E-commerce brand AI optimization startup Lantern raises $3.1 million in seed funding.

Lantern Raises $3.1M Seed Funding

In 2025, Lantern, a startup focused on AI optimization for e-commerce brands, announced the completion of a $3.1 million seed funding round led by Salesforce Ventures. Founder and CEO Andrew Lissimore aims to help e-commerce brands navigate the changes brought about by AI-powered search.

From Customer Loyalty to AI Optimization

Lissimore previously ran the e-commerce website Headphones.com and was well-versed in search engine optimization (SEO). When large language models like ChatGPT emerged, he found that his own brand was not being recommended by AI. This insight led him to found Lantern in 2024, initially focusing on customer loyalty strategies before quickly pivoting to generative engine optimization (GEO) tools, centered on AI visibility in e-commerce.

Core Product and Pricing

The Lantern team has trained an internal model that can predict the probability of a brand's products appearing in AI-generated queries and provides actionable optimization recommendations. Pricing starts at $99 per month, with customizable plans for enterprise clients. The company's target customers are e-commerce brands, especially vertical sellers that need to improve the competitiveness of specific products in AI recommendations.

Use of Funds and Team Expansion

This funding round will be used to recruit more technical talent (including former Amazon engineers), expand product marketing, and reserve computing resources. Lissimore stated that the company plans to continue fundraising to consolidate its technological advantages.

Market Background and Competition

As search engines and AI assistants (such as Google AI mode, Perplexity, etc.) change how consumers discover products, GEO and answer engine optimization (AEO) have become emerging fields. Lantern faces competition from startups like Jasper AI and Daydream, but Lissimore emphasizes that the company is "purely focused on e-commerce," helping brands gain advantages at the specific product level rather than overall visibility.

Founder's Perspective

Lissimore believes: "This is the most significant shift since the birth of search engines. E-commerce brands need new strategies to earn AI recommendations, just as they optimized for Google rankings in the past." He predicts that this field will spawn a large number of niche solutions.