Obsero, a London-based generative engine optimisation platform and consultancy, has raised $1.2 million (€1 million) in seed funding led by SFC Capital. The round matters to the sector because brands need to know whether AI assistants are recommending them as consumers shift from conventional search to generated answers.

Professional investors, angel investors and several of Obsero’s customers also took part, and the company will use the funds to build specialist AI agents, more than double its engineering team and step up commercial efforts.

Obsero was founded in September 2025 by former IG Group colleagues Mike Logue and Andy Francos, who met there in 2019. Its platform sends simulated customer queries to Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT and records whether a brand appears, its position, the tone of the answer and the sites cited.

In its first year Obsero tracked and analysed more than 10 million AI answers, and its clients include Zopa Bank and Pepperstone, with agency partners IDHL and Silverbean.

The funding supports a shift from dashboard-based products to specialist agents trained on Obsero’s GEO playbook, a body of knowledge built over a year of client work on how AI engines discuss brands, which sources they rely on and how marketers can improve visibility.

Mike Logue, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Obsero, said: “When customers put their own money into your business, it tells you something no pitch deck can.”

Co-founder Andy Francos said: “Brands that assume their old playbook will carry over are already losing ground.”

Ed Stevenson, Fund Principal at SFC Capital, said: “AI assistants are quickly becoming the new front door to the internet, and brands need to know whether they’re being recommended.” SFC Capital, one of the UK’s most active seed investors, said Obsero’s focus on turning consultancy knowledge into software gave it a path to growth in a still-forming market.

The structural driver is the shift of discovery from conventional search to AI-generated answers, which creates demand for tools that show whether and how brands are cited.

For the sector, the round shows early investors backing companies that productise consultancy expertise into software agents in the emerging generative engine optimisation market.

Source: cmotech.uk / startuprise.co.uk / dealroom.co / tradingtechnology.org