Searchable, a performance marketing startup, has just raised $14 million in funding led by venture capital firm Headline, valuing the company at $85 million.

Searchable is positioning itself as an infrastructure layer for this new form of discovery. The platform helps companies track how they appear across multiple AI search engines and provides recommendations to improve their visibility.

“Search is going through a once–in–a–generation reset. When an AI assistant recommends your brand, customers arrive with more trust and a shorter path to purchase. Based on our own data, customers are converting at 3x higher when they arrive from ChatGPT and other LLMs. If you aren’t visible in those answers, you’re giving ground to competitors every day,” Donnelly said.

The startup integrates with tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console, using AI agents to convert search data into actionable insights.

Investor confidence grows in AI search disruption

The company’s early growth has attracted investor attention. Searchable reports that it reached $2 million in revenue within four and a half months of launch and signed nearly 1,000 customers during that period.

Its client roster already includes major global organisations such as American Express, KPMG and Siemens.

The funding round led by Headline signals growing confidence among investors that AI-driven search will become a defining layer of the internet economy.

Headline’s portfolio includes companies such as Bumble, Farfetch, Goop and Sonos. The firm also previously backed SEO platform Semrush, underscoring its long-standing interest in search-driven markets.

According to Chris Donnelly, the shift is not only changing visibility dynamics but also improving conversion rates for brands that succeed within AI ecosystems.

Searchable claims that enterprise clients using its platform have recorded an average 22 per cent increase in AI-driven traffic within their first 60 days.

Automation and the future of SEO

The rise of AI search is also expected to reshape the operational side of marketing.

Donnelly argues that much of the manual work associated with SEO, traditionally labour-intensive and costly will become increasingly automated over the next two years. This includes content optimisation, keyword analysis and performance tracking.

Searchable aims to capitalise on this shift by providing what it describes as an “execution layer” for AI search, with the goal of reducing SEO costs by up to 40 per cent while increasing high-intent traffic.

The company also anticipates the emergence of new categories, including AI commerce optimisation and unified attribution systems that combine paid and organic visibility within AI-driven environments.

A structural reset in digital discovery

The broader implication of this shift is a redefinition of how the internet functions as a discovery platform.

Where users once navigated lists of links, they are now engaging with curated answers generated by AI systems. This transition compresses the customer journey, reduces the role of traditional web traffic, and increases the importance of trust signals embedded within AI recommendations.

For marketers, the challenge is no longer limited to ranking on search engines. It now extends to influencing how AI systems interpret, rank and recommend brands within their responses..

For companies like Searchable, this represents a significant opportunity to define the tools and infrastructure that will underpin the next phase of digital marketing.

Talking Points

At Techparley, we see the rise of AI-driven search as one of the most significant shifts in digital marketing since the emergence of traditional search engines, fundamentally changing how users discover products and services.

It is particularly striking that platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity are increasingly providing direct answers, reducing the need for users to click through to websites and weakening the dominance of traditional SEO models.

This shift places companies like Searchable in a strong position, as brands now need tools that help them understand and influence how they appear within AI-generated responses.

The early traction reported by Searchable, including rapid revenue growth and enterprise adoption, suggests that demand for AI-native marketing solutions is already materialising rather than remaining theoretical.

With the right execution, platforms like Searchable could become core infrastructure in this new ecosystem, helping brands remain visible in a world where the customer journey increasingly begins and ends within an AI-generated answer.

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