According to EU-Startups, London-based startup Searchable has raised €3.4 million at a €34 million valuation, led by investor Freestyle VC. Founded in 2025 by serial entrepreneur Chris Donnelly, the company offers a tool that shows marketing teams how their brand is ranked and recommended by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Perplexity. In an invite-only soft launch, it generated six figures in recurring revenue within 24 hours, with clients reporting a 40% increase in AI visibility and a 50% cut in manual SEO work. Donnelly, who previously built and sold two companies including a luxury digital agency and a healthtech platform, built Searchable in just 60 days. The startup is positioning itself as the go-to platform for AI Search Engine Optimisation (AEO), a market projected to be worth billions by 2030.
How Searchable works
So, what does this thing actually do? Basically, it monitors your brand’s presence across conversational AI engines—think ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity—and then tells you what to do about it. It integrates with tools marketers already use, like Google Analytics, and lets them ask questions in plain English: “Which AI models recommend us?” or “Where are we losing visibility?” The platform then suggests actions, from rewriting content to tweaking metadata so it’s more readable for LLMs. It’s less about keywords for humans and more about optimizing for the AI that talks to humans. Here’s the thing: if an AI doesn’t cite you in its answer, you’re effectively invisible to a growing chunk of searchers. That’s the problem Searchable is trying to solve.
The bigger shift
This funding isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a clear bet by investors that AI search is the next frontier, and that the old SEO playbook is becoming obsolete. When the lead investor says “AEO has emerged as a defining consumer category,” they’re signaling a major pivot. Brands are apparently starting to migrate from established US competitors to these new AI-first tools. And look, the value proposition is straightforward: manual SEO is a grind, and if AI answers are replacing the traditional list of blue links, you need a new strategy. Donnelly’s quote says it all: “It’s the new front door to the internet. If you’re not indexed, you don’t exist.” It’s a stark warning that’s resonating with marketers scrambling to adapt.
Challenges and questions
Now, let’s be a bit skeptical. The space is getting crowded fast, and AI search itself is a moving target. How do you “optimize” for a black box that can change its algorithms overnight? Searchable’s roadmap mentions predictive modeling and automated training of AI systems, which sounds ambitious. And while early results like a 40% visibility boost are impressive, we have to wonder about scalability and long-term efficacy. Is this a permanent need, or just a transitional tool until the AI platforms themselves offer these analytics? Still, pulling in six-figure revenue instantly shows there’s real, urgent demand. Companies are clearly worried and willing to pay for a solution, even if the rules of the game are still being written.
