Prompting gets $6.5M to help products get mentioned in ChatGPT and other AI applications

People are increasingly asking AI, not Google, to help them discover products. This holiday season, Americans are more likely to turn to large language displays to find gifts, deals and sales rather than traditional search, a recent shopping report says.

Retailers could see up to a 520% ​​increase in traffic from chatbots and AI claims in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the report. For brands, this means knowing how to show up in AI-generated recommendations, fast.

This increase in AI-driven traffic is the bet behind The Prompting Company, a YC-backed startup that helps mention products in AI applications through GEO (generative engine optimization), a strategy designed for a future where AI agents browse the internet on behalf of users.

The four-month-old startup, founded by Kevin Chandra, Michele Marcellin, and Albert Purnama, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding and counts Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop as clients.

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

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

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

Here’s how the platform works: First, it identifies and analyzes questions asked by AI agents through inquiry models to uncover specific queries related to purchase intent. It then creates structured content that answers these questions and automatically directs AI customers to “AI-optimized pages.”

The Y Combinator-backed startup helps companies publish thousands of AI-friendly pages so MBAs can cite their answers even when they don’t rank in traditional SEO. (YC has backed similar startups, including Relixir, Writesonic, and Bear.)

While SEO is still important, Chandra says GEO is quickly becoming a priority for brands. At GEO, product results appear organically based on their relevance to the conversation, not paid keywords or search rankings.

This shift may also change how people buy products. Emerging protocols, including Google’s Agent2Agent framework and OpenAI’s partnership with Stripe, can further accelerate the adoption process 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,” Chandra said. “Users can purchase items, return products, compare products, or search for promotions. We are helping our customers expose these actions to AI agents. Currently, these agents have not yet clicked on these options or accessed the APIs directly, but we expect that to change in the coming months.” “Once this becomes more widespread and attribution improves, we see a path toward more ad- or conversion-based models. Right now, we’re focused on helping businesses get discovered and recommended by AI.”

To date, Prompting Company mostly serves FinTech, developer tools, and enterprise SaaS clients. The team says a Fortune 10 company is also using their product, currently hosting about half a million pages.

Overall, traffic to client sites reaches double-digit millions per month. Prompting uses a subscription model, charging customers based on the number of claims tracked and pages hosted.

The company’s founders, Indonesian immigrants who met as freshmen, previously built YC-backed Typedream (YC W20), a startup that allowed users to build and launch websites in minutes using AI, before newcomers and darlings took off (beehiiv acquired Typedream last June). The founders also built Cotter, a passwordless authentication SDK that was acquired by Stytch.

With The Prompting Company, they are trying to change the way people discover and buy products in the age of artificial intelligence. The seed money, raised from Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop and angels, including Logan Kilpatrick, will help the company scale its platform and partnerships as AI-powered discovery becomes the new distribution channel. The startup is also collaborating with Nvidia on next-generation AI research.

“If your product isn’t discovered or cited in ChatGPT, you… ngmisaid Arnav Sahu, Partner at Peak Kevin, Michelle, and Albert are frequent YC founders, and they are amazing.