en.Wedoany.com Reported - To help small businesses navigate the traffic shifts brought by AI search, startup Pie announced the completion of a $19.5 million Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Capital One Ventures, Max Levchin's SciFi VC, and F-Prime. The company's total funding has now reached $23.7 million.
Pie offers growth tools for Main Street businesses, such as nail salons, auto repair shops, and local gyms. Its core logic is that consumers are rapidly shifting from Google's blue links to AI-generated answers, yet most small businesses have not mastered strategies to adapt to this change.
The Pie platform consists of three parts. The AI Search module showcases business information when users ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for recommendations. The Growth module attracts customers on high-intent channels like Google Maps, Yelp, and Nextdoor. The newly launched Front Desk is an AI-powered reception system that handles phone calls, accepts bookings, and answers questions around the clock.
Unlike many tools that help stores manage existing customers, Pie claims its main focus is acquiring new customers. This distinction becomes particularly critical as Google's own shift toward AI-generated answers reduces traffic to small websites. Consumers are gradually moving away from ten blue links, with some even having chatbots select and purchase products on their behalf.
Pricing is key to Pie's market entry. Enterprise-level marketing software has long been unaffordable for corner shops, while traditional agencies charge around $2,500 to $5,000 per month with uncertain results. Pie has significantly lowered this cost; for example, a salon owner in Los Angeles told Inc. magazine that she pays just $359 per month. Since then, her monthly sales have increased by $10,000 to $12,000, enough to hire additional staff and add manicure tables.
"Small business owners have been trapped in expensive and opaque agency models for decades," said co-founder and CEO Syed Ali. He noted that every owner told him they needed more customers but couldn't afford an agency. Ali and co-founder Akhil Mantripragada, both former employees of Square and Toast, identified this market gap while building AI products for restaurants.
Pie revealed that it has served thousands of businesses through referrals and partnerships, facilitating over 100,000 phone calls for its clients. These clients typically see annual sales growth of 15% to 20%. Additionally, Pie has integrated with vertical software platforms like the auto repair system Tekmetric to reach merchants within the tools they already use.
Beyond Pie, other companies are also pursuing the same market, aiming to get brands cited by AI. This practice is known as "generative engine optimization," and competitors like Peec AI are rapidly raising funds. The industry's open question is whether "appearing in ChatGPT" can become a sustainable business or will be integrated as a feature by major platforms. For now, Pie is betting that Main Street businesses need help and that it can provide that help at a lower cost than agencies.
