One of Berlin’s rising-star, early stage startups, Peec AI, just crossed $10 million in annualized revenue, according to internal dashboard data seen and verified by TechCrunch.

Peec AI raised its $21 million Series A six months ago. While CEO Marius Meiners wouldn’t disclose its valuation to me at that time (only revealing that it was above $100 million), he did say the startup had grown its revenue to more than $4 million in the 10 months since its launch.

So, it has more than doubled its revenue trajectory, and at a faster pace.

Peec helps brands track and improve their visibility in AI searches. While based in Berlin, it recently opened an office in New York. 

It’s also serving as proof of one of the key market shifts happening in Europe’s tech scene. 

“Founders these days track revenue much more closely,” Antler partner Christoph Klink was telling me just a couple of days ago. Sitting in a hotel lobby bar during an event-laden week for the tech ecosystem, the Berlin-based VC had offhand mentioned Peec AI as one of the most successful companies in his portfolio, alongside Lovable and others. 

My next question was how he defined success, which led to a discussion of recent market cycles. Compared to six years ago, he said, the big change is that success is now defined by growth, not valuation.

Having learned lessons from 2021’s frothiness and subsequent painful return to reality, investors now know that revenue can’t be an afterthought. The corollary is that it isn’t something you can just check on every couple of weeks, Klink told me. 

Startups now tend to keep running dashboards on revenue progress, sometimes — as is the case at Peec — visible to all employees.

For some founders, this has required some adjusting; but others were born just for this new cycle.

Peec AI’s product takes the same approach as SEO dashboards, except it helps brands track generative engine optimization (GEO) — visualizing whether they show up when users type a certain set of prompts into ChatGPT and the like. 

But as Meiners then told me, he is also a former esports athlete who once ranked among the top 100 League of Legends players. This explains why he would share a revenue tracker with his whole company: his background gave him a unique take on what makes a winning team.

Talent is the first ingredient, and Peec AI took an innovative approach to hiring in Berlin’s competitive market. 

Like many startups in the Bay Area, but very few in Europe, it invested in billboards to pitch itself not only to prospective clients, but also to applicants. In our conversation, Klink had recalled with a smile that these billboards were more often than not strategically placed in front of other tech companies across the city.

What those billboards say may differ, but they are part of a narrative that attempts to position Peec AI as a company worth jumping ship for. According to Klink, this signaling is particularly important in the current AI cycle, where companies and investors are piggybacking on trends that are only just emerging — such as AI search.

This bet on undercurrents applies to many startups Klink has invested in, which is why he understands why portfolio companies like Peec AI — and Lovable — not only closely track ARR, but also sometimes publicly disclose revenue milestones despite having absolutely no obligation to do so. 

“That’s a way to show it’s working,” Klink said. “It also shows a focus on growth that sets the culture.”