The race to dominate AI-powered customer discovery just got a serious funding injection. Gushwork, a startup betting that tools like ChatGPT will fundamentally change how businesses find customers, closed a $9 million seed round led by SIG and Lightspeed India Venture Partners. The bet comes as early traction data shows AI search tools are already sending qualified leads to companies optimized for this new channel - a shift that could upend traditional SEO and paid advertising playbooks.
Gushwork just landed $9 million to solve a problem most businesses don't yet realize they have - how to get discovered when potential customers ask ChatGPT for recommendations instead of Googling. The seed round, co-led by Susquehanna International Group and Lightspeed India Venture Partners, arrives as concrete data emerges showing AI search tools are already driving measurable customer traffic to prepared companies.
The timing reflects a fundamental shift in how business discovery happens. While traditional SEO has dominated customer acquisition for two decades, AI-powered search through tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews introduces an entirely new paradigm. Instead of ranking web pages, these systems synthesize information and make direct recommendations - often bypassing traditional search results entirely.
"We're seeing early but consistent traction from customers who found us through AI search tools," according to sources familiar with Gushwork's operations. That traction - concrete enough to convince institutional investors to write checks - validates what many in Silicon Valley have been speculating: AI search isn't just changing how people find information, it's creating a new customer acquisition channel that requires different optimization strategies than Google ever did.
The $9 million war chest positions Gushwork to build out what's essentially an AI search optimization platform - the equivalent of SEO tools for a world where large language models mediate discovery. The approach tackles questions traditional marketers haven't had to consider: How do you ensure an AI recommends your product? What signals do these systems prioritize? How do you measure and optimize for AI-driven referrals?
