Conductor vs Profound

Conductor Pivots to AEO, Names New CEO

Conductor, an enterprise AEO platform, announced it is making answer engine optimization (AEO) the focus of its next chapter, one year after launching Conductor AI. The company also promoted Wei Zheng from Chief Product Officer to CEO, succeeding co-founder Seth Besmertnik, who will stay on the board. In its first year, Conductor AI was adopted by hundreds of enterprises, including Charter, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, and Atlassian, leading to 12x customer growth year-over-year. Conductor extended its intelligence into the AI ecosystem via AgentStack, with agencies and platforms like Optimizely, Acquia, Havas, and Capgemini building on its technology. The company positions AEO as an evolution of SEO, not a separate discipline, and plans to unveil the next major step in its AEO product vision at its C3 event in New York on October 28.

• Conductor is making AEO the focus of its next chapter, one year after launching Conductor AI.
• Wei Zheng has been promoted from Chief Product Officer to CEO, succeeding co-founder Seth Besmertnik.
• Conductor AI achieved 12x customer growth year-over-year and tripling new-logo growth quarter-over-quarter.

Conductor Content API: Optimize Content for AEO, Anywhere

Conductor's Content API brings Conductor’s AEO & SEO content optimization capabilities into any CMS or content hub, so every team can optimize for AI and search at scale.

Profound raises $180M in Series D to build your AI Marketer

Profound has raised $180M to build the AI platform for marketing. CEO James Cadwallader writes why AI is creating more work for marketers, and how AI Marketer brings company context and agents together to help teams do it.

Estée Lauder Adopts GEO for AI Visibility

Estée Lauder has forged a global partnership with AI marketing platform Profound to enhance its brands' visibility in generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini. The beauty conglomerate will leverage Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to analyze and improve how its products appear in AI-driven search and answer platforms. This initiative, integrated into its One Operating Ecosystem, marks a significant step in treating AI visibility as a core marketing discipline, with content optimization across product pages, blogs, and YouTube channels. The partnership highlights the growing importance of AI assistants as new discovery channels for consumers.

• Estée Lauder partners with Profound, an AI marketing platform, for global GEO strategy.
• Focus is on analyzing and optimizing brand presence in AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini.
• The initiative will be deployed across Estée Lauder's entire brand portfolio worldwide.

AI search marketing startup Profound raises $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation

Profound, a marketing software startup that helps brands appear in AI search results, announced a $180 million Series D funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation, just seven months after its $96 million Series C. The round was co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons. The company, which launched two years ago as an analytics platform, now focuses on generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), helping businesses understand how AI systems influence consumer brand discovery. Profound reports revenue growth of 3x in the past six months and serves over 1,000 enterprise customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Walmart. The funding will likely support expansion and product development in the rapidly growing AI search optimization space.

• Profound raised $180 million in Series D funding.
• The valuation is $1.8 billion, making Profound a unicorn.
• Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round.