Profound is a marketing platform pioneering Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) - the discipline of optimizing brand visibility inside AI-powered search. It analyzes millions of queries to reveal what people ask AI, tracks how brands appear in responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Google AI Overviews, and monitors AI crawler activity on a brand's site.
Its product suite includes Prompt Volumes, Answer Engine Insights, autonomous marketing Agents (for AEO, content and PR), Agent Analytics and Shopping visibility features. The platform positions itself as foundational infrastructure for the shift from blue links to AI answers.
Profound was founded in 2024 in New York City by James Cadwallader (CEO) and Dylan Babbs (CTO), who met at South Park Commons. It raised a $20M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins (with Khosla Ventures, NVIDIA NVentures, Saga Ventures and others) in mid-2025, a $35M Series B led by Sequoia in August 2025, and a further $96M round in February 2026, with total funding exceeding $150M.
The platform offers a freemium model with free agents plus paid and enterprise tiers, and supports many AI engines.
Profound competes in the emerging AI search visibility/GEO category, aiming to be the analytics and optimization layer for brands in the AI answer era.