Hi Ventures Invests $2 Million in Melian, the AI-Powered Shopping Discovery Platform Built by Teen Founders

San Francisco / Buenos Aires — May 14, 2025 — Hi Ventures today announced a $2 million seed investment in Melian, an AI-powered shopping discovery platform founded by a team of young entrepreneurs from Argentina. The investment will support Melian’s ongoing technology development and its expansion into the U.S. market.

Melian was created by Santiago Ruberto (19, CEO), Mateo Zarate (20, CTO), and Valentín Ratti (24, CPO), who made history as the youngest team to ever raise venture capital in Argentina. The company is reimagining e-commerce by offering a seamless product discovery experience that spans multiple retailers. Currently, Melian’s platform aggregates more than 260,000 products from 811 stores, initially focusing on Argentina’s fragmented apparel market, with plans to grow into new categories and regions.

Launched in late 2024, Melian addresses a critical consumer challenge: navigating countless retail websites to find the right product. By centralizing the country’s apparel offering in one elegant interface, the platform simplifies the shopping journey for users across Argentina.

Operating from a “hacker house” in Buenos Aires — soon to be relocated to San Francisco — Melian’s team of engineers and founders work daily to iterate and improve the product. Since launching its latest version in December 2024, the platform has gained more than 20,000 app downloads, generating thousands of purchase initiations per month.

“We are building the future of e-commerce — the best experience for discovering and buying products through AI,” said Santiago Ruberto, Co-founder and CEO of Melian. “Federico’s immediate conviction in our vision was remarkable. From the start, we realized his guidance would be as valuable as the capital itself. Partnering with someone who deeply understands our mission makes all the difference.”

Melian’s technology integrates AI-powered natural language search, image-based product discovery, and personalized recommendations. It is already the third most downloaded shopping app in Argentina, indicating strong market demand.

“Online shopping is broken,” said Jimena Pardo, Managing Partner at Hi Ventures. “Melian’s innovative use of AI to solve fundamental e-commerce pain points is exactly what we look for in early-stage investments. Their AI browsing agent and computer vision capabilities create a magical shopping experience that drives both retention and unit economics.”

The seed funding will enable Melian to strengthen its tech infrastructure, expand its product scraping capabilities, enhance AI-driven search algorithms, and optimize real-time data accuracy across e-commerce platforms.

Before Hi Ventures, Melian had raised over $615,000 from Newtopia VC, Broom Ventures, and prominent angels such as Borja Martel (Lemon Cash), Diego Pando (Brubank), and Sullyen Almeida (Monashees).