AEO became a funded software category in the second half of 2025. Within a few months, Andreessen Horowitz published its GEO thesis, Evertune raised $15 million, Peec AI raised a $21 million Series A, and impact.com partnered with Evertune.
The 2025 timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Mid-2025 | Andreessen Horowitz publishes its essay on generative engine optimization |
| Mid-2025 | Jakob Nielsen publishes GEO guidelines on getting content quoted by AI |
| August 2025 | Evertune raises $15 million |
| November 2025 | Peec AI raises a $21 million Series A |
| December 16, 2025 | impact.com and Evertune announce a partnership |
What each step added
A thesis. The a16z essay and Nielsen's guidelines gave marketers a name for the work and a first set of tactics.
Money. Two funding rounds within four months put more than $36 million into two AEO startups.
Competition. Established SEO vendors responded. Exploding Topics was already publishing a head-to-head of Otterly.ai and Semrush's AI visibility features.
Distribution. The impact.com partnership connected AI visibility data to an affiliate platform that brands already use. Our post on the affiliate integrations covers what shipped.
What it means now
The category kept consolidating in 2026. HubSpot folded XFunnel into its own AEO product, and the market overview tracks the funding and tools since.
If you are choosing a tool, start with the comparison page.