Technology

Zero One Creative secures pioneering €500,000 Traction Fellowship from EWOR to advance AI storytelling platform

Tuesday, 17 June 2025 10:31AM UTC

London-based AI startup Zero One Creative has become the first recipient of EWOR’s enhanced €500,000 Traction Fellowship grant, aiming to accelerate development of its flagship AMARA platform that streamlines multi-media creative workflows with AI-powered tools.

Zero One Creative (01C), an AI-driven creative tech startup based in London, has successfully secured €500,000 in funding from EWOR, a highly selective fellowship that supports the world's top 0.1% founders. This investment marks the first time EWOR has extended its newly increased €500,000 Traction Fellowship grant, designed to accelerate promising startups with strong early momentum. The capital injection will be used to fast-track the development of AMARA, 01C’s flagship AI-native platform that integrates various creative tools in real-time, enabling seamless workflows across multiple media formats for immersive storytelling.

Founded by Ashkan Dabbagh, James Elkin, and Rupert Aspden, the Zero One Creative team combines deep expertise from artificial intelligence, film, visual effects, and immersive media. Dabbagh, with an AI background from Oxford and experience at Warner Bros., Amazon Studios, and DNEG (renowned for visual effects on films like Interstellar and Dune), leads the team. Elkin transitioned from a senior aircraft technician role in the Royal Air Force to visual effects work for major broadcasters such as Sky, BBC, and Netflix. Meanwhile, Aspden’s career spans production and operations across global entertainment giants including the BBC, Disney, Amazon, and 20th Century Fox. This blend of technical and creative talent underpins the company’s mission to innovate storytelling workflows.

The core vision behind AMARA addresses a persistent challenge in the creative industries: fragmented and siloed toolsets that disrupt creative flow, slow production, and inflate budgets. "Creative flow is the most valuable currency in any production. When you lose it to the fragmentation of the current tools landscape, you lose the magic," said CEO Ashkan Dabbagh in an interview, highlighting the platform’s purpose to help creators move fluidly from ideation through execution without losing momentum. AMARA’s AI-powered backend handles complex tasks such as format adaptation and optimisation, enabling creators to build and deploy content faster and at scale, while maintaining a human-centric approach to storytelling.

Prior to its broader market launch, AMARA demonstrated robust early traction within the industry, having been used internally to produce over 10 viral campaigns. These campaigns included work for high-profile clients such as McLaren, eBay, Twix, and Starcloud, collectively amassing more than 40 million views. This organic growth, driven entirely by word of mouth and returning customers, reflects the platform’s strong market fit and the company’s capacity to deliver impactful creative experiences.

Zero One Creative has also garnered significant recognition within the startup ecosystem. The company is a finalist in Oxford University’s OX1 Incubator, which selects the top 1% of over 140 startups annually, and won the 2024 Oxbridge AI Challenge competing against more than 200 startups. Additionally, it benefits from support programmes by Microsoft for Startups, Google for Startups, and the NVIDIA Inception Program, all of which provide vital resources and mentorship to innovative technology ventures.

EWOR, the fellowship backing 01C’s latest funding round, is a Berlin-based venture capital and accelerator organisation noted for nurturing founders with high-growth potential. Its network includes unicorn founders from companies such as SumUp and Adjust, who provide hands-on mentorship alongside capital. Unlike typical VC firms that focus solely on revenue metrics, EWOR invests in talent and vision, offering a unique combination of financial support, guidance, and community connections to help founders scale their ventures effectively. This selection into EWOR’s elite Traction Fellowship situates Zero One Creative within a prestigious circle of startups poised to lead their industries.

The creative technology landscape is ripe for disruption, with fragmented tools hindering the speed and flexibility demanded by modern content creators working across animation, gaming, and immersive media. Zero One Creative’s AMARA platform exemplifies a new wave of AI-enabled solutions designed to streamline these workflows, enabling creators not only to enhance productivity but also to push creative boundaries across platforms and formats seamlessly. By uniting traditional and generative AI tools within a single platform, 01C aims to redefine how stories are built, shared, and scaled in an increasingly cross-media world.

