Elementera AI, a company that helps brands get found, cited, and recommended by AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, today announced a new angel investment from a Principal AI Scientist at Amazon who works on large language model research. The investment underscores the growing importance of AI visibility and answer engine optimization (AEO) as users increasingly turn to AI for answers instead of traditional search engines.
The investor has tracked Elementera Co-founder and CEO Maziar Gomrokchi's work since Gomrokchi's early years as a PhD researcher, well before Elementera existed. That history shaped the decision to invest: a firsthand read on the technical strength of Elementera's founding team, paired with the foresight that AI visibility and AEO will matter more, not less, as people shift from typing search queries to asking AI systems for answers.
'Elementera is one of the few companies truly built for this moment,' the investor said. 'The team combines deep AI research experience with a clear understanding of where search, discovery, and brand visibility are heading. I believe their Lenz and Prizm products are positioned to play a leading role in the AI visibility market over the next three to five years.'
Gomrokchi traces the roots of Elementera back to a conference in 2016. 'I was at ICML 2016, at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, right as deep learning started to reshape the technology industry,' Gomrokchi said. 'Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI were all there, hosting events and recruiting researchers. I got a few summer offers out of that conference, including one from OpenAI, which at the time was still a small team working on open AI models for research and industry. Looking back, that early work was a preview of what later became models like GPT and ChatGPT.'
Gomrokchi had a vision. He knew that AI would not just change how software gets built, but how people search, compare, and decide what to buy, trust, or recommend. 'That belief is what Elementera is built on,' Gomrokchi said. 'I put together a team of AI researchers, engineers, and product leaders to build the tools businesses need to stay visible and trusted as AI-driven search and discovery takes over from traditional search.'
Elementera builds AI visibility and answer engine optimization (AEO) products for businesses navigating the shift from traditional search engine optimization (SEO) to generative engine optimization (GEO). Its Lenz and Prizm products help brands understand and improve how they are interpreted, described, and cited across AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was founded by a team of AI veterans from Microsoft, Shopify, IBM, Mila, and UC Berkeley. More information is available at Elementera's website.
