Athena, a fast growing AI startup, today announced a $2.2 million seed round to tackle what it calls the next frontier in search and ecommerce: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Backed by Y Combinator, FCVC, Red Bike Capital, Amino Capital and SEO veterans Eli Schwartz and Ashley Stirrup, Athena has already signed more than 70 customers, including Coupons.com, Checkr, Artisan and Ollie, and claims to deliver up to a 10× boost in AI‐driven traffic for its users.
The Case for GEO
For two decades, marketers have funneled billions into traditional SEO tactics to game Google’s rankings. Now, enterprise buyers and consumers alike are increasingly turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for product research and quick answers. When these tools surface a brand, they cite it directly, often bypassing web pages altogether. Athena’s co-founders, former Google Search engineer Andrew Yan and ex-ServiceNow AI engineer Alan Yao, saw in that shift a huge opportunity and sought to build a platform that helps brands understand their position in AI search in minutes.
How It Works
Athena’s platform ingests and analyzes more than 3 million real-world AI responses, mapping them to over 300,000 citation sites that large-language models draw from. In minutes, Athena scans a customer’s existing assets, text, images, video and structured data, and surfaces precise recommendations: tweak this prompt, update that headline, optimize these metadata fields. The result, according to co-founder Yao, is “actionable intelligence that turns AI citations into a repeatable growth channel.”
Here’s what Athena customer Robert Dickson, Head of Operations at AutoRFP.ai said about the product: “LLM-Search has been the hidden growth lever for AutoRFP.ai. Over 30% of inbound leads research with ChatGPT before booking a demo. Athena gives us the power to influence that research by identifying new prompts and content opportunities.”
Backing From SEO Pros
Angel investor and SEO advisor Eli Schwartz believes GEO will reshape digital marketing budgets over the next decade: “AI search is unlocking trillions in B2B and consumer spending,” he says. “Athena gives brands the speed and precision to capture that spend before it vanishes into a black box.” Former Algolia and Talend CMO Ashley Stirrup adds, “This platform shift demands new playbooks—AthenaHQ is emerging as the essential tool for brands that want real visibility in AI chat.”
What’s Next for Athena
With its seed round closed, Athena plans to double down on deeper analytics, bespoke integrations for SaaS and e-commerce platforms, and AI-driven shopping modules that link conversational answers to checkout flows. As “conversational consumers” become the norm, Athena aims to be the go-to platform for brands seeking top billing in the era of AI search. Brands can try an instant demo of the product at https://athenahq.ai.
