Halo AI returned to the three-day 1 Billion Followers Summit, held from January 9 to 11 across Dubai’s Emirates Towers, the Museum of the Future, and DIFC, with an updated agentic AI platform. The appearance comes one year after the company won the 1 Billion Pitches competition and raised $6 million in seed funding led by Raed Ventures and Shorooq Partners.
Over the past 12 months, the company has positioned itself as an AI-powered collaboration platform for brands and creators, focusing on scaling influencer partnerships without increasing operational workload. The company said its platform enables enterprise teams to scale collaborations by up to 10x through a human-in-the-loop model that combines agentic AI with human oversight.
In September, Halo AI rolled out a major platform update that led to a 378% increase in creator payouts, while the number of collaborations on the platform grew 2.7x over the same period. The company reported that sales in Q4 2025 rose 118% quarter-on-quarter, which it attributed to improved campaign performance and higher retention compared with earlier versions of the platform.
The upgraded platform integrates analytics across brand-creator collaborations, including brand safety scoring, community sentiment analysis, audience authenticity checks, and real-time trend tracking. Central to the update is the AI Creator Management Agent, which the company describes as a co-pilot that allows brand managers to oversee hundreds of campaigns simultaneously while retaining control over strategy and creative decisions.
Vito Strokov, Co-founder and CEO of Halo AI, said: “We learned that brands don’t want AI that replaces their teams; they want AI that makes their teams extraordinary. Halo is built on that insight: give humans superpowers, not a replacement notice.”
Rami Saad, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer, said the company’s momentum since last year’s competition win has translated into operational results. “Winning last year gave us the fuel. The results we’re announcing today prove we know how to use it. I believe the most valuable companies of the next decade will grow by mastering the interaction between people and AI. Halo AI is building the infrastructure to power that and I can’t wait to see the value brands and creators using our platform will be able to unlock in 2026.”
At this year’s Summit, which brought together global creators including MrBeast, Mufti Menk, Dhruv Rathee, American actors Max Amini and Will Smith, alongside startup founders and industry leaders, Strokov and Saad appeared on stage to discuss Halo AI’s growth since 2025 and share lessons from scaling a startup in the marketing technology sector. The company also hosted an on-site booth where creators and brand representatives engaged with the newly launched features.
Looking ahead to 2026, Halo AI said it is preparing additional feature releases, deeper enterprise and platform integrations, and expanded partnerships, alongside plans to grow its creator network across the MENA region and other markets.
