As AI-powered search instruments reshape how companies are found on-line, India-founded startup Gushwork helps corporations seize clients from platforms equivalent to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — with early traction that’s starting to attract investor help.
The 2-year-old startup stated Thursday it had raised $9 million in a seed spherical led by Susquehanna Worldwide Group (SIG) and Lightspeed, with participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and a pair of.2 Capital. The spherical values Gushwork at $33 million post-money, up from about $7.5 million following its Lightspeed-led $2.1 million pre-seed in July 2023, an individual acquainted with the matter instructed TechCrunch. The most recent financing brings Gushwork’s complete funding to $11 million, the startup stated.
The funding comes as AI corporations, together with OpenAI and Perplexity, start to chip away at conventional net search, prompting incumbents like Google to roll out AI-generated overviews and different conversational options throughout their search merchandise. Gushwork is betting this shift will create a brand new alternative to assist companies floor in AI-driven discovery channels utilizing its automated advertising brokers.
Based in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya (pictured above, proper) and Adithya Venkatesh (pictured above, left), Gushwork initially targeted on serving to small and medium companies outsource workflows utilizing a mixture of AI and human experience. The startup started narrowing its focus towards search-led advertising after seeing robust buyer demand for assist with bettering on-line visibility.
“Once we began, we had been targeted on serving to companies outsource sooner and outsource higher,” Bhattacharya instructed TechCrunch in an interview, including that the pull round search from clients turned more and more onerous to disregard.
Gushwork’s platform makes use of a community of AI brokers to robotically generate and replace search-optimized content material; construct backlinks — sometimes 10 to twenty per buyer — via a community of roughly 200 to 300 companion web sites; and monitor inbound leads via an built-in content material administration system. The aim, Bhattacharya stated, is to assist companies floor in each conventional search outcomes and AI-generated solutions with out counting on giant in-house advertising groups.
The startup says it has signed up greater than 300 paying clients — roughly 95% of them within the U.S. — with subscriptions beginning at $800 monthly. Gushwork is presently working at about $1.5 million in annualized recurring income after rolling out its AI search-focused product round three months in the past and is focusing on $3 million to $3.5 million ARR within the subsequent three months, Bhattacharya stated, including that the startup is rising about 50% to 80% month over month.
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Throughout Gushwork’s buyer base, about 20% of web site visitors now comes from AI-driven search and chat platforms, however these sources account for round 40% of inbound leads, Bhattacharya stated, citing the startup’s inner knowledge.
The upper-intent leads, Bhattacharya stated, are already translating into enterprise outcomes for some clients. In a single case, an expert providers consumer has closed between $200,000 and $350,000 value of contracts after adopting the platform, he stated, declining to reveal the shopper’s identify. He added that many customers are seeing significant pipeline development as AI-driven discovery positive factors traction.
Gushwork’s buyer base immediately is concentrated amongst high-ticket B2B service suppliers, industrial distributors, and contract producers, primarily within the U.S., Bhattacharya stated. The startup’s common subscription runs about $800 to $900 monthly, or roughly $9,000 to $10,000 in annual contract worth, he added.
The shift towards AI-driven discovery remains to be in its early levels however is gaining momentum. Instruments equivalent to generative AI chatbots and AI net browsers are more and more being utilized by patrons to analysis distributors and merchandise. OpenAI stated in July 2025 that ChatGPT acquired about 2.5 billion prompts a day globally, together with roughly 330 million from U.S. customers. Bhattacharya stated the pattern is starting to reshape how some companies method on-line visibility.
Gushwork plans to make use of the brand new funding to broaden its engineering staff, enhance mannequin accuracy, and scale its go-to-market efforts, Bhattacharya stated. He added that the startup has greater than 800 companies on its waitlist that it plans to start onboarding.
The startup, headquartered in Delaware with an workplace in Bengaluru, has about 70 workers in India, together with a number of contractors.
