Halo AI Boosts Brand-Creator Collaborations, 118% Spike in Sales After Major Update

Halo AI made its way back to the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai this week, and it arrived with more than just a victory lap. A year on from winning the Summit’s 1 Billion Pitches competition and securing a solid USD 6 million in seed funding led by Raed Ventures and Shorooq Partners, the startup seems to have spent every month turning that early buzz into something far more substantial.

Over the past year, the company has been positioning itself as an AI-powered collaboration hub for brands and creators — the sort of tool that lets enterprise teams scale their influencer partnerships without drowning in extra work. What gives Halo its edge is this mix of agentic AI and human oversight. I reckon it’s a smart approach, especially in a space where too much automation can make campaigns feel like they’ve lost their soul.

A major product update released in September appears to have shifted things up a gear. Creator payouts jumped by 378%, collaborations on the platform climbed 2.7 times, and Q4 2025 saw a hefty 118% increase in sales compared to the previous quarter. Those numbers don’t come along every day, and they suggest that both brands and creators are finding real value in the upgraded platform.

Halo has been leaning into deeper analytics too — everything from brand safety scoring to audience authenticity checks, plus real‑time tracking of trends and community sentiment. At the centre of it all sits the AI Creator Management Agent, a sort of co‑pilot designed to help brand managers run hundreds of campaigns at once without losing sight of creative direction. It reminds me a bit of when I first started following MENA startups for Arageek; back then, managing even five partnerships felt like a bit of a faff for most small teams.

The company’s co-founders, Vito Strokov and Rami Saad, spoke at the Summit about what they’ve learnt since last year’s win. Strokov noted that “brands don't want AI that replaces their teams; they want AI that makes their teams extraordinary,” which feels pretty spot on for where the industry is heading. Saad added that mastering the relationship between human input and AI will define the biggest companies of the next decade — and honestly, he might not be wrong. Well… I mean, we’ve all seen what happens when platforms swing too far towards either extreme.

The Halo booth was apparently buzzing throughout the event, drawing creators and brand reps curious about the new features. And believe it or not, this kind of on-the-ground excitement often tells you more than the slide decks. On the flip side, keeping that momentum as they expand through 2026 will be another challenge altogether.

Looking ahead, Halo AI is gearing up for new features, broader enterprise integrations and partnerships, and a growing creator network that stretches well beyond the MENA region. From a pitch on stage to a platform handling thousands of collaborations, the company seems determined to make human creativity unstoppable — or at least, easier to manage. As someone who’s watched regional startups rise and fall, I’m chuffed to bits when I see one making strides without losing sight of what actually works.

The Summit itself, organised by the UAE Government Media Office and held across Emirates Towers, DIFC, and the Museum of the Future, ran from 9 to 11 January under the theme “Content for Good.” It’s designed to bring together some of the most influential online creators and explore how digital media can drive positive change. And if Halo’s latest chapter is anything to go by, the conversation around AI and creativity is only just getting warmed up — or warming up, as I probably should say, but you know?

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