What Scrunch does

Scrunch, founded in 2023 by Chris Andrew and Robert MacCloy (both veterans of Hearsay Systems), is a SaaS platform that helps brands monitor and optimize their visibility in AI-generated search results across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews, and Meta AI. The company's core technology is the Agent Experience Platform (AXP), an edge-deployed semantic compression layer that detects AI agents at the network edge and serves them token-optimized content — reportedly achieving 93–98% token reduction with sub-millisecond latency — while preserving the human-facing website experience. A complementary monitoring suite tracks citations, brand presence, sentiment, product-level AI search performance, agent bot traffic, and content gaps, and is extended by add-on modules including Knowledge Studio, Scrunch MCP, Content Gaps, and Sentiment Trends.

Scrunch operates a modular subscription SaaS business with tiered pricing beginning at approximately $250–$300 per month and custom enterprise contracts that include dedicated forward-deployed engineers and SOC 2 Type II compliance. Go-to-market combines a self-serve product-led growth motion (7-day free trial, free AI performance audit) with direct enterprise sales, an Agency Partner Program launched in May 2025, and post-acquisition distribution through Sitecore's enterprise digital experience platform channel following the June 2026 acquisition for approximately $225 million. The platform processes more than 6 million citations and 1.5 million prompts weekly, serves over 500 companies and agencies worldwide (including Akamai, Lenovo, Penn State University, BairesDev, Crunchbase, Fictiv, ADP, and Publicis), and was recognized as a High Performer in G2's inaugural AEO Grid Report in Winter 2026. The company was previously backed by $26 million in total funding across a $4 million Mayfield-led seed round and a $15 million Decibel-led Series A in July 2025.

Name

Scrunch

Legal name

Excelsa Labs, Inc.

Website

https://scrunch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Scrunch provides an AI Customer Experience Platform that helps brands monitor, benchmark, and optimize their visibility in AI-generated search results across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other engines, serving 500+ enterprise and agency clients globally and now operating under Sitecore.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Search Visibility Software

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Observability, Monitoring & Evaluation Platforms (Drift, Quality, Safety) (HDAEANAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Software/SaaS Subscriptions (Consumer & Prosumer) (CRAFAIAB)

Keywords

• AI search optimization
• Answer engine optimization
• AI visibility platform
• Generative engine optimization
• AI content monitoring

Headquarters

HQ city

Salt Lake City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription SaaS: Scrunch operates on a subscription-based SaaS model with tiered pricing plans. Pricing starts at approximately $250-300/month for entry-level plans with custom enterprise pricing for larger organizations. The company offers a 7-day free trial to drive acquisition and annual billing options.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Scrunch (legal entity: Excelsa Labs, Inc., dba Scrunch AI) sells a SaaS AI Customer Experience Platform that helps brands monitor, measure, and improve their visibility in AI-generated search results across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Meta AI. The platform's flagship Agent Experience Platform (AXP) detects AI agents at the network edge and serves them semantically compressed, token-light content optimized for AI consumption while preserving the human website experience.

Product overview

Scrunch is an AI Customer Experience Platform offered as a modular SaaS product. The core platform comprises the Agent Experience Platform (AXP), which delivers AI-optimized content to agents at the edge; Agent Traffic for monitoring bot traffic patterns; Site Maps for understanding AI content consumption; and a Monitoring & Insights suite including Monitoring & Citations, Insights, Shopping, and AI Search Trends. Additional modules including Knowledge Studio, Scrunch MCP, Content Gaps, and Sentiment Trends extend the platform's capabilities for enterprise and agency use cases. The platform processes content across multiple AI engines including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews, and Meta AI. Scrunch was acquired by Sitecore in June 2026 for approximately $225 million and continues operating as a standalone platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Agent Experience Platform (AXP) Edge-deployed platform that detects AI agents and serves them AI-optimized, semantically compressed content (93-98% token reduction) with sub-millisecond latency, without disrupting the human website experience. Sold as a core component of the Scrunch platform subscription for brands and agencies that need websites to be consumable by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and other AI agents.
• Scrunch AI Customer Experience Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• 364% increase in brand presence for non-branded prompts using AXP-enabled pages (Akamai customer case study)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability5 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• SitecoreflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2026Sitecore acquired Scrunch for approximately $225 million in June 2026. Scrunch operates as a standalone platform within Sitecore's digital experience platform (DXP), combining AXP with Sitecore's Content Management, Content Operations, and Digital Asset Management solutions.
• StackercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partnership announced January 2026 to diagnose citation gaps with Scrunch and turn content into earned media placements. Enables brands to close AI citation gaps identified by Scrunch through Stacker distribution.
• NoblecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Partnership announced January 2026 to help brands automate brand mentions using Scrunch insights. Enables more effective AI search citation strategy by automating brand mention workflows.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Otterly.ai's parent Goodcontent.ai: Emerging AI content optimization platform focused on helping brands create AI-citable content. Adjacent to Scrunch's Content Gaps and Knowledge Studio features.

Direct peers

• Otterly.AI: Direct AEO/AIO competitor co-listed with Scrunch as High Performer in G2's first AEO Grid Report. Offers AI search visibility monitoring and brand mention tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
• Profound: Emerging direct AEO competitor focused on brand visibility analytics across generative AI search engines. Targets enterprise marketing teams with citation tracking and optimization tools parallel to Scrunch's monitoring suite.
• Peec AI: European-based AEO platform tracking brand presence across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search engines. Competes directly with Scrunch on AI visibility monitoring and prompt-level analytics.

Broad incumbents

• Semrush: Established SEO platform expanding into AI search visibility tracking as part of its broader marketing toolkit. Offers massive incumbent scale and existing enterprise customer base that Scrunch must compete against.
• Ahrefs: Leading SEO analytics platform with a massive backlink and search data infrastructure. Has begun introducing AI content tracking features that overlap with Scrunch's monitoring capabilities.
• Yext: Enterprise digital presence platform that acquired Scrunch founders' prior company Hearsay Systems. Offers brand management and structured data solutions that increasingly intersect with AI search visibility.
• BrightEdge: Enterprise SEO and content performance platform serving large brands. Has introduced AI search visibility features that compete with Scrunch's enterprise monitoring offering.
• Conductor: Enterprise SEO and content optimization platform. Competes with Scrunch in the broader organic visibility and content optimization category, now including AI search.
• Botify: Enterprise technical SEO platform with crawler and analytics capabilities. Represents the broader SEO infrastructure layer that could expand into AI search optimization.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/scrunch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/scrunchai

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Scrunch