How Presspool is built

Niche maps and company records

A niche map covers one new AI market, such as physical AI or legal AI. A company joins a map when its own website describes the market as its main product and at least one independent source confirms it; some maps add a funding window, which the map states. Each map's definition, inclusion rule and exclusions are printed on it and versioned. A company appears only after both sources are checked, and every company on a map or roster has a record page listing its sources, its latest announced financing and its AI answer counts.

How AI answers are sampled

Each map has a fixed set of questions, some phrased the way people list companies and some the way buyers ask for recommendations. Once a week Presspool asks every question on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews and records each answer. ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot answers are collected from the live apps, and Google's from live Google results. Since October 8, 2026, Perplexity's come from Perplexity's own API (its Sonar model, with web search), because automated access to the Perplexity app failed across independent collection services; they can differ from what the app shows, and Perplexity counts from before that week, which came from the app, are never combined with them in one rate. No service collects answers from the Claude app, so Claude's come through Anthropic's own API with Claude's web search turned on, using Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5 model with up to two web searches per API request, and at most two continuation requests when an answer pauses mid-search (Claude Sonnet until October 6, 2026); they can differ from what the Claude app shows. A company counts when an answer names it or cites its website. Maps show the counts for the latest weekly sample, per app, with the date; an answer that could not be collected is shown as not sampled, never as zero. Each question counts once per app per week (Monday to Sunday, UTC): when it was asked more than once, the latest answer that came back is the one counted, a question no attempt got an answer to that week is not sampled, and asking again never adds to the number of answers. Presspool publishes only these counts and the sources the answers cited, never the text of an answer. Answers vary from run to run, so a count is a dated sample, not a verdict.

Between weekly samples, Presspool also follows the searches the AI apps themselves run and the related questions they suggest, which is how new questions and new companies come to its attention. Those extra answers inform what Presspool checks next; the published counts come only from the fixed questions, so week-to-week changes compare like with like.

Where the rounds come from

Candidate rounds come from a funding-announcement feed built on the reporting of TechCrunch, Tech.eu and EU-Startups, and from daily funding reports and company newsrooms. A candidate equity round becomes an entry once it is confirmed in one of two ways, and both sources are linked on the entry. Either the company's own announcement (on its site or blog, in a post on its own verified social account, or in a wire release it issued) states the amount and names the investors, and one outlet reported the round; the investors are then printed as announced, and when the announcement names no lead the entry says “no lead named”. Or, when the company has posted no announcement, two independent outlets agree on the amount and name the same lead investors; on this path a lead is required, because the outlets' agreement is the evidence. When both outlets name a single investor as the round's only backer and agree on the amount, that agreement is the evidence too, and the entry says “sole investor named: X”, never “led by”. Outlets are independent when they are different publishers and neither republishes the other. An investor's post, an aggregator's listing or a funding database is never a source; a database may only point to outlets. Amounts are written as announced, in the currency announced, preserving qualifiers such as “over” and “more than”. Only exactly stated USD amounts with a numeric amount_usd are added to dollar totals or ranked as USD amounts. Qualified or unstated USD amounts are excluded from those totals and rankings, not treated as exact lower bounds. JSON retains amount_text and omits amount_usd for nonexact amounts. Other currencies are not converted. The round type is printed as announced, or as “round type not disclosed” when no source states it; a missing round type never keeps a round off the roster. Only equity counts: debt (convertible notes included, until they convert), a raise that does not separate its equity from its debt, grants, token sales, fund closes and valuation-only news are not counted as startup rounds.

What counts as an AI company

A company is included when its own words describe the company, not one feature, as AI or as built for AI: its announcement, or, for a round confirmed by two outlets, its own website. An outlet's description never decides it. That covers models, AI infrastructure and compute, AI agents and the security and identity layers around them, or applications whose core work is done by AI. Companies that use AI as one feature among many are left out. The one-sentence description on each entry follows the company's own wording.

The AI citation column

The Machine Relations Index puts a fixed panel of buyer questions across 24 industry categories to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on a recurring schedule and records the websites each answer cites. For each company, Presspool counts the recorded answers that cited the company's own domain within the Index window named on the page. The panel does not ask about companies by name, so the column measures whether engines reach for a company when a buyer asks about its market, not whether an engine can describe the company when asked directly.

Corrections

Counts and dollar totals cover only the confirmed rounds listed, not every round announced. Candidates that cannot yet be confirmed remain eligible for later review rather than being excluded; newly confirmed rounds are added to their original week as dated corrections.

Entries are corrected in place, and the page's updated date changes when they are. When a correction adds or removes an entry, the week's page says so under Changes. To report an error, see Contact.

Who publishes Presspool

Rounds are listed because they were publicly announced, and no company pays to be listed. Presspool is a Bramwell, Inc. company, founded by Jaxon Parrott. More on the About page.