The Ukrainian Startup Transforming Digital Advertising with AI

Web Summit Vancouver opened on May 27, 2025, bringing together founders, investors, media, and policymakers from around the world to discuss innovation, startups, and the future of tech — with a strong emphasis on AI.

One of seven startups chosen to represent Ukraine at the conference was Funely AI. Line49 had a chance to sit down with their CEO and co-founder, Ihor Kobzar, who arrived the day before from Kyiv for his first visit to North America. We discussed his journey from concept to working business, and their team’s vision for the future.

The Customer Acquisition Challenge

For most small businesses, attracting customers is their biggest hurdle. While launching an online ad is easy, doing it well is another matter. Without the right knowledge, platforms like Google and Facebook will take their money with little to show for it.

Most entrepreneurs make common mistakes: don’t do A/B testing, have no customer relationship management software, don’t do conversion tracking, their webpages load too slowly, keywords don’t align with landing page content.

We find out that [Google Ads] is pretty difficult for small businesses. And they hate doing that; even marketers don’t like that.

Ihor Kobzar

It’s also not enough to just get traffic. User activity — whether it’s a phone number, email address, or a booking — needs to be captured. Search engines learn from that behaviour to refine future performance. Without it, companies are flying blind.

Small firms struggle with customer acquisition online, not because they lack ambition, but because digital marketing has become fragmented, too technical, and expensive.

A Simplified Solution for Small Business

To simplify digital marketing for SMEs, Kobzar and his co-founders began their native AI company in June 2022. Throughout 2022 and the following year, the team conducted interviews and focused on customer development. In 2023, Funely AI launched their first prototype.

Now it’s possible to affordably create full digital marketing funnels — ad creatives, landing pages, Meta Ads and Google Ads campaigns, analytics, and CRM integration — from a single AI-driven platform. It works on both desktop computers and mobile devices.

Users simply answer a few questions about their products or services, or can enter links to their existing online presence for scanning. In the backend, Funely AI employs large language models to generate a landing page and ad copy, and configures backend tracking tools — like Google Tag Manager and Facebook Meta Pixel.

The technical barrier that once required a professional marketer or a multi-thousand-dollar budget, has been removed and more control is now in the hands of business owners.

Tech Even Your Barber Can Use

After collecting feedback from beta users, and iterating on their design, Funely AI launched their service in 2024. Their first customers were Ukrainian firms, including a company that manufactures products for the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

On Kobzar’s first day in Vancouver, he visited 20 small businesses — like nail salons and barber shops — in order to better understand the unique needs of local, English-speaking companies — something not possible in Ukraine. In a small way, he also acts as an ambassador for his country, explaining the situation there.

AI helps… automate a lot of tasks that [takes] digital marketers… several weeks… [O]ur app can build you a lead generation campaign with landing page, specifically designed for advertising, in several hours.

Ihor Kobzar

Now Funely AI has several dozen subscribers — some doing business globally — that are mainly based in the United States. Currently, they offer three subscription levels starting at US$89 per month.

Solo Builder is a do-it-yourself plan where customers build and manage their own funnel, supporting up to 200 new leads per month. The intermediate Navigator option, includes support from Funely AI and scales up to 1,000 monthly leads. At US$729 per month, the top tier provides a fully-managed funnel service for businesses wanting 5,000+ new monthly leads.

The Marketing Platform for a Post-Corporate Economy

Funely AI aims to become the world’s top tool for small business owners and marketing agencies seeking to launch digital campaigns quickly, affordably, and effectively. But first comes the foundational work: proving that the product addresses what people actually need.

The motivation is a global digital marketing software market that is expected to reach US$281.6 billion by 2033 from a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%. In the United States alone, there are over 34.8 million small businesses employing 59 million workers that account for 45.9% of the nation’s workforce.

In future, Kobzar believes that as artificial intelligence automates many of the functions that corporations performed, it will help democratize the business landscape. New opportunities will open for entrepreneurs to provide unique goods and services that can’t be mass-produced. Funely AI will be there to help them grow and thrive with tools that work for them.