The Prompting Company Snags $6.5m To Help Products Get Mentioned In Chatgpt And Other Ai Apps

People are progressively asking AI, not Google, to thief them observe products. A caller shopping report says Americans, this vacation season, will apt move to ample connection models this play to find gifts, deals, and income alternatively of accepted search.

Retailers could spot up to a 520% summation successful postulation from chatbots and AI prompts successful 2025 compared to 2024, according to nan report. For brands, that intends figuring retired really to show up successful AI-generated recommendations, and fast.

This surge successful AI-driven postulation is nan stake down The Prompting Company, a YC-backed startup helping products get mentioned successful AI apps done GEO (generative motor optimization), a strategy designed for a early wherever AI agents browse nan net connected users’ behalf.

The four-month-old startup, founded by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline and Albert Punama, has raised $6.5 cardinal successful seed backing and already counts Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop arsenic customers.

“Over nan past year, astir of nan maturation connected websites has travel from AI bots, not people,” co-founder and CEO Chandra told TechCrunch successful an interview. “We’re already seeing developers inquire AI devices for merchandise recommendations wrong their workflows, and we deliberation people, complete time, will beryllium little progressive successful parts of nan purchasing funnel.”

As AI becomes nan first touchpoint for merchandise find and agents yet transact connected a user’s behalf, The Prompting Company believes brands must study really to market to agents arsenic good arsenic humans.

What that means, according to Chandra, is that brands will request an AI-facing website, a type of their tract made for agents without navigation bars, pop-ups, aliases trading fluff. “Most businesses still creation websites only for humans,” Chandra told TechCrunch. “But nan fastest-growing conception of users connected nan net coming is AI agents and they request a wholly different interface.”

Here’s really nan level works: First, it identifies and analyzes nan questions AI agents are asking by probing models to uncover circumstantial purchase-intent queries. It past creates system contented that answers those questions and automatically routes AI agents to “AI-optimized pages.”

The Y Combinator-backed startup helps companies people thousands of AI-friendly pages truthful LLMs tin mention their answers moreover erstwhile they don’t rank successful accepted SEO.

While SEO still matters, Chandra argues that GEO is quickly becoming nan privilege for brands. In GEO, merchandise results aboveground organically based connected relevance to nan conversation, not paid keywords aliases hunt rankings.

This displacement whitethorn besides alteration really group bargain products. Emerging protocols, including Google’s Agent-to-Agent model and OpenAI’s business pinch Stripe, could further accelerate take by allowing AI agents to browse and complete purchases connected behalf of users, moving them from find to transaction.

“Imagine you’re a ample e-commerce store. Users tin bargain items, make returns, comparison products, aliases hunt for promotions. We thief our customers expose those actions to AI agents. Right now, these agents aren’t yet clicking those options aliases accessing APIs directly, but we expect that to alteration successful nan coming months,” said Chandra. “Once that becomes wide and attribution improves, we spot a way toward much advertising- aliases conversion-driven models. For now, we’re focused connected helping companies get discovered and recommended by AI.”

So far, The Prompting Company serves mostly fintech, developer tools, and endeavor SaaS customers. The squad says a Fortune 10 institution is besides utilizing its product, for which it presently hosts astir half a cardinal pages.

Overall, postulation driven to customer sites is successful nan double-digit millions per month. The Prompting Company uses a subscription model, charging customers based connected nan number of prompts tracked and pages hosted.

The company’s founders, Indonesian immigrants who met arsenic freshmen, antecedently built YC-backed Typedream (YC W20), a startup that allowed users to build and motorboat websites successful minutes pinch AI, earlier Lovable and newer entrants took disconnected (beehiiv acquired Typedream past June).

The founders besides built Cotter, a passwordless authentication SDK that was acquired by Stytch.

With The Prompting Company, they’re trying to alteration really group observe and acquisition products successful nan AI era. The seed money, raised from Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop, and angels, including Logan Kilpatrick, will thief nan institution standard its level and partnerships arsenic AI-powered find becomes nan caller distribution channel. The startup is besides collaborating pinch NVIDIA connected next-generation AI search.

“If your merchandise isn’t discovered aliases cited successful ChatGPT, you’re ngmi,” said Arnav Sahu, partner astatine Peak XV Partners. “We’re thrilled to backmost The Prompting Company arsenic they build nan halfway infrastructure for merchandise discovery—already powering Fortune 10 companies and fast-growing startups. Kevin, Michelle, and Albert are repetition YC founders, and they are awesome.”