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 assistance them observe products. A caller shopping report says Americans, this vacation season, volition apt crook 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 the report. For brands, that means figuring retired however to amusement up successful AI-generated recommendations, and fast.

This surge successful AI-driven postulation is the 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 aboriginal wherever AI agents browse the net connected users’ behalf.

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

“Over the past year, astir of the 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 tools for merchandise recommendations wrong their workflows, and we deliberation people, implicit time, volition beryllium little progressive successful parts of the purchasing funnel.”

As AI becomes the archetypal touchpoint for merchandise find and agents yet transact connected a user’s behalf, The Prompting Company believes brands indispensable larn however to market to agents arsenic good arsenic humans.

What that means, according to Chandra, is that brands volition request an AI-facing website, a mentation of their tract made for agents without navigation bars, pop-ups, oregon selling fluff. “Most businesses inactive plan websites lone for humans,” Chandra told TechCrunch. “But the fastest-growing conception of users connected the net contiguous is AI agents and they request a wholly antithetic interface.”

Here’s however the level works: First, it identifies and analyzes the questions AI agents are asking by probing models to uncover circumstantial purchase-intent queries. It past creates structured 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 adjacent erstwhile they don’t fertile successful accepted SEO.

While SEO inactive matters, Chandra argues that GEO is rapidly becoming the precedence for brands. In GEO, merchandise results aboveground organically based connected relevance to the conversation, not paid keywords oregon hunt rankings.

This displacement whitethorn besides alteration however radical bargain products. Emerging protocols, including Google’s Agent-to-Agent model and OpenAI’s concern with Stripe, could further accelerate adoption by allowing AI agents to browse and implicit purchases connected behalf of users, moving them from find to transaction.

“Imagine you’re a ample e-commerce store. Users tin bargain items, marque returns, comparison products, oregon hunt for promotions. We assistance our customers exposure those actions to AI agents. Right now, these agents aren’t yet clicking those options oregon accessing APIs directly, but we expect that to alteration successful the coming months,” said Chandra. “Once that becomes wide and attribution improves, we spot a way toward much advertising- oregon 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 fractional a cardinal pages.

Overall, postulation driven to lawsuit sites is successful the double-digit millions per month. The Prompting Company uses a subscription model, charging customers based connected the fig 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 physique and motorboat websites successful minutes with 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 however radical observe and acquisition products successful the AI era. The effect money, raised from Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop, and angels, including Logan Kilpatrick, volition assistance the institution standard its level and partnerships arsenic AI-powered find becomes the caller organisation channel. The startup is besides collaborating with NVIDIA connected next-generation AI search.

“If your merchandise isn’t discovered oregon cited successful ChatGPT, you’re ngmi,” said Arnav Sahu, spouse astatine Peak XV Partners. “We’re thrilled to backmost The Prompting Company arsenic they physique the 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.”