Gushwork: Revolutionizing Online Business Discovery with AI Search Tools
As AI technology continues to reshape the landscape of online search, a new player has emerged to help businesses stand out in the crowd. Indian startup, Gushwork, is banking on the rise of AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to help businesses attract customers. This innovative approach has started to gain momentum and is attracting significant investor support.
Gushwork’s Journey: Funding and Growth
The two-year-old startup has recently announced that it successfully raised $9 million in a funding round. This round was led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Lightspeed, with participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital. The funding round has significantly increased Gushwork’s post-money valuation to $33 million, up from a modest $7.5 million after its previous funding round in July 2023. This recent development takes Gushwork’s total funding to $11 million.
The Shift towards AI-powered Search
As AI companies like OpenAI and Perplexity start challenging traditional web search, established players such as Google have started integrating AI-generated previews and conversational features into their search products. Gushwork is capitalizing on this shift, using its automated marketing agents to help businesses appear in AI-powered discovery channels.
Founding and Initial Focus
Gushwork was founded in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh. Initially, the startup aimed to help small and medium-sized businesses streamline their workflows using a blend of AI and human expertise. Over time, the startup shifted its focus to search-based marketing after recognizing a strong customer demand for improved online visibility.
The Gushwork Platform: A Blend of AI and Marketing
Gushwork’s platform leverages a network of AI agents to automatically generate and update search-optimized content. It builds backlinks through a network of partner websites and tracks inbound leads with an integrated content management system. The goal is to help businesses secure a spot in both traditional search results and AI-generated responses, reducing the need for extensive internal marketing teams.
Growth and Customer Base
Despite being a relatively new entrant in the market, Gushwork has already amassed more than 300 paying customers, with the majority based in the U.S. The startup is currently generating about $1.5 million in annualized recurring revenue and is aiming for an ARR of $3-3.5 million over the next three months. Interestingly, about 20% of the website traffic for Gushwork’s customer base comes from AI-powered search and chat platforms, accounting for about 40% of the inbound leads.
Future Plans
With the new funding, Gushwork plans to expand its engineering team, enhance model accuracy, and scale up its commercialization efforts. The startup has a waiting list of more than 800 companies that it plans to begin onboarding soon.
As the transition to AI-driven discovery gains momentum, innovative startups like Gushwork are leading the way in reshaping how businesses approach online visibility. The startup, headquartered in Delaware with an office in Bangalore, currently employs around 70 people in India, along with several contractors. The future of online business discovery seems exciting, indeed!
