Profound Closes $35M Series B for AI Search Platform Amidst Market Shift
Profound, a burgeoning force in the artificial intelligence landscape, has successfully closed a $35 million Series B funding round, bringing its total capital raised to an impressive $58.5 million. The investment, led by venture capital giant Sequoia Capital, underscores a growing industry consensus that AI-powered search represents the next fundamental platform shift in how consumers discover and interact with brands. This significant funding round saw continued participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Saga VC, and South Park Commons, signaling strong confidence in Profound’s vision.
The New York City-based company specializes in helping businesses navigate and control their presence within AI responses, positioning itself as a crucial “AI visibility and content optimization platform.” In an era where AI assistants are increasingly becoming the initial touchpoint for consumer product research—with 60% of consumers now starting their queries with AI rather than traditional search engines—Profound offers a vital solution for brands. The rise of AI search is fundamentally reshaping the digital landscape, moving beyond the traditional ranked list of links to synthesized, authoritative answers, thereby creating a “zero-click world” where AI conversations serve as a brand’s first impression. This paradigm shift necessitates a new approach to brand management, extending far beyond conventional search engine optimization (SEO).
Since its launch less than a year ago, Profound has demonstrated remarkable traction, attracting a diverse portfolio of high-growth and enterprise customers. Notable clients include financial services firm Ramp, US Bank, and major tech players like Indeed, MongoDB, DocuSign, and Chime. Over 2,000 marketers from more than 500 organizations now rely on Profound’s platform daily, as companies worldwide race to establish their presence in the evolving AI-first internet. The company’s impact has even garnered public recognition, with the CEO of Reddit referencing Profound during a recent Q2 earnings call.
Profound’s platform provides marketers with a comprehensive suite of tools designed for the AI era. These capabilities include monitoring how AI systems describe a brand, generating AI-optimized content specifically tailored for bots rather than human readers, and deploying marketing agents to automate and scale brand presence. This innovative approach has already led to significant increases in AI-driven referrals and revenue for early adopters. The fresh capital from the Series B round will be channeled into accelerating the development of its agentic workflow features, expanding its content generation capabilities, and supporting international expansion as global brands seek to establish their AI presence across multiple markets and languages.
The strong backing from top-tier venture capital firms underscores the perceived criticality of Profound’s mission. Sequoia Capital, a firm with a history of investing in foundational technological shifts, views AI as the “biggest opportunity” in venture capital’s history, surpassing previous waves like personal computing or mobile. Alfred Lin, a Partner at Sequoia, emphasized that Profound’s vision extends well beyond traditional AI-powered SEO, seeing its platform as a potential “command center that empowers businesses to stand out and succeed in the age of superintelligence.” Kleiner Perkins, another lead investor, has also heavily concentrated its recent investments in AI, with 80-90% of its new deals in 2024 focusing on the sector, highlighting the “unprecedented” demand and intelligence paradigm shift. Similarly, Khosla Ventures, a participant in Profound’s seed and Series B rounds, is a prominent investor in both foundational and applied AI. The continued support from Saga VC, an early-stage software investor with a focus on AI applications for broader audiences, and South Park Commons, a community and fund where Profound’s co-founders James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs initially connected, further solidifies the industry’s confidence in Profound’s trajectory.
As AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews continue to gain market share, fundamentally altering how information is consumed, companies like Profound are poised to become indispensable. The investment signifies not just confidence in a single company, but a collective belief in the profound (pun intended) impact of AI on brand discoverability and consumer engagement.