Gushwork raises $9M to optimize businesses for AI search
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- Gushwork raised a $9 million seed round led by Susquehanna International Group and Lightspeed, with B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital participating — a $33 million post-money valuation, up from roughly $7.5 million after its July 2023 pre-seed
- Gushwork's platform deploys AI agents to generate search-optimized content, build 10 to 20 backlinks per customer through a network of 200 to 300 partner sites, and track inbound leads through an integrated CMS
- Gushwork has signed up more than 300 paying customers — roughly 95% in the U.S. — is running at $1.5 million ARR, is growing 50% to 80% month over month, and is targeting $3 million to $3.5 million ARR in the next three months
- AI-driven search and chat platforms account for only about 20% of website traffic for Gushwork's customers but generate around 40% of inbound leads, co-founder Bhattacharya said — a sign of higher purchase intent
- An unnamed professional services client has closed between $200,000 and $350,000 worth of contracts since adopting the platform, Bhattacharya said, adding the startup has 800+ businesses on its waitlist
- Gushwork was founded in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh, is headquartered in Delaware with a Bengaluru office, and employs about 70 people in India
Why it matters: Gushwork is staking an early claim on a new 'AI SEO' category as platforms like ChatGPT begin chipping away at Google search, with 300+ paying customers and 50–80% monthly growth backing the bet. If AI-driven discovery scales as the usage data suggests — 40% of leads from 20% of traffic — agencies and marketing tools optimized for LLM-based search could become a durable new layer of the B2B marketing stack.
