Abu Dhabi-based BY Venture Partners has joined an oversubscribed $2 million pre-Seed round for Canadian startup ChatFeatured, backing the company’s push to help brands improve visibility across AI-powered search platforms. The financing, led by Storytime Capital with participation from Garage Capital and BY Venture Partners, will fund product development, team expansion and commercial acceleration.
Funding details and participants
Storytime Capital led the $2 million pre-Seed, with Garage Capital and BY Venture Partners among the participating investors. The round was described as oversubscribed. BY Venture Partners said the investment aligns with its strategy of supporting globally scalable AI startups and connecting founders to capital and strategic networks in the MENA region.
What ChatFeatured offers
Founded in 2026 by Farris Nasr and Nithiiyan Skhanthan, ChatFeatured has built an Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) platform that monitors how brands appear in AI-generated answers on services such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. The platform identifies citation gaps, recommends content improvements and automates content creation and publishing to help companies increase AI citations and referral traffic.
Growth trajectory and use of proceeds
ChatFeatured reports expansion into five countries within six months of launch and monthly growth north of 40%. The new capital will be used to grow the team, accelerate go-to-market activities and build autonomous AI agents designed to detect and resolve AI search visibility issues for marketing teams.
Investor rationale and market context
For BY Venture Partners, the deal furthers a focus on companies building infrastructure for an emerging AI search economy, where businesses optimise content for AI-generated answers rather than traditional search engines. The investment reflects growing investor interest in tools that help brands capture attention and referrals from answer-driven platforms.
Looking ahead
With fresh funding and plans for autonomous optimisation agents, ChatFeatured aims to commercialise its AEO offering more broadly while scaling operations. The company’s next steps will focus on product refinement and expanding market reach without further details disclosed.
