is already generating revenue. It makes money off a fixed annual fee.
BluePill is taking on larger marketing research companies such as Ipsos, Qualtrics, and Nielsen. Dhawan said incumbents “rely on slow, costly human panels, while newer startups mostly have large language models role-play as consumers.”
Dhawan was an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and co-founded virtual experience startup Virtuelly. He also spent more than four years at Amazon as a product leader working on AI products.
Other team members at BluePill include Puneet Bajaj and Andy Zhu. BluePill was featured in GeekWire’s Startup Radar in June.
Sunil Nagaraj, founding partner at Ubiquity, noted that “predicting consumer behavior is the holy grail of marketing.” Nagaraj is based in Silicon Valley but is active in the Seattle startup scene. He was an early investor in Auth0, the Seattle-area startup acquired by Okta for $6.5 billion.
Pioneer Square Labs and Flying Fish Ventures also invested.
Read the full article here
