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 all Europe’s hottest startups.

Simply 4 months after its Seed round led by 20VC, the Berlin-based startup has raised a $21 million Collection A led by European VC firm 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 businesses to its platform. 

These prospects use Peec AI to watch 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) attainable — a means for advertising and marketing groups to optimize their model’s presence in AI search outcomes, just like how website positioning works for conventional engines like google. With this promise, the startup says it’s now including some 300 prospects a month, and its new funding will speed up this progress whereas additionally supporting growth plans.

Due to its new spherical, which was additionally backed by Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc, and S20, the startup plans to rent some 40 folks within the subsequent six months. These roles are principally based mostly 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 might quickly develop into crowded, with opponents already together with New York-based Profound and Austrian startup OtterlyAI. 

To assist entice extra expertise, the 20-person startup is at present promoting itself on giant outside adverts 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 develop into accessible, and website positioning dashboards add AI monitoring capabilities, Peec AI hopes to distinguish itself by providing advertising and marketing groups a dashboard that expands in scope whereas remaining easy to make use of, regardless of the fast-changing nature of AI searches.

As an alternative of revolving round key phrases like website positioning instruments, Peec AI’s dashboard facilities on prompts for which manufacturers wish to present up properly in search outcomes. Clients can monitor as much as 25 prompts for €75 per 30 days ($87), rising to 100 prompts for €169 per 30 days ($196). Each plans supply free trials, in contrast to its enterprise providing, which begins from €424 per 30 days ($493).

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

This suggestion additionally pertains to the “supply insights” which might be 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 “one of the best healthcare traders in Berlin.” 

Corporations that already use its instruments embrace Axel Springer, Chanel, n8n, ElevenLabs, TUI, and extra, as AI searches achieve 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 now have to filter all these out to actually get the questions that folks ask round manufacturers or purchases and services,” Meiners stated. 

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