The Prompting Company snags $6.5M to help products get mentioned in ChatGPT and other AI apps

People are increasingly asking AI, not Google, to help them discover products. A recent one shopping Reports suggest that Americans, this holiday season, will likely turn to big language models this season to find gifts, deals and sales instead of traditional searches.

According to the report, retailers could see a 520% ​​increase in traffic from chatbots and AI prompts in 2025 compared to 2024. For brands, this means figuring out how to show up on AI-generated recommendations, and quickly.

Bet behind this wave of AI-powered traffic Prompting CompanyA YC-backed startup helps refer products to AI apps through GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), a technique designed for a future where AI agents browse the Internet on behalf of users.

The four-month-old startup, founded by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcellin And Albert PoonamaRaised $6.5 million in seed funding and already counts Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop as customers.

“Over the past year, most of the growth in websites has come from AI bots, not humans,” co-founder and CEO Chandra told TechCrunch in an interview. “We’re already seeing developers ask AI tools for product recommendations within their workflows, and we think, over time, people will be less involved in parts of the purchase funnel.”

As AI becomes the first touchpoint for product discovery and agents ultimately transact on behalf of users, The Prompting Company believes brands must learn how to market To agents as well as people.

What this means, according to Chandra, is that brands will need an AI-facing website, a version of their site designed for agents without navigation bars, pop-ups, or marketing fluff. “Most businesses still only design websites for people,” Chandra told TechCrunch. “But the fastest growing segment of users on the Internet today are AI agents and they need a completely different interface.”

Here’s how the platform works: First, it identifies and analyzes the questions AI agents are asking by examining models to uncover specific purchase-intent questions. It then creates structured content that answers those questions and automatically routes AI agents to “AI-optimized pages.”

D Y is a combinator-backed startup Helps companies publish thousands of AI-friendly pages so that LLMs can cite their answers even when they don’t rank in traditional SEO. (YC has backed similar startups, including Relixir, Rightesonic, and Beer.)

While SEO is still important, Chandra argues that SEO is fast becoming a priority for brands. On Geo, product results are organically viewed based on conversational relevance, not paid keywords or search rankings.

This change can also change how people buy products. Emerging protocols, including Google’s Agent-to-Agent Framework and OpenAI’s partnership with Stripe, can further accelerate adoption by allowing AI agents to browse and complete purchases on behalf of users, moving them from discovery to transaction.

“Imagine you are a large e-commerce store. Users can buy items, return, compare products or search for promotions. We help our customers expose those actions to AI agents. Right now, these agents are not yet clicking on those options or accessing the API directly, but we expect that to change in the coming months,” said Chandra. “Once it becomes widespread and attribution improves, we’ll see a path toward more ad- or conversion-driven models. For now, we’re focused on helping companies discover and recommend with AI.”

As of now, the prompting company mostly serves fintech, developer tools and enterprise SaaS customers. The team said a Fortune 10 company is also using its product, for which it currently hosts nearly half a million pages.

Overall, traffic driven to client sites is in the double-digit millions per month. The prompting company uses a subscription model, charging customers based on the number of prompts tracked and pages hosted.

The company’s founders, Indonesian immigrants who met as freshmen, previously built YC-backed Typedream (YC W20), a startup that allows users to build and launch websites with AI in minutes, before Loveable and new entrants get started (beehiiv acquired Typedream last June). The founders also created Cotter, a passwordless authentication SDK that was acquired by Stytch.

With The Prompting Company, they are trying to change how people discover and buy products in the AI ​​age. Seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop and Angels, along with Logan Kilpatrick, will help the company grow its platform and partnerships as AI-driven discovery becomes new distribution channels. The startup is collaborating with NVIDIA to explore next-generation AI.

“If your product is not discovered or cited on ChatGPT, then you i am standing“said Arnab Sahu, Partner at Peak XV Partners. “We’re thrilled to support The Prompting Company as they build key infrastructure for product discovery – already powering Fortune 10 companies and fast-growing startups. Kevin, Michelle and Albert are repeat YC founders, and they’re awesome.”