With shoppers more and more asking questions of ChatGPT — not Google — product discovery is altering. And the promise to provide manufacturers visibility and management over this fast-growing search channel has made Peec AI one in every of Europe’s hottest startups.

Simply 4 months after its Seed spherical led by 20VC, the Berlin-based startup has raised a $21 million Sequence A led by European VC agency Singular. CEO Marius Meiners declined to reveal the valuation, however stated it had tripled and was now above $100 million. 

This comes after Peec AI grew its annual recurring income to greater than $4 million in solely ten months since its launch, attracting 1,300 firms and companies to its platform. 

These clients use Peec AI to observe how their manufacturers seem in AI-powered searches. However past analytics on visibility and rating, Peec AI additionally tracks sentiment — and which sources form these solutions. 

These insights are what make Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) doable — a means for advertising groups to optimize their model’s presence in AI search outcomes, much like how search engine marketing works for conventional engines like google. With this promise, the startup says it’s now including some 300 clients a month, and its new funding will speed up this development whereas additionally supporting growth plans.

Due to its new spherical, which was additionally backed by Antler, Mixture VC, id.vc, and S20, the startup plans to rent some 40 folks within the subsequent six months. These roles are principally primarily based in Berlin, the place Meiners met his two cofounders in Antler’s Winter 2024 cohort: Tobias Siwonia is now Peec AI’s CTO, and Daniel Drabo is its CRO.

Increasing quick and being seen could also be key to successful in an rising class that would quickly turn into crowded, with rivals already together with New York-based Profound and Austrian startup OtterlyAI. 

To assist appeal to extra expertise, the 20-person startup is presently promoting itself on massive outside advertisements all through Germany’s capital metropolis. However past its Berlin plans, Meiners instructed TechCrunch that Peec AI additionally plans to open a sales-focused workplace in New York Metropolis within the second quarter of subsequent yr. 

As extra GEO-focused instruments turn into obtainable, and search engine marketing dashboards add AI monitoring capabilities, Peec AI hopes to distinguish itself by providing advertising groups a dashboard that expands in scope whereas remaining easy to make use of, regardless of the fast-changing nature of AI searches.

As a substitute of revolving round key phrases like search engine marketing instruments, Peec AI’s dashboard facilities on prompts for which manufacturers want to present up properly in search outcomes. Clients can monitor as much as 25 prompts for €75 monthly ($87), growing to 100 prompts for €169 monthly ($196). Each plans supply free trials, not like its enterprise providing, which begins from €424 monthly ($493).

To make these insights actionable, the dashboard additionally suggests actions that may enhance visibility and optimistic sentiment. As an example, its house web page means that an organization that wishes to be the reply to a question on “the very best CRMs for fast-growing firms” could need to “be part of r/CRM subreddit discussions” on Reddit.

This suggestion additionally pertains to the “supply insights” which are on the core of Peec AI and will information the content material technique of its customers. The startup noticed that mentions in tier 1 media retailers don’t give extra visibility than articles by lesser-known publications whose headlines are nearer to the unique query — as an illustration, on “the very best healthcare traders in Berlin.” 

Firms that already use its instruments embrace Axel Springer, Chanel, n8n, ElevenLabs, TUI, and extra, as AI searches acquire floor throughout sectors, each for B2C and for B2B searches. Nonetheless, customers additionally flip to ChatGPT and the like for a lot of different duties and requests, which implies that the startup has to chop via noise behind the scenes.

To attain this, Peec AI purchased uncooked datasets of those requests, however that’s only the start. “We have now to filter all these out to essentially get the questions that folks ask round manufacturers or purchases and services and products,” Meiners stated. 

For all of the simplicity on the skin, that proprietary information pipeline could be the key to Peec AI’s success. This additionally serves as a reminder that the AI worth chain isn’t solely about fashions and that the AI software layer and underlying information have turn into a prime territory for European startups, now together with Peec AI.