As AI-powered search platforms transform how businesses are discovered online, Gushwork, a startup founded in India, is positioning itself to help companies capture customer leads from tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Early momentum in this emerging space is now translating into investor backing.
The two-year-old company announced Thursday that it has secured $9 million in a seed funding round led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Lightspeed, with additional participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital. The round values Gushwork at $33 million post-money, a significant jump from the approximately $7.5 million valuation following its $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Lightspeed in July 2023, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to TechCrunch. With this latest round, Gushwork’s total funding now stands at $11 million.
The investment comes at a time when AI players such as OpenAI and Perplexity are beginning to challenge traditional search engines, prompting incumbents like Google to introduce AI-generated summaries and conversational features into their products. Gushwork is betting that this shift toward AI-driven discovery will create new marketing opportunities for businesses, powered by automated AI agents.
Founded in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh, Gushwork initially aimed to help small and medium-sized businesses outsource workflows through a combination of AI tools and human support. However, the company pivoted toward search-focused marketing after noticing strong demand from customers seeking better online visibility.
“When we started, we were focused on helping businesses outsource faster and outsource better,” Bhattacharya told TechCrunch in an interview, adding that growing customer interest in search optimization became increasingly difficult to overlook.
Gushwork’s platform deploys a network of AI agents to create and refresh search-optimized content, generate backlinks — typically between 10 and 20 per client — through a partner ecosystem of roughly 200 to 300 websites, and monitor inbound leads via an integrated content management system. According to Bhattacharya, the aim is to ensure businesses appear prominently in both conventional search listings and AI-generated responses without needing large internal marketing teams.
The startup reports more than 300 paying customers, with about 95% based in the United States. Subscription plans begin at $800 per month. After launching its AI search-focused product roughly three months ago, Gushwork is currently operating at around $1.5 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) and is targeting $3 million to $3.5 million ARR within the next three months. Bhattacharya said the company is growing between 50% and 80% month over month.
Internal data indicates that while approximately 20% of website traffic across Gushwork’s clients now originates from AI-driven search and chat platforms, these channels account for nearly 40% of inbound leads. Bhattacharya noted that these leads tend to show higher intent and stronger conversion potential.
Gushwork’s clientele is largely made up of high-value B2B service providers, industrial distributors, and contract manufacturers, primarily in the U.S. The average subscription fee ranges from $800 to $900 per month, translating to an annual contract value of roughly $9,000 to $10,000.
The broader shift toward AI-assisted discovery remains in its early phase but is accelerating. Generative AI chatbots and AI-enabled browsers are increasingly being used by buyers to evaluate vendors and products. In July 2025, OpenAI stated that ChatGPT was handling approximately 2.5 billion prompts daily worldwide, including about 330 million from U.S. users. Bhattacharya believes this behavioral shift is beginning to influence how businesses approach digital visibility strategies.
The newly raised capital will be directed toward expanding Gushwork’s engineering team, enhancing model performance, and scaling its go-to-market initiatives. Bhattacharya also revealed that more than 800 businesses are currently on the company’s waitlist, with onboarding set to begin soon.
Headquartered in Delaware with an operational office in Bengaluru, Gushwork employs around 70 people in India, along with several contractors, as it continues to build out its AI-driven search marketing platform.
