Editorial illustration for article: Profound Reaches $1 Billion Valuation with $96M Series C, Cementing Category Leadership in AI Search Marketing
Profound, the New York AI visibility platform legally named Cooper Square Technologies Inc., raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation on September 15, 2026. Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Saga Ventures, Evantic and South Park Commons also participated. The round came less than seven months after Profound's $96 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation.
Profound sells software that shows marketers what buyers ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and what those assistants say back about a brand. This page tracks every funding round, what the money is for, and what the company's growth means for PR and communications teams. It was first published in April 2026 and updated in October 2026 to reflect the Series D.
What did Profound's September 2026 round change?
The Series D raised Profound's valuation from $1 billion to $1.8 billion, an increase of 80 percent in about seven months. Profound announced the round in a September 15, 2026 press release, and SiliconANGLE reported the same figures that day.
Profound said it will use the money to expand its applied AI lab in New York City and San Francisco. The lab studies how frontier AI models perform on marketing work and plans to post-train models for marketing. It is also building a benchmark that tests whether models can understand a business, weigh competing market signals and produce high-quality marketing work.
The press release also reports that Profound serves more than 1,000 enterprise brands and about one third of the Fortune 100. Those are Profound's own figures and have not been independently audited.
How has Profound's funding grown round by round?
Profound has announced five rounds since 2024, and the sums reported in the announcements add up to $334.5 million.
Round
Amount
Lead investor
Announced
Valuation
Seed
$3.5 million
Not named as a single lead
2024
Not disclosed
Series A
$20 million
Kleiner Perkins
June 2025
Not disclosed
Series B
$35 million
Sequoia Capital
August 2025
Not disclosed
Series C
$96 million
Lightspeed Venture Partners
February 24, 2026
$1 billion
Series D
$180 million
Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins
September 15, 2026
$1.8 billion
Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins have now backed Profound across multiple rounds, and Lightspeed, Khosla, Saga, Evantic and South Park Commons returned for the Series D, according to the company's release. Repeat investment from the same funds is the clearest signal in the table, because each fund committed again at a higher price. The Series A also included NVentures, the venture arm of NVIDIA, according to the Series A announcement.
Profound sells a workbench for tracking and acting on how AI assistants describe a brand. SiliconANGLE's September 2026 report describes a platform that identifies the prompts a brand's target buyers use, then suggests how to increase the frequency of brand mentions in chatbot answers.
The platform also checks whether AI answers describe a brand's products accurately, measures consumer sentiment around each product and finds prompts that cause AI tools to mention competitors. Profound says its prompt data comes from consumer panels, in which participants opt in twice before their queries are collected, and that it filters out prompts containing personal data.
The product has moved from measurement toward execution. Profound launched Profound Agents with the Series C in February 2026, added a feature called Aim that plans AI visibility work, and introduced Ads Studio for building and managing ads on AI search platforms. With the Series D, Profound announced AI Marketer, an agent that scans brand data, analyzes AI answers and deploys sub-agents to do the work, supported by a Context Manager that keeps brand positioning current.
Who founded Profound and who uses it?
Profound was co-founded by James Cadwallader, the chief executive, and Dylan Babbs, and it is headquartered in New York. Cadwallader has described AI search in Profound's February 2026 announcement as the biggest platform shift in the history of marketing.
The Series D release names customers including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, Walmart, Campari Group and Royal Bank of Canada, plus technology companies such as Zoom, ServiceNow, Ramp, Cursor, MongoDB and Figma. The February 2026 release described Deel, MongoDB and Plaid using Profound agents for content engines, visibility reporting and FAQ pages. All customer names come from Profound's announcements, not from independent confirmation.
How does Profound compare with other AI visibility platforms?
Profound is the best-funded company in a field that also includes Peec AI, which EPR covered when it raised a $21 million Series A. The most useful comparison between vendors is where their data comes from and what they do with it, not the size of the round.
Ask any AI visibility vendor four questions: where its prompt data comes from, how often it re-queries each AI engine, whether it measures accuracy of answers or only mentions, and whether its agents publish content or only recommend it. Profound's published answers are consumer panel data, ongoing monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, accuracy and sentiment checks, and agents that can draft and report. Compare each vendor's written answers to those four points before buying.
What does the Series D mean for PR and communications teams?
The Series D means the largest brands are paying for software that measures their AI answers, so PR teams now get asked for the same numbers. Profound's customers include Walmart, Comcast and The Estée Lauder Companies, and each of their communications teams can see which sources AI assistants draw on when they describe the brand.
Three steps follow for a communications team. Ask your marketing team whether the company already uses an AI visibility tool and request the report. Compare the sources it lists for your brand against your earned media, because third-party articles, reviews and reference pages feed AI answers alongside a brand's own site. Then fix the pages and facts that AI assistants repeat inaccurately, starting with the ones that name a competitor in your category.
PR agencies should expect clients to arrive with this data. Agencies that can explain which earned placements changed an AI answer, and show dated evidence, will hold their place in the conversation. The GEO guide explains the discipline, and the AI reputation management hub covers defense.
Profound's valuation is $1.8 billion after its $180 million Series D, announced on September 15, 2026. The previous valuation was $1 billion, set by its $96 million Series C in February 2026.
Who invested in Profound's Series D?
Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins co-led Profound's Series D. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Saga Ventures, Evantic and South Park Commons also participated, according to Profound's September 15, 2026 announcement.
How much has Profound raised in total?
Profound has announced $334.5 million across five rounds: $3.5 million seed, $20 million Series A, $35 million Series B, $96 million Series C and $180 million Series D. The total is the sum of the announced amounts and does not include any undisclosed funding.
What does Profound do?
Profound is a software platform that shows marketers which prompts buyers ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and what those assistants say about their brand. It also offers agents that research, write and report, and an ads tool for AI search platforms.
Who founded Profound?
James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs co-founded Profound. Cadwallader is the chief executive. The company is legally named Cooper Square Technologies Inc. and is based in New York.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
