Topic / Subject
TechCrunch reports Gushwork raised a $9 million seed round led by SIG and Lightspeed to help brands capture customer leads from AI-driven discovery platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

TL;DR
Gushwork is betting the next “SEO war” is AI answers, and investors just backed them with a $9M seed to help companies show up (and convert) inside AI search experiences.

Key Details

• TechCrunch says Gushwork raised $9M in a seed round led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Lightspeed.
• TechCrunch reports additional participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital.
• TechCrunch reports the round values Gushwork at $33M post-money and brings total funding to $11M.
• The pitch: help businesses capture leads from AI discovery tools (including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity), and TechCrunch says the company has 300+ paying customers.

Breakdown
If Google search was the old battlefield, AI answers are the new one. People aren’t just clicking blue links — they’re asking a bot “what should I buy?” and “who should I hire?” and then acting on the recommendations.

Gushwork’s business is basically: help brands win that moment. Not just “be mentioned,” but be positioned in a way that drives real customer action — the same way classic SEO turned into growth strategy over time.

The big question (for everyone in this space) is defensibility: AI platforms change fast, ranking logic isn’t transparent, and what works today may not work next quarter. The funding round is a bet that “AI discovery optimization” becomes a real, durable channel anyway.

What to Watch Next

• Whether more startups raise money around “AI discovery” the way SEO tools exploded in the early web era.
• How platforms respond if businesses try to aggressively game AI recommendations (expect rules, guardrails, and shifting signals).
• Whether Gushwork starts publishing measurable case studies that prove the channel is repeatable, not just hype.

Sources
TechCrunch — Gushwork bets on AI search for customer leads — and early results are emerging

Comment
Do you think “AI search optimization” becomes as big as SEO — or does it get locked down by platforms before it turns into an industry?