Gushwork Taps AI Search for Leads, Sees Early Wins

As the landscape of online business discovery undergoes a significant transformation driven by AI-powered search technologies, Gushwork, an India-founded startup, is emerging as a key player. The company specializes in assisting businesses in attracting customers from prominent AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, demonstrating early success that has begun to garner substantial investor interest.

The two-year-old startup announced on Thursday the successful closure of a $9 million seed funding round. This round was co-led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Lightspeed, with additional participation from B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital. This latest investment elevates Gushwork's post-money valuation to $33 million, a notable increase from approximately $7.5 million after its Lightspeed-led $2.1 million pre-seed round in July 2023, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to TechCrunch. With this financing, Gushwork’s total funding now stands at $11 million.

This capital injection arrives at a pivotal moment, as AI companies like OpenAI and Perplexity increasingly challenge the dominance of traditional web search. This shift has prompted established players, including Google, to integrate AI-generated overviews and other conversational features into their search products. Gushwork is strategically positioned to capitalize on this evolving paradigm, aiming to empower businesses to achieve greater visibility within these burgeoning AI-driven discovery channels through its advanced automated marketing agents.

Co-founded in 2023 by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh, Gushwork initially focused on streamlining workflow outsourcing for small and medium-sized businesses, leveraging a blend of AI and human expertise. However, the startup strategically pivoted its focus towards search-led marketing, responding to overwhelming customer demand for solutions to enhance their online visibility.

Reflecting on this strategic evolution, Bhattacharya told TechCrunch in an interview, "When we started, we were focused on helping businesses outsource faster and outsource better." He further noted that the strong customer interest in search-related solutions became increasingly compelling and ultimately undeniable.

Gushwork's innovative platform employs a sophisticated network of AI agents to automatically generate and consistently update search-optimized content. Furthermore, it facilitates the creation of backlinks—typically between 10 to 20 per customer—through an extensive network of approximately 200 to 300 partner websites. The platform also integrates a content management system to track inbound leads effectively. Bhattacharya highlighted that the core objective is to ensure businesses gain prominence in both conventional search results and AI-generated answers, all without the necessity of maintaining large in-house marketing teams.

The startup reports a robust customer base of over 300 paying clients, with approximately 95% of them situated in the U.S., subscribing to services starting at $800 per month. Since launching its AI search-focused product about three months ago, Gushwork has achieved an annualized recurring revenue (ARR) of approximately $1.5 million. Bhattacharya stated that the company is targeting an ARR of $3 million to $3.5 million within the next three months, underscoring its rapid expansion with month-over-month growth ranging from 50% to 80%.

According to Gushwork’s internal data, Bhattacharya revealed that AI-driven search and chat platforms now account for about 20% of customer website traffic. More significantly, these sources are responsible for approximately 40% of inbound leads, indicating a higher quality of engagement from these channels.

Bhattacharya confirmed that these higher-intent leads are already yielding tangible business outcomes for several clients. As an example, he cited a professional services client who successfully closed contracts valued between $200,000 and $350,000 after implementing the platform, though he withheld the client's name. He added that numerous users are experiencing substantial pipeline growth as AI-driven discovery continues to gain momentum.

Currently, Gushwork’s customer base is primarily concentrated among high-ticket B2B service providers, industrial distributors, and contract manufacturers, predominantly located in the U.S., Bhattacharya explained. The average subscription for the startup ranges from about $800 to $900 per month, translating to an annual contract value of roughly $9,000 to $10,000.

While the transition towards AI-driven discovery is still in its nascent stages, it is rapidly gaining traction. Buyers are increasingly utilizing tools such as generative AI chatbots and AI web browsers for researching vendors and products. OpenAI reported in July 2025 that ChatGPT received approximately 2.5 billion prompts daily worldwide, with roughly 330 million originating from U.S. users. Bhattacharya emphasized that this burgeoning trend is fundamentally reshaping how some businesses approach their online visibility strategies.

Gushwork intends to deploy its new funding to bolster its engineering team, enhance the accuracy of its AI models, and significantly scale its go-to-market initiatives, Bhattacharya confirmed. He also mentioned that the startup has a substantial waitlist of over 800 businesses, which it plans to begin onboarding in the near future.

The startup maintains its headquarters in Delaware, complemented by a significant operational office in Bengaluru, India. It employs approximately 70 individuals in India, alongside a network of contractors.