As AI search tools transform how companies are found online, the India-founded startup Gushwork is enabling businesses to attract customers from platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity—a strategy that is gaining early momentum and attracting investor interest.

The two-year-old company announced it has secured $9 million in a seed funding round led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Lightspeed. The round also included participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital. This investment values Gushwork at $33 million post-money, a significant increase from its previous valuation of approximately $7.5 million after a $2 million round led by Lightspeed. With this latest capital, Gushwork’s total funding now stands at $11 million.

This fundraising arrives at a time when AI companies, including OpenAI and Perplexity, are gradually disrupting traditional web search, leading incumbents like Google to introduce AI-generated overviews and conversational features into their search products. Gushwork is positioning itself to capitalize on this shift by helping businesses appear in AI-driven discovery channels through its automated marketing agents.

Founded in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh, Gushwork initially assisted small and medium-sized businesses with outsourcing workflows using a combination of AI and human expertise. The startup later refined its focus toward search-led marketing after observing strong customer demand for improving online visibility.

Gushwork’s platform employs a network of AI agents to automatically create and update search-optimized content, establish backlinks—typically 10 to 20 per client—through a network of about 200 to 300 partner websites, and monitor inbound leads via an integrated content management system. According to Bhattacharya, the objective is to help businesses appear in both traditional search results and AI-generated answers without needing large in-house marketing teams.

The startup reports it has onboarded more than 300 paying customers, with roughly 95% based in the U.S. Subscription plans start at $800 per month. Since launching its AI search-focused product about three months ago, Gushwork is currently operating at approximately $1.5 million in annualized recurring revenue. The company aims to reach between $3 million and $3.5 million in ARR within the next three months, with month-over-month growth ranging from 50% to 80%.

Based on internal data, Bhattacharya noted that about 20% of website traffic across Gushwork’s customer base now comes from AI-driven search and chat platforms. However, these sources contribute around 40% of inbound leads. He emphasized that these higher-intent leads are already generating tangible business results for some clients. For example, one professional services customer secured contracts worth between $200,000 and $350,000 after adopting the platform, though the client’s name was not disclosed. Many users are reportedly seeing significant pipeline growth as AI-driven discovery gains adoption.

Gushwork’s current customer base is primarily concentrated among high-ticket B2B service providers, industrial distributors, and contract manufacturers, mostly in the U.S. The average subscription runs between $800 and $900 per month, equating to an annual contract value of roughly $9,000 to $10,000.

The move toward AI-driven discovery is still emerging but accelerating. Buyers are increasingly using generative AI chatbots and AI web browsers to research vendors and products. OpenAI reported in July 2025 that ChatGPT receives about 2.5 billion prompts daily worldwide, including approximately 330 million from U.S. users. Bhattacharya observed that this trend is starting to reshape how some businesses approach online visibility.

Gushwork intends to use the new funding to grow its engineering team, enhance model accuracy, and scale its go-to-market initiatives. Bhattacharya added that the startup has a waitlist of over 800 businesses that it plans to begin onboarding.

Headquartered in Delaware with an office in Bengaluru, Gushwork currently employs about 70 people in India, in addition to several contractors.