AI marketing startup Profound has closed a $180 million Series D investment round valuing the firm at over $1.8 billion as investors double down on the future of answer engine optimisation, or AEO. The latest round of fundraising, co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, comes less than seven months after Profound raised $96 million in its last round.

The investment illustrates the rapid change taking place in marketing, as more customers turn to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to search for products, companies and information, rather than using traditional search engines.

What is AEO and why investors are interested in Profound?

AEO (answer engine optimisation) is becoming a crucial element of digital marketing as artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly deliver direct responses to customers.

Traditional SEO is primarily about optimising webpages to rank in search engine results. AEO is a separate matter. It allows businesses see what they appear like in AI-generated replies and what information is used to develop those answers.

Deeply is an AI-powered analytics platform that helps marketers understand how customers find companies. Since then, the company has expanded into research, content and marketing solutions based on the changing search landscape.

When you look at its recent investment round investors don’t see this as a blip on the radar.

Profound Valuation Hits $1.8 Billion

The new $180 million investment values Profound at over $1.8 billion, making it a unicorn. The funding arrives less than seven months after its $96m Series C round.

The funding round was led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins and was also joined by previous investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and South Park Commons.

Profound said income has increased in the last six months. Today, the company serves more than 1,000 enterprise brands, including Comcast, Walmart and The Estée Lauder Companies.

The company’s own announcement highlights the degree of industry interest in AI-driven marketing, claiming its platform is used by more than one-third of the Fortune 100.

Deep dives to get beyond old-school AEO

The business is using the new funding to scale its broader AI marketing platform, not just AEO analytics.

Profound’s AI Marketer can understand brand data, challenge AI-generated responses, find opportunities and deploy targeted agents to do marketing functions. The Context Manager seeks to acquire a growing understanding of a company’s brand information and working style.

The firm is also going into competitive analysis, content enhancements, earned media chances and advertising.

Some of the financing will also go to Profound’s applied AI research teams in New York City and San Francisco, it said. The research will look into how advanced AI models can tackle hard marketing tasks and help develop the company’s AI Marketer.

Why the $180 million round matters

This recent spending shows a bigger shift in how companies are thinking about their online footprint.

For years, brands have optimised their websites for Google and traditional search engines. But as customers increasingly start to engage with artificial intelligence systems to ask questions directly, organisations have another visibility problem: How can an AI system characterise their brand when someone asks a question about it?

That question is helping to drive demand for AEO and related fields such as generative engine optimisation, or GEO. Profound is putting itself at the core of that transition.

AEO Is Not Stock In American Eagle

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. operates via the following segments: AE Brand, Aerie Brand and Other. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) is looking for AEO stock, AEO stock price, American Eagle stock, American Eagle Outfitters, AE stock, American Eagle stock price. That company is not Profound and it is not this $180 million funding announcement.

American Outfitters, AEO and Aerie, AEO2Go and AEO jobs all mean American Eagle, or other searches that have nothing to do with Profound’s answer engine optimisation company.

What’s Next For Profound?

Profound, which has a $1.8 billion value and more than 1,000 business customers, is wagering that AI-driven discovery will be a big part of how firms sell themselves.

But the company’s aim isn’t simply about identifying where brands show up in AI responses. Its latest solutions aim to assist marketing teams research, build, optimise and measure campaigns with AI-powered agents.

What’s significant for marketers is that AEO is part of a much bigger trend in digital discovery. As certain traditional search journeys are replaced by AI-based solutions, organisations will need to be more cognisant of not just how their websites rank, but how artificial intelligence algorithms perceive and communicate their brands.

Sources

TechCrunch – Profound secures $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation
Deep/GlobeNewswire release – Funding, customers, AI Marketer & research ambitions.
SEC – American Eagle Outfitters: SEC filing verifying AEO’s NYSE ticker. Useful to disambiguate the unrelated stock search keyword.