Profound raises $180M at a $1.8B valuation for AI search marketing

In short: Profound raised $180 million in new funding and is now valued at $1.8 billion.

What happened

Profound, a startup that makes marketing software, said it raised a $180 million Series D funding round. The company said the round values Profound at $1.8 billion.

This comes less than seven months after Profound raised a $96 million Series C round. The new round was led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons.

Profound launched about two years ago. It started as an analytics product, which is a tool that helps companies measure what is happening with their marketing. It has expanded into helping companies research and build marketing plans aimed at AI-powered search.

The idea is simple. More people now ask AI tools for recommendations and answers, instead of typing keywords into a traditional search engine. Profound sells tools that help brands understand whether they are showing up in those AI answers, and what they can do to improve that.

Profound said its revenue tripled over the past six months. It also said it has more than 1,000 large business customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Walmart.

Why it matters

If you use an AI assistant to find products, plan a trip, or pick a service, the results you see are shaped by what information the AI can find and trust. Companies like Profound are trying to help brands become more visible in those answers, a bit like trying to get a better spot on a store shelf (except the shelf is the AI’s response).

Source: TechCrunch AI