Searchable has acquired New York-based Meridian Tech in a seven-figure transaction, expanding the AI visibility company’s U.S. presence and adding customers to its growing answer engine optimization platform.
The acquisition gives London- and New York-based Searchable Meridian’s product and customer base, including APL, MedCline and VKTRY. Those customers will migrate to Searchable’s platform, while Meridian’s technology will be integrated into Searchable.
The transaction represents another step in Searchable’s U.S. expansion after the company opened an office in Salt Lake City in August and hired two employees from AI visibility competitor Scrunch AI.
Searchable operates in the emerging answer engine optimization, or AEO, market, which focuses on helping companies understand and improve how their brands appear in responses generated by AI platforms.
As consumers increasingly use AI assistants and answer engines rather than traditional search engines to research products, services and companies, brands are beginning to track whether they are mentioned, cited and recommended within those responses.
Searchable’s platform monitors brand visibility across 10 AI engines, tracking mentions, citations and comparisons while providing companies with insights into how they can increase their likelihood of being surfaced or recommended.
The company now works with more than 1,000 brands.
Its underlying dataset includes more than one billion AI citations and 400 million brand mentions, giving Searchable a substantial corpus for analyzing how brands appear across generative AI systems.
The Meridian acquisition adds another group of U.S. customