HubSpot Is Cementing Its Bet on AI Search With XFunnel Acquisition

HubSpot is acquiring XFunnel, a startup building an AI-powered search optimization platform. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but HubSpot says it plans to fold XFunnel’s technology into its Marketing Hub to give marketers deeper visibility into how their brands surface in AI assistants and apps such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

“As AI changes how people find and engage with businesses, we want to make that shift easier to navigate for our customers, Angela DeFranco, HubSpot’s general manager and vice president of product for its Marketing Hub, remarks in a press release. “[XFunnel’s] product enables enterprise brands to experiment and test quickly to find a winning strategy, aligning closely to how we’re building the next generation of marketing tools at HubSpot.”

Founded by entrepreneurs Beeri Amiel and Neri Bluman in January 2025, XFunnel specializes in helping companies navigate the world of AI search by providing “transparency to the black box of AI search.” Marketers can use its technology to run simulations to better understand what people are asking about their products in AI search engines. Moreover, it provides competitive intelligence to track how other brands stack up. It’s like Google Analytics, but for AI tools. In fact, some of its competitors include legacy SEO platforms like Moz, Hike, and BrightEdge.

“The launch of ChatGPT changed how people discover new businesses and products,” the XFunnel team writes in a blog post. “This triggered a shift that is changing the way marketing is done at an unprecedented pace. We founded XFunnel with the mission of helping marketing teams transform how they operate in the AI era and become a best-in-class demand platform.”

The deal is striking for a bootstrapped startup that launched less than a year ago. It also shows how urgently major players want ot understand and influence their exposure and content across AI apps—whether you call it AEO, GEO, AISO, or whatever acronym sticks. Data from rival firm BrightEdge, released in September, highlights that although organic search still drives the majority of traffic, AI search—though currently under one percent of total searches—is growing at a rapid pace.

“AI search is the fastest-growing channel we’ve ever tracked,” Jim Yu, BrightEdge’s chief executive, says in a statement. “But growth and quality are two different things. Organic search continues to outperform on conversions and remains the engine of digital growth. The most successful marketers aren’t choosing one over the other—they’re adapting for AI while doubling down on the organic strategies that have always driven results.”

AEO is quickly becoming a fixture in the marketing tech stack, with vendors adding capabilities through new partnerships or building them directly into their platforms. And for a company that made its name inventing Inbound Marketing, it’s natural for HubSpot to incorporate a platform like XFunnel into its offering. That said, this isn’t the CRM software provider’s first foray into the AEO space. President and Chief Executive Officer Yamini Rangan said in August during the company’s Q2 earnings call that investing in AEO is a priority.

“As people start to ask questions of LLMs, there is a new place where companies need to show up, which is, answers on these LLMs, and that is what we are experimenting, leaning, and it’s beginning to work. And we are seeing that clicks from LLMs convert much better than organic search, because buyers are deep in the research, they are asking specific questions, and when you give an answer, they’re ready to act. And so, even though it’s early stages, we are seeing conversion rate go up, and this is a new nascent emerging channel.”

Movement in the AEO market is likely to continue accelerating, especially with the emergence of AI browsers and AI search being embedded everywhere. New entrants are seemingly launching every quarter, eager to capitalize on the AI search engine market, which is projected to be worth over $100 billion by 2032.

“Our work at XFunnel has always been about helping businesses evolve how they do marketing in the new era of AI,” Bluman remarks. “We’ve admired HubSpot for their leadership in marketing and for their consistent innovation with AI across the platform…Joining them allows us to build on an incredible foundation and be part of a shared mission to help businesses grow during a time of immense change.”

Featured Image: HubSpot is acquiring XFunnel, a startup building a platform to help brands improve AI Search Optimization. Credit: XFunnel