Pitch Deck: Ex-Apple Marketer Raises $10M to Scale AI Agents That Decode Social Video

Plot, the Alexis Ohanian-backed startup that helps brands like PepsiCo and Benefit Cosmetics decode what consumers are saying about them on social media, has raised $10 million in follow-on seed funding.The round was co-led by XYZ Venture Capital and Mischief Ventures, with participation from Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six and Acme Capital. It brings Plot’s total raised to $14 million, following an initial cash injection of $4 million in February 2025. Plot was founded in 2022 by former Apple social marketing lead and Gap digital producer Megan Duong, after she grew frustrated with text‑based social listening tools that couldn’t make sense of short‑form or untagged video content. “I was spending so much time on manual reporting, and I couldn’t even uncover useful insights,” she told ADWEEK. In response, powered by AI, Plot extracts insights from the audio, visuals, and captions of videos posted on TikTok, Instagram Stories, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It can identify when creators show products on screen or mention a business without explicitly tagging them. This means brands can spot emerging trends and surface creators they should work with. Benefit Cosmetics said it has recently seen a 30% to 50% lift in user-generated content (UGC) featuring its products or services, such as its eyebrow bar counter, without tagging the brand. “This is a big deal because brands like us rely on engaging with our advocates directly, ” said Toto Haba, the company’s svp, global marketing and communication in a statement. Plot enters its end-to-end era Since receiving its initial $4 million round 15 months ago, Plot has grown to a team of 11. It’s also built out its campaign measurement and brand sentiment analysis features, which have attracted enterprise brands including Mastercard, Visa, and StubHub. The company did not disclose its valuation, but shared that annual recurring revenue has increased 3.8-fold in the last 18 months, with net revenue retention sitting at 132%. Per its fundraising pitch deck, Plot’s next growth phase will see it layer agentic AI workflows over its existing insights to become a one-stop shop for social-first marketers. For example, work has finished on a creator matchmaking agent that sources creators with prompts like "surface creators who authentically mention Benefit Brow Tint" or "find 100 skateboarders in Brooklyn who drank Pepsi within the last three months." This will launch in Q3 2026. “Phase one has been about video intelligence,” said Duong. “Phase two is about building agents that allow brands to action that data, whether it’s for reporting, research, or to reach influencers and communities.” A new market research agent, slated for later in 2026, will be able to analyze hundreds of millions of social videos in full context — scanning for products, objects, and settings — to answer consumer research questions in minutes. A portion of Plot’s $10 million will also be spent on marketing, Duong said. So far, the business has leaned on the founder's marketing background and LinkedIn presence, along with inbound inquiries, to drive sales. “I’ve done no marketing for the last 18 months, so now we’re supercharging our go-to-market,” Duong said. Plot’s team will likely grow to 22 by year-end, with funding also allocated to engineering. The founder said XYZ Venture Capital, which also backed the business the first time around, was an obvious choice for Plot’s second seed round owing to partner Camille Rickett's background as marketing leader at Notion. “She comes from a very unique perspective where she truly understands the space and the vision of what we're building,” Duong said. Ricketts told ADWEEK: “When Megan was explaining the concept, I just implicitly got it. I’d lived that problem on the ground as a marketing leader and knew exactly how badly a tool like this was needed.” See select slides from Plot’s fundraising deck below. Plot Pitch Deck.pptxDownload

Fundraising

Pitch Deck: Ex-Apple Marketer Raises $10M to Scale AI Agents That Decode Social Video

Megan Duong’s Plot has closed a follow-on seed round, just over a year after its initial $4 million raise

UNLOCK FULL ACCESS

Rebecca Stewart

Social Marketing

Kareem Rahma, Erling Haaland, Latin Mafia Among 2026 Instagram Ring Award Winners

Meta’s TikTok Link Ban Could Hobble Media Buyers' Creator Campaigns

Nominations Open for 2027 ADWEEK Brand Genius Creators

ADWEEK Launches Inaugural Creator Economy Power List

Meta Eyes Enterprise Spend With Muse for Small Business Launch

Terry Crews to Host the Inaugural Clio Creator Awards

AI Is Changing How Marketers Respond to Social Signals

Viewing Social Media as an Extension of Human Instinct

What Primates Can Teach Us About Social Media Marketing