As Consumers Ditch Google For Chatgpt, Peec Ai Raises $21m To Help Brands Adapt

With consumers progressively asking questions of ChatGPT — not Google — merchandise find is changing. And nan committedness to springiness brands visibility and power complete this fast-growing hunt transmission has made Peec AI 1 of Europe’s hottest startups.

Just 4 months aft its Seed round led by 20VC, nan Berlin-based startup has raised a $21 cardinal Series A led by European VC patient Singular. CEO Marius Meiners declined to disclose nan valuation, but said it had tripled and was now supra $100 million. 

This comes aft Peec AI grew its yearly recurring gross to much than $4 cardinal successful only 10 months since its launch, attracting 1,300 companies and agencies to its platform. 

These customers usage Peec AI to show really their brands look successful AI-powered searches. But beyond analytics connected visibility and ranking, Peec AI besides tracks sentiment — and which sources style these answers. 

These insights are what make Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) imaginable — a measurement for trading teams to optimize their brand’s beingness successful AI hunt results, akin to really SEO useful for accepted hunt engines. With this promise, nan startup says it is now adding immoderate 300 customers a month, and its caller backing will accelerate this maturation while besides supporting description plans.

Thanks to its caller round, which was besides backed by Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc, and S20, nan startup plans to prosecute immoderate 40 group successful nan adjacent six months. These roles are mostly based successful Berlin, wherever Meiners met his 2 cofounders successful Antler’s Winter 2024 cohort: Tobias Siwonia is now Peec AI’s CTO, and Daniel Drabo is its CRO.

Expanding accelerated and being visible whitethorn beryllium cardinal to winning successful an emerging class that could soon go crowded, pinch competitors already including New York-based Profound and Austrian startup OtterlyAI. 

To thief pull much talent, nan 20-person startup is presently advertizing itself connected ample outdoor ads passim Germany’s superior city. But beyond its Berlin plans, Meiners told TechCrunch that Peec AI besides plans to unfastened a sales-focused agency successful New York City successful nan 2nd 4th of adjacent year. 

As much GEO-focused devices go available, and SEO dashboards adhd AI search capabilities, Peec AI hopes to differentiate itself by offering trading teams a dashboard that expands successful scope while remaining elemental to use, contempt nan fast-changing quality of AI searches.

Instead of revolving astir keywords for illustration SEO tools, Peec AI’s dashboard centers connected prompts for which brands would for illustration to show up good successful hunt results. Customers tin way up to 25 prompts for €75 per period ($87), expanding to 100 prompts for €169 per period ($196). Both plans connection free trials, dissimilar its endeavor offering, which starts from €424 per period ($493).

To make these insights actionable, nan dashboard besides suggests actions that tin amended visibility and affirmative sentiment. For instance, its location page suggests that a institution that wants to beryllium nan reply to a query connected “the champion CRMs for fast-growing companies” whitethorn want to “join r/CRM subreddit discussions” connected Reddit.

This proposal besides relates to nan “source insights” that are astatine nan halfway of Peec AI and could guideline nan contented strategy of its users. The startup observed that mentions successful tier 1 media outlets don’t springiness much visibility than articles by lesser-known publications whose headlines are person to nan original mobility — for instance, connected “the champion healthcare investors successful Berlin.” 

Companies that already usage its devices see Axel Springer, Chanel, n8n, ElevenLabs, TUI, and more, arsenic AI searches summation crushed crossed sectors, some for B2C and for B2B searches. However, users besides move to ChatGPT and nan for illustration for galore different tasks and requests, which intends that nan startup has to trim done sound down nan scenes.

To execute this, Peec AI bought earthy datasets of these requests, but that’s conscionable nan beginning. “We person to select each these retired to really get nan questions that group inquire astir brands aliases purchases and products and services,” Meiners said. 

For each nan simplicity connected nan outside, that proprietary information pipeline whitethorn beryllium nan cardinal to Peec AI’s success. This besides serves arsenic a reminder that nan AI worth concatenation is not only astir models and that nan AI exertion furniture and underlying information person go a prime territory for European startups, now including Peec AI.