Profound, a New York-based platform empowering marketers to manage their brand’s presence in AI-generated responses, has secured $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Kleiner Perkins. With participation from NVentures, Khosla Ventures, Saga VC, South Park Commons, and SV Angel, the funding will drive the launch of Profound Lite and solidify its leadership in AI visibility solutions.
Profound raises $20M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins for AI visibility platform.
Launches Profound Lite, a $499/month plan for startups and small businesses.
Processes over 100M AI search queries monthly, serving clients in 18 countries.
Early adopters see 25-40% increase in AI answer share-of-voice in 60 days.
Supports brands like Indeed, MongoDB, and Ramp in navigating AI search.
Aims to define modern marketing in an AI-first, zero-click internet.
With ChatGPT surpassing one billion weekly active users and over 60% of consumers starting product research with AI assistants, brands face a new challenge: controlling their narrative in a zero-click world. Profound’s platform provides marketers with tools to understand and shape how AI chatbots represent their products, addressing a critical gap in visibility.
The Profound platform offers a suite of tools tailored for AI visibility:
Answer Engine Insights: Reveals how chatbots describe brands, products, and industries.
Agent Analytics: Tracks how AI bots crawl and interpret websites.
Conversation Explorer: Identifies trending topics in AI search.
Agents: Leverages reasoning models to deliver actionable insights for marketers.
Processing over 100 million AI search queries monthly, Profound supports clients in 18 countries across six languages, with enterprises like Indeed, MongoDB, and Ramp reporting a 25-40% lift in AI answer share-of-voice within 60 days.
Profound is launching Profound Lite, a self-serve plan priced at $499 per month, designed for startups and small businesses. “Over the past six months AI Visibility has shifted from a Fortune 500 concern to a must-have for every brand, big or small,” said James Cadwallader, Co-founder and CEO of Profound. “Profound Lite puts that power in the hands of startups and lean teams, letting them see and shape how AI agents talk about them.”
“Profound is the clear leader in a category that will define modern marketing,” said Ilya Fushman, Partner at Kleiner Perkins. “As the web shifts from pages to AI answers, Profound provides the infrastructure every company will need.” The $20 million will expand Profound’s engineering and data-science teams in New York, enhance coverage of emerging AI platforms, and drive innovation for the “agentic” internet.
“In a zero-click world, the conversation between consumers and an AI agent is the new first impression,” said Cadwallader. “Profound shows marketers exactly how chatbots describe their products and gives them the levers to shape that narrative. AI Visibility will become a boardroom level priority for all brands by 2026.” The funding round also saw participation from notable angels, including Guillermo Rauch (Vercel) and Andrew Karam (Applovin).
Profound’s Series A funding and the launch of Profound Lite position it as a leader in AI visibility, empowering brands to thrive in an AI-driven, zero-click internet. By providing actionable insights and scalable tools, Profound is redefining modern marketing for enterprises and startups alike.
Profound is the AI visibility platform that helps brands understand, improve, and measure how they appear in AI-powered search results. Built by alumni of AMD, Microsoft, Datadog, Uber, Bridgewater, and OpenAI, Profound equips marketers to win in a future where AI agents, not blue links, drive discovery.
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