Product search is changing as consumers are asking questions not of Google, but of ChatGPT. And the promise of giving brands visibility and control over this fast-growing search channel has made Peak AI one of Europe’s hottest startups.
Just four months after its seed round led by 20VC, the Berlin-based startup has raised a $21 million Series A led by European VC firm Cingular. CEO Marius Meiners declined to disclose the valuation, but said it has tripled and is now above $100 million.
This comes as Peak AI grew its annual recurring revenue to over $4 million in just ten months since its launch, attracting 1,300 companies and agencies to its platform.
These clients use Peak AI to monitor how their brands appear in AI-powered searches. But beyond analytics on viewability and rankings, Peak AI also tracks sentiment – and which sources shape these responses.
These insights are what make generative engine optimization (GEO) possible – a way for marketing teams to optimize their brand’s appearance in AI search results, similar to how SEO works for traditional search engines. With this promise, the startup says it is now adding around 300 customers per month, and its new funding will accelerate this growth and also support expansion plans.
Thanks to its fresh round, which was also backed by Antler, Combination VC, Identity.VC, and S20, the startup plans to hire around 40 people over the next six months. These roles are mostly based in Berlin, where Meiners met two of his co-founders at Antler’s Winter 2024 cohort: Tobias Sivonia is now Peak AI’s CTO, and Daniel Drebow is its CRO.
Expanding quickly and becoming visible could be the key to winning in an emerging category that may soon become crowded, which already includes New York-based Profound and Austrian startup OtterlyAI.
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To help attract more talent, the 20-person startup is currently advertising itself on large outdoor advertisements across the German capital. But beyond its Berlin plans, Meiners told TechCrunch that Peak AI also plans to open a sales-focused office in New York City in the second quarter of next year.
As more GEO-centric tools become available, and SEO dashboards add AI tracking capabilities, Peec hopes to differentiate itself by offering AI marketing teams a dashboard that expands in scope while remaining simple to use, despite the rapidly changing nature of AI searches.
Instead of revolving around keywords like SEO tools, Peak AI’s dashboard focuses on the signals brands want to look good for in search results. Customers can track up to 25 signals for €75 per month ($87), which can be expanded to 100 signals for €169 per month ($196). Both plans offer a free trial, unlike their enterprise offering, which starts at €424 per month ($493).
To make these insights actionable, the dashboard also suggests actions that can improve visibility and positive sentiment. For example, its home page suggests that a company that wants to answer a question on “the best CRM for fast-growing companies” might want to “join the r/CRM subreddit discussions” on Reddit.
This recommendation also relates to the “source insights” that lie at the core of Peak AI and can guide its users’ content strategy. The startup observed that mentions in Tier 1 media outlets do not deliver more visibility than articles from lesser-known publications whose headlines are closer to the original question – for example, “Best Health Care Investor in Berlin”.
Companies that are already using its tools include Axel Springer, Channel, N8N, ElevenLabs, TUI, and more as AI search continues to take hold in both the B2C and B2B sectors. However, users turn to ChatGPT and the like for many other tasks and requests, meaning startups have to reduce the noise behind the scenes.
To achieve this, Peak AI purchased the raw dataset of these requests, but this is just the beginning. ,We have to filter all of this to really know the questions that people ask about brands or shopping and products and services,” Meiners said.
For all its simplicity on the outside, that proprietary data pipeline may be the key to Peak AI’s success. It also serves as a reminder that the AI value chain is not just about models and that the AI application layer and underlying data has become a key area for European startups, now including Peak AI.
