Searchable raises $14M to help brands win visibility in the age of AI search

Search used to be simple. A company fought for a spot on Google’s first page, bought ads, tuned keywords, and hoped customers clicked through. That system is starting to crack.

People are now asking ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity where to buy products, which software to trust, or what service to use. In many cases, the AI gives the answer directly. No click required.

That shift is setting off a scramble across the marketing industry as brands try to stay visible in AI-generated answers rather than in traditional search rankings. Searchable is one of the latest startups addressing this problem.

The AI performance marketing company, which helps brands improve visibility across AI-driven search platforms, has raised $14 million in funding led by venture capital firm Headline. The new round values the company at $85 million and reflects growing investor confidence in AI-native customer acquisition tools.

The funding arrives after a period of sharp growth for the company. Searchable says it hit $2 million in revenue within 4.5 months and signed nearly 1,000 customers during that period.

Headline’s portfolio includes companies like Bumble, Farfetch, Goop, and Sonos. The firm previously backed SEO software company Semrush, which later became a major player in the search marketing industry.

The timing of the investment reflects a growing belief across Silicon Valley that AI search may become one of the biggest disruptions to online discovery since Google reshaped the web two decades ago.

The numbers behind the shift are hard to ignore. AI-enabled search is projected to reach roughly 70% penetration by 2027. About 65% of searches already end without a click, and AI-generated summaries now appear in nearly half of Google searches.

That has left brands facing a new problem: if an AI assistant recommends competitors instead of them, traditional SEO rankings may no longer matter as much as they once did.

British serial entrepreneur and Searchable founder Chris Donnelly believes the shift is moving faster than many companies realize.

“Search is going through a once–in–a–generation reset. When an AI assistant recommends your brand, customers arrive with more trust and a shorter path to purchase. Based on our own data, customers are converting at 3x higher when they arrive from ChatGPT and other LLMs. If you aren’t visible in those answers, you’re giving ground to competitors every day,” Donnelly said.

Searchable says enterprise customers using the platform have reported an average 22% increase in AI-driven traffic within their first 60 days.

The startup works with brands including American Express, KPMG, and Siemens.

Dominic R. Wilhelm, Partner at Headline, said, “AI–driven discovery is rewriting how customers find products. As more searches are answered directly by AI, brands that are invisible in this layer of search will see less demand. The companies that adapt first will grow market share; those that don’t will lose it quietly.”

Wilhelm adds, “We see Searchable becoming part of the core infrastructure for this shift, not just reporting on what AI engines say about a brand, but directly improving the visibility and revenue outcomes that matter to management teams and boards.”

Founded in 2025, the company operates between New York and London and is incorporated in Delaware. Searchable tracks visibility across 10 AI search engines, connects with platforms like Google Analytics and Search Console, and uses AI agents to turn search data into recommended actions.

Donnelly, who previously sold SEO agency Verb for $25 million and helped scale Lottie Org to a nine-figure valuation, says the company expects major structural changes in search marketing over the next two years. That includes the automation of manual SEO work through AI agents, the rise of AI commerce as its own optimization category, and the merging of paid and organic AI visibility into unified attribution systems.

“For more than a decade, SEO has been labour–intensive and expensive. Over the next two years, a large share of that work becomes automatable. Our goal is to give companies an execution layer for AI search that cuts SEO costs by up to 40 percent while growing high–intent traffic,” Donnelly said.

For marketers, the message is becoming harder to dismiss. The fight for visibility is no longer happening only on Google’s search results page. Increasingly, it’s happening inside AI-generated answers where users may never click a link at all.