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Tools & AI United States Sep 15, 2026

Profound raises $180M Series D at $1.8B for AI-search visibility (AEO)

On September 15, 2026 Profound announced a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation, co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, nearly double its February valuation. The platform tracks and improves how brands appear inside AI answers on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity, and now serves 1,000+ enterprise brands including a third of the Fortune 100.

Why this matters for founders

As buyers increasingly discover products through AI answers rather than Google, monitor how your brand shows up in ChatGPT and Perplexity and treat answer engine optimization as a real marketing channel.

Source: TechCrunch

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