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Source: Noah Wire Services

More on this

https://www.uktechnews.info/2025/06/17/zero-one-creative-secures-426k-investment-from-ewor/ - Please view link - unable to able to access data
https://www.uktechnews.info/2025/06/17/zero-one-creative-secures-426k-investment-from-ewor/ - Zero One Creative, a London-based AI creative tech startup, has secured €500,000 in funding from EWOR, a fellowship supporting top founders. This investment will accelerate the development of AMARA, their AI-native platform for immersive storytelling. The founding team comprises Ashkan Dabbagh, James Elkin, and Rupert Aspden, with backgrounds in AI, film, and visual effects. AMARA aims to streamline content creation by unifying tools across formats, addressing challenges in the creative industry. Prior to its public launch, AMARA was used internally for over 10 viral campaigns, featuring projects for McLaren, eBay, Twix, and Starcloud, amassing over 40 million views. The company has been recognized in top-tier startup programs, including Oxford University's OX1 Incubator and the 2024 Oxbridge AI Challenge, and is supported by Microsoft for Startups, Google for Startups, and the NVIDIA Inception Program.
https://venturecapitalarchive.com/venture-funds/ewor-io - EWOR is a Berlin-based venture capital firm that supports founders in conceptualizing, launching, and scaling impactful ventures. They invest in individuals with the drive to tackle significant challenges, regardless of the founder's idea or current revenue. Their unique approach focuses on nurturing talent, providing extensive resources, and fostering connections with successful entrepreneurs. Their notable partners include unicorn founders and top angel investors. EWOR's investment stages include Pre-Seed, and they focus on industries such as Artificial Intelligence, Health Tech, Sustainability, Sales Technology, and Marketing Technology. Their minimum check size is $50K, and maximum check size is $100K.
https://unicorn-nest.com/funds/ewor/ - EWOR is an active accelerator/incubator based in Berlin, Germany, with a total of 17 investments and an average round size of €45K. They focus on seed and early-stage venture investments in industries such as Software, Financial Services, FinTech, SaaS, and more. Their investment stages include Seed and Early Stage Venture, with a geographic focus on countries including Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, and others. Their average startup age at the time of investment is 1 year, with an average valuation of €208K. They have a lead investment in 1 company and conduct approximately 4.25 rounds per year.
https://01c.ai/about - Zero One Creative is a team of creative and production members from diverse backgrounds, including AI engineers, Visual Effects artists, Motion Graphics designers, Graphic Designers, and Production Managers. They are developing a groundbreaking platform designed to revolutionize content creation and distribution by unifying the worlds of Animation, Gaming, and Immersive experiences. Their technology enhances workflows, reduces costs, and accelerates delivery times. They thrive on working on passion projects and love collaborating with other creatives to push the boundaries of what's possible and bring compelling stories to life through innovative projects and technologies.
https://zero1.org/ - ZERO1 is a San Francisco-based arts and technology organization founded in 2000. Known for its biennial festivals and international programs, ZERO1 has played a critical role in fostering dialogue and collaboration between artists, technologists, and cultural institutions to advance creative experimentation and transdisciplinary projects. ZERO1 addresses complex social challenges by producing community-driven emerging media and digital art projects. Through a global network of partners, ZERO1 bridges governmental, academic, corporate, and cultural worlds to build engaged and vibrant communities that drive social action, grounded in a belief that artistic experimentation with emerging technologies inspires novel creative strategies and broadens our critical understanding of the world.
https://zero1.org/programs/international-exchange/ - ZERO1 coordinates international artist exchanges that encourage mutual understanding and cross-border collaboration between creative communities around the globe. Their programs include the American Arts Incubator, which supports the collaboration of American artists and creative communities abroad to create impactful, community-driven public art projects that address local social and environmental challenges. Since its inception in 2015, the program has sent American artists to 28 countries to engage with over 1,200 creative individuals. Other programs include Creative Impact Lab Amman and Creative Impact Lab Cairo, which utilize community-driven digital and new media art projects to address environmental sustainability and women's empowerment, respectively.

Noah Fact Check Pro

The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may warrant further investigation.

Freshness check

Score: 8

Notes: The narrative appears to be original, with no prior publications found. The report is based on a press release, which typically warrants a high freshness score. The earliest known publication date of substantially similar content is June 17, 2025. No discrepancies in figures, dates, or quotes were identified. The report includes updated data but recycles older material, which may justify a higher freshness score but should still be flagged.

Quotes check

Score: 9

Notes: The direct quote from CEO Ashkan Dabbagh, "Creative flow is the most valuable currency in any production..." appears to be original, with no prior usage found. This suggests potentially original or exclusive content.

Source reliability

Score: 6

Notes: The narrative originates from UK Tech News, a niche outlet with limited verifiability. This raises concerns about the reliability of the source. EWOR, the organisation mentioned, is a Berlin-based venture capital and accelerator noted for nurturing founders with high-growth potential. However, its network includes unicorn founders from companies such as SumUp and Adjust, who provide hands-on mentorship alongside capital. Unlike typical VC firms that focus solely on revenue metrics, EWOR invests in talent and vision, offering a unique combination of financial support, guidance, and community connections to help founders scale their ventures effectively. This selection into EWOR’s elite Traction Fellowship situates Zero One Creative within a prestigious circle of startups poised to lead their industries.

Plausability check

Score: 7

Notes: The narrative makes a significant claim about Zero One Creative securing €500,000 from EWOR. While EWOR has previously raised €3.2 million with the goal to become Europe's answer to Y-Combinator, as reported by EU-Startups in May 2023 ([eu-startups.com](https://www.eu-startups.com/2023/05/ewor-raises-e3-2-million-with-the-goal-to-become-europes-answer-to-y-combinator/?utm_source=openai)), there is no prior coverage of this specific investment. The report lacks supporting detail from other reputable outlets, which raises concerns about its credibility. The language and tone are consistent with the region and topic, and the structure is focused on the claim without excessive or off-topic detail.

Overall assessment

Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): FAIL

Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): MEDIUM

Summary: The narrative presents a significant claim about Zero One Creative securing €500,000 from EWOR. However, it originates from a niche outlet with limited verifiability, and there is no supporting coverage from other reputable sources. While the direct quote from CEO Ashkan Dabbagh appears original, the lack of corroboration and the source's reliability issues raise concerns about the report's credibility.

Zero One Creative
EWOR
startup funding
AI technology
creative tech