Profound, a young technology company, has raised $35 million in a Series B funding round. Sequoia Capital led the investment, and other well-known venture capital firms joined in. These include Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, Saga VC, and South Park Commons.
The new funding will help Profound grow quickly and improve its technology. The company aims to change the way brands do marketing in a world where artificial intelligence plays a central role in how people and machines discover products and services.
A New Kind of Customer: “Superintelligence”
Profound has a unique mission. The company wants to help brands connect with a new type of customer—one it calls “Superintelligence.” In simple terms, this means artificial intelligence systems that search for, interpret, and recommend products on behalf of people.
In the past, companies focused on ranking high on search engines like Google. Marketers tried to make sure their websites showed up in the top search results when people typed in keywords. But the internet is changing. More and more, people are asking AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity to find answers and make suggestions. These AI systems no longer just give a list of website links—they give complete answers.
Profound believes brands must now market not only to people but also directly to AI systems. If an AI system recommends a brand, that brand reaches the customer instantly. If the AI system ignores the brand, the opportunity disappears.
The Problem Profound Solves
When someone asks an AI system for the “best running shoes” or the “top accounting software,” the AI gives a direct answer. It might name three brands and explain why they are good choices. If a brand wants to be included in that answer, it must make sure the AI understands what the brand offers, trusts the brand’s information, and sees it as relevant.
Profound gives companies the tools to understand exactly how AI systems describe them, how often they get mentioned, and how they compare to competitors. The platform also helps companies change how AI systems see them—by improving the data, content, and product details that AI agents read and process.
How the Platform Works
Profound describes its platform as a “read/write control center” for marketing to AI. This means companies can both observe what AI systems say about them and also take steps to improve those answers.
The platform has several main features:
- Answer Engine Insights – Shows how different AI systems talk about a brand, its products, and its industry.
- Agent Analytics – Tracks how AI systems process and use a company’s website content.
- Conversation Explorer – Finds trending topics and common customer questions inside AI-generated answers.
- Optimization Agents – Uses AI reasoning to suggest improvements and then create updated content for better AI visibility.
A company can log into Profound, see that it appears in only a small percentage of AI answers for a specific search, and then take direct action to improve that percentage. The platform makes this process fast and easy.
Rapid Growth and Measurable Results
Profound launched with a clear focus on this new marketing challenge, and businesses responded quickly. Since raising its Series A funding earlier in the year, the company has grown at a fast pace.
Profound now processes over 100 million AI search queries every month. Its system works in 18 countries and supports six languages. Many large companies, such as Indeed, MongoDB, and Ramp, already use the platform.
The results have been impressive. Some clients have increased their presence in AI answers by 25% to 40% in just two months. In one example, Profound helped a company grow its appearance in AI search results for “accounts payable software” from 3% to over 22%.
Why Investors Are Excited
Investors see a big opportunity in Profound’s approach. Marketing is one of the largest industries in the world, and it is now entering a major shift. In a “zero-click” environment, people no longer click links to visit websites—they get answers directly from AI. This means the first impression a customer has may come entirely from an AI’s words.
Profound gives companies the power to control that impression. It turns AI from a mystery into a channel that can be measured and improved, just like any other form of marketing. Investors believe that every serious business will need tools like Profound in the near future.
The Road Ahead
With the new $35 million funding, Profound plans to expand its engineering team, build new features, and enter more markets around the world. The company wants to integrate with more AI systems, including newer models that appear each year.
It also plans to make its optimization process even more automated. The goal is for a company to get real-time updates about how AI systems describe it, and then fix any problems instantly with AI-generated suggestions and changes.
Why This Matters for All Businesses
This shift affects companies of all sizes. A small business that sells organic tea could benefit from appearing in AI’s answer to “best herbal teas for sleep.” A large software company could win or lose major sales depending on whether AI agents recommend its product in a list of the top tools for a specific task.
In both cases, visibility in AI answers can bring more customers—and invisibility can mean losing them. Profound gives companies a way to compete in this new environment.
From SEO to AIO: A New Marketing Era
In the past, marketers invested in SEO—search engine optimization—to get higher rankings on Google. Now a new term is emerging: AIO, or AI optimization. AIO means making sure AI systems know your brand, understand your value, and choose to recommend you.
Profound is positioning itself as the leading AIO platform. The company believes the “front door” of the internet is changing for the first time in 25 years, and that brands must adapt or risk being left behind.
The Bigger Picture
The rise of AI marketing is part of a much larger transformation in how people and machines use the internet. AI agents may soon handle many of the tasks humans do today—finding products, comparing prices, booking services, and even making purchases.
In this future, brands will need to speak both to people and to the AI agents working for those people. Profound’s technology aims to make that possible by giving companies insight, control, and speed in this new form of communication.
Conclusion
Profound’s Series B funding marks an important moment for the marketing industry. The company is not just building a tool—it is shaping a new category of marketing that focuses on visibility in AI-generated answers.
By helping brands connect with “Superintelligence,” Profound is preparing businesses for the future of discovery. As AI becomes the main way people find and choose products, companies that master this new channel will have a clear advantage. Profound plans to be the platform that makes that mastery possible.
Also Read – What Is the “Series A Crunch” and How to Survive It