Observed Signal · Jul 7, 2026 · Company Profile · Source: Meedia · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
SEO, GEO & SEM Platform Market: Appearing in ChatGPT Gives Brands an Advantage — Rankscale
Mathias Ptacek, founder and CEO of Rankscale.ai, describes his startup’s work measuring brand and content visibility inside AI search systems and chat assistants. Rankscale statistically analyzes large sets of prompts sent to systems such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok to determine which sources and entities are cited and where brands appear within model answers. The company is self-funded with strategic investors and business angels, runs a small team (~9 employees) with plans to grow, and offers features including Prompt-Research, Facts pages and a Visibility Score. Ptacek stresses model differences (e.g., Copilot leans on SEO tools, ChatGPT often cites Reddit or tech sites), recommends structured, authoritative content and offsite PR for AI visibility, and notes legal/regulatory questions about content use remain unresolved.
Company-level coverage of a B2B SaaS that measures brand visibility inside LLMs; relevant to SEO/GEO and measurement teams but not a major platform policy or industry-shifting announcement.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Mathias Ptacek is founder and CEO of Rankscale.ai.
- Rankscale analyzes frequency and position of brands, products and content in answers from AI systems such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok.
- Rankscale is self-funded (no VC), backed by strategic investors and business angels.
- The company has about nine employees and plans to grow to roughly 15–16 people.
- Rankscale developed Prompt-Research features, uses Facts pages and reports a Visibility Score; a 700-query sample showed Copilot favors sources like Semrush and Ahrefs while ChatGPT often cites Reddit, Ars Technica and TechRadar.
Connected Companies & Entities
9 Entities mappedSocial platform monetised through community advertising and data licensing.
“Rankscale found that ChatGPT often draws heavily on sources such as Reddit in its answers....”
Perplexity
AI answer engine with subscriptions, enterprise plans, and developer API.
“He started by wanting to make his website more visible on Perplexity because his target audience used that service....”
Rankscale.ai
AI search visibility analytics platform for brands and agencies.
“Mathias Ptacek is founder and CEO of Rankscale.ai, a leading platform that analyzes, tracks and optimizes visibility in the age of AI search...”
neuroflash
AI marketing content suite for creation, governance and optimisation.
“The article notes Neuroflash is also active in this area, though Rankscale says it focuses on measurement rather than content creation....”
Ahrefs
SEO intelligence and web analytics software for marketers and agencies.
“In Rankscale's 700-query sample, Copilot's important sources included Ahrefs....”
Search, video, adtech and cloud giant within Alphabet.
“Rankscale sends prompts to systems including Gemini and observes different source weightings across models....”
Microsoft
Diversified software, cloud, advertising and gaming platform company.
“The interview contrasts ChatGPT and Copilot and notes that Copilot draws on a different set of sources and indexes....”
OpenAI
Foundation model company selling AI software, APIs and subscriptions.
“The platform analyzes how frequently and at which position brands, products or content appear in answers from ChatGPT....”
YouTube
Video platform monetising audiences through ads, subscriptions and creator tools.
“When viewing all systems together, platforms like YouTube and Reddit are among particularly strong sources for AI answers....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Track Real-Time Market Signals & Shifts
Set up custom watchlists to receive automated, evidence-grounded executive digests whenever material signals or shifts occur across your tracked landscape.