When was Pencil founded?

Pencil was founded in 2018 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.

Where is Pencil located?

Pencil is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is registered at BEACH ROAD, Singapore, 189677.

Who is the current CEO of Pencil?

Will Hanschell of Pencil. They have also founded 1 company.

Which legal entities is Pencil associated with?

Pencil is associated with PT SPV PTE. LTD..

How many employees does Pencil have?

As of Aug 31, 2026, the latest employee count at Pencil is 253.

Is Pencil a funded company?

Pencil is a funded company, having raised a total of $4.1M across 2 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a $***** Seed round, raised on May 09, 2019.

When was the latest funding round of Pencil?

Pencil's latest funding was a $***** Seed round on Apr 27, 2020, with participation from 1 investor. Its primary sector is Artificial Intelligence. In United Kingdom, the Artificial Intelligence sector has seen $16B in funding in 2026 to date.

Where does Pencil rank among its competitors?

Pencil ranks 4th amongst 2570 active competitors, of which 175 are funded. It stands 10th in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Inner AI, which secured $6M in Apr, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Pencil?

Pencil's top competitors include Tezign, Ceros and Inner AI. Among them, Inner AI secured the most recent funding round in April, 2026.

Pencil - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding, Competitors & Financials

Pencil is an acquired company based in London (United Kingdom), founded in 2018 by Sumukh Avadhani and Will Hanschell. It operates as an AI based tool for ad creatives management. Pencil has raised $4.1M in funding from Wavemaker Partners and Surge. The company has 2570 active competitors, including 175 funded and 92 that have exited. Its top competitors include companies like Tezign, Ceros and Inner AI.

Company Details

Pencil provides an AI based tool for ad creatives management that helps in creating generating digital content and personalized ads at scale. It helps businesses in managing Facebook ad creatives and monitoring. Enables users to approve topics out of two given topics and the AI based model learns from the users and improves its accuracy.

Website: trypencil.com
Social
Email ID: *****@trypencil.com
Registered Address: BEACH ROAD, Singapore, 189677

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2018

Location

London, United Kingdom

Stage

Acquired

Total Funding

$4.1M in 2 rounds

Latest Funding Round

Seed, Apr 27, 2020, $*****

Investors

Wavemaker Partners & 9 more

Ranked

4^th among 2570 active competitors

Employee Count

253 as on Aug 31, 2026

Similar Companies

StackAdapt & 911 more

Exit Details

Acquired by Brandtech Group (Jun 15, 2023)

View Pencil's full profile

Pencil is associated with 1 legal entity given below:

Legal Entity Name	Date of Incorporation	Revenue	Latest Employee Count	Documents
PT SPV PTE. LTD. UEN: 201807935K , Singapore, Active	Mar 07, 2018	-	-

Pencil got acquired by Brandtech Group on Jun 15, 2023.

Click here to take a look at Pencil's acquisition in detail

Pencil has raised a total funding of $4.1M over 2 rounds. Its first funding round was on May 09, 2019. Its latest funding round was a Seed round on Apr 27, 2020 for $*****. 1 investor participated in its latest round. Pencil has 8 institutional investors and 2 angel investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Pencil:

Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Apr 27, 2020	9932020	Seed	9041385	8803138	5667860	1729956
May 09, 2019	6600232	Seed	9564472	3898500	Wavemaker Partners	SGInnovate & 1 more

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View details of Pencil's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Pencil are Sumukh Avadhani and Will Hanschell. Will Hanschell is the CEO of Pencil.

Here are the details of Pencil's key team members:

Sumukh Avadhani: Co-Founder & CTO of Pencil. They serve on the board of 1 company.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Will Hanschell: Co-Founder & CEO of Pencil. They serve on the board of 1 company.
Contact Info: 1 email address

Pencil's Board of Directors

Pencil's board has 2 active members. Sumukh Avadhani and Will Hanschell are part of team.

Here is the list of Pencil's board of directors:

Name	Type	Representing	Status	Duration
Sumukh Avadhani	Team	-	Current	8y 6m
Will Hanschell	Team	-	Current	8y 0m

View details of Pencil's Founder profiles and Board Members

Pencil's employee count trend

Pencil has 253 employees as of Aug 26. Here is Pencil's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Pencil include Tezign, Ceros and Inner AI. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Pencil, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	Tezign 2014, Shanghai (China), Series D	Provider of digital infrastructure for brand content creation, management, and distribution	$56.1M	Sequoia Capital China, Temasek & 9 others	71/100
2nd	Ceros 2012, New York City (United States), Acquired	Provides a content creation platform	$143M	Grotech Ventures, Sumeru Equity Partners & 7 others	66/100
3rd	Inner AI 2021, Santa Monica (United States), Seed	AI platform providing a workspace for organizing thoughts, enhancing creativity, and accelerating task completion through its various features and tools.	$8.4M	Canary, Play9 & 7 others	63/100
4th	Pencil 2018, London (United Kingdom), Acquired	AI based tool for ad creatives management	$4.1M	Canopus Advisors, Wavemaker Partners & 8 others	62/100
5th	Flora 2024, New York City (United States), Series A	Developer of a platform providing creative artificial intelligence tools and workflows	$52M	Menlo Ventures, Company Ventures & 15 others	61/100
6th	Clinch 2012, Netanya (Israel), Series A	Programmatic ad creative management platform	$13M	D Squared Capital Management, Marbruck Investments ... & 5 others	60/100
7th	Typeface 2022, San Francisco (United States), Series B	Developer of an AI platform for personalized enterprise marketing content	$206M	Salesforce Ventures, A&E Investments & 5 others	59/100
8th	IPX 2021, Seoul (South Korea), Series C	Online platform for media content, metaverse, NFTs and more	$91M	BRV Capital Management, Animoca Brands	58/100
9th	LoopMe 2012, London (United Kingdom), Acquired	AI powered ad optimization platform	$58.2M	HV Capital, OpenOcean & 10 others	56/100
10th	RichRelevance 2005, San Francisco (United States), Acquired	Omnichannel personalisation for ecommerce	$84.3M	Tugboat Ventures, Centerview Capital & 15 others	56/100