Profound, a New York company that sells software for tracking and improving how brands appear in AI-generated search answers, raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round, TechCrunch reported on September 15.
The terms
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and South Park Commons also participated. Both leads were returning investors: between them, Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins have now led three of Profound's four rounds.
The round landed less than seven months after a $96 million Series C, per TechCrunch. TNW reported that the new price is "nearly double what it was worth in February, when a $96M round first made it a unicorn." TechCrunch's account differs on that point, presenting this Series D as the round at which Profound reaches a unicorn valuation; neither outlet publishes a dollar figure for the February mark. Total capital raised since the company was founded in 2024 is more than $335 million.
What the product does
Profound operates in what the industry calls answer engine optimization, or AEO — the successor discipline to search engine optimization. Its platform shows brands how often AI systems mention them, and in what context, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. James Cadwallader is chief executive and co-founded the company with Dylan Babbs, per TNW.
Profound says revenue tripled over the past six months, per TechCrunch. It has not disclosed dollar figures. TNW noted that the absence of disclosed revenue makes it "difficult to judge whether its $1.8bn valuation reflects a growing business or a big bet on a category that is still taking shape." The company reports more than 1,000 enterprise customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies and Walmart.
The AI search market
Google's Gemini added 200 million users in three months, a surge that prompted Sam Altman to declare an internal "code red" at OpenAI. OpenAI has begun introducing advertising alongside a lower-priced subscription tier.
Snap and Perplexity ended a $400 million deal to put Perplexity's AI search inside Snapchat after the integration never reached a broad rollout.
Source: TechCrunch
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