Pencil
AcquiredEntrepreneur First '18Singapore, SG · Founded 2018 · 3 known investors
Pencil is an AI operating system for marketing that aggregates multiple AI models (from OpenAI, Google, Adobe, Runway, and Bria) into one orchestration layer with enterprise governance controls. It serves global brands and enterprise marketing teams to produce brand-safe creative content at scale.
Also known as Pencil AI Limited · Pencil Pro · Pencil Technologies · Pencil Technologies Pte. Ltd.
Founders & leadership
Pencil was founded in 2018 by Will Hanschell and Sumukh Avadhani.
Investors · 3
Also in the syndicate · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Pencil (legal entities referenced as Pencil Technologies Pte. Ltd. and Pencil AI Limited) is a generative AI platform for marketing and advertising creative. Its original product, Studio, generated ad copy and visuals for brands, agencies and ecommerce businesses and applied machine learning to predict whether generated content would be effective, differentiated and on-brand, with human creatives briefing the system and reviewing or editing outputs [5]. SGInnovate describes the company as a generative AI platform for creative and media teams that produces culturally inspired ad copy and visuals while predictively optimising for creativity, conversion and brand relevance [4]. A Preqin profile describes chat-based creation of ad copy and visuals, collaboration features, and optimisation for Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Google Display [6].
The current positioning is as an "AI operating system for marketing": an orchestration layer that aggregates third-party models from OpenAI, Google, Adobe, Runway and Bria so customers avoid single-vendor lock-in, combined with enterprise governance [0][1]. The platform documents an end-to-end workflow covering briefing, generation of ideas/images/video, market and performance understanding, scaling a single brief into thousands of localised or personalised variations, an in-browser editor for text, image, video and HTML, multi-stakeholder review and approval with audit trails, and direct publishing to Meta, Google, TikTok and Pinterest [2]. Named models listed as active include Google Gemini and Nano Banana Pro, Imagen and Veo, OpenAI GPT and Sora, Adobe Firefly and Adobe Video, and Google Chirp/Gemini text-to-speech [2].
Enterprise controls advertised include SOC 2 Type II certification, a no-train policy, full IP indemnification, regional data compliance across EU, US and APAC, role-based access controls and brand safety guardrails [0][1][2]. At the time of its 2023 acquisition, Pencil described a per-brand model training approach in which a brand's creative data is appended to Pencil's dataset to train custom predictive models without pooling brand data, with multiple models per brand for different metrics and channels [7].
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsPencil's news section states that agency Oliver built Samsung's regional (LATAM) marketing operation on Pencil. Date not stated by the source beyond appearing as current site news.
Pencil's news section lists a launch with consumer research firm GWI of an Insights Agent intended to bring real-time consumer intelligence into creative decisions. Date not stated by the source beyond appearing as current site news.
The Brandtech Group (formerly You & Mr. Jones) acquired Pencil; financial terms were undisclosed. Pencil was the group's 10th acquisition and its first in the AI space, following its purchase of Jellyfish earlier the same month.
Over roughly six months prior to the acquisition, Pencil and The Brandtech Group jointly built Pencil Pro, a generative AI product for large brands, with Bayer and Unilever as launch partners. Pencil Pro assembles multimodal ads combining copy and imagery per channel, predicts engagement outcomes, and adds brand-control rules and human approval steps.
Roughly one year after founding, Pencil announced a S$1.5 million seed round led by Wavemaker Partners, with SGInnovate and Entrepreneur First participating, plus investor-advisors including NUS Associate Professor Min-Yen Kan and members of Xoogler Angels. Proceeds were earmarked for expanding engineering and customer success teams, growing proprietary datasets and extending patent-pending technology.
Pencil was enrolled under the Info-communications Media Development Authority's SG:D Spark programme, which the company said involved intensive due diligence.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Penciltrypencil.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Pencil do?
- Singapore-founded generative AI platform for advertising creative, acquired by The Brandtech Group in June 2023.
- Who founded Pencil?
- Pencil was founded by Will Hanschell, Sumukh Avadhani in 2018.
- Who are Pencil's investors?
- Pencil's investors include Entrepreneur First.
- Where is Pencil headquartered?
- Pencil is headquartered in Singapore, SG.