A startup that helps brands show up in AI search results and chatbot conversations has raised $4 million in funding.
London-based Azoma aims to capitalize on the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO), a strategy to make content more visible in AI overviews and chatbots like ChatGPT.
“We’re helping the world’s most recognizable brands to stay relevant in the era of AI search,” Max Sinclair, the CEO and cofounder of Azoma, told Business Insider.
Azoma, founded in 2022, has developed two patented technologies. One is what it calls a “digital twin” to simulate how brands appear in AI chatbot responses. Most conversations with chatbots are private, so Azoma creates profiles of people matching a client’s target customer demographic, then uses those to submit a “very large volume” of prompts to see what the chatbot says about a brand.
For example, Azoma could send 100,000 prompts asking for the best coffee shop in a city from the profile of a man in his 30s, Sinclair said. Azoma would then assess how its client ranks in those chatbot answers versus its competitors.
Azoma’s second solution is generating content, such as product listings, that it says is optimized to appear in AI search results and chatbot answers.
Sinclair said Azoma is a software-as-a-service platform that charges brands on a per-use basis and retailers by product categories. Its clients include the likes of Mars, Colgate, Zappos, and P&G. Azoma achieved profitability earlier this year, Sinclair said.
The GEO and answer engine optimization market is a young and competitive space where the rules are still being written.
Search engine optimization experts from companies like Google and Microsoft previously told Business Insider that some SEO principles still apply to GEO, such as creating relevant content. Sinclair, a former Amazon executive, said he agrees with the top-level principles, but large language models have changed the game.
“The way these LLMs work is totally, totally different. It’s a totally new technology,” Sinclair said. He explained that this is because the number of keywords is much greater in AI search versus traditional search, and because AI has significantly more context about the user.
Investors in the pre-Series A funding round included Ignite Ventures, Rank Ventures, eBay Ventures x Techstars, Twinpath, MaRS ISF, plus angel investors.
Azoma, which was also cofounded by Timur Luguev, who has a Ph.D. in computer science, plans to use the fresh capital to invest in R&D and expand its commercial operations by hiring for sales and customer success roles.
Here’s an exclusive look at the 19-page pitch deck Azoma used to raise its $4 million pre-Series AI round.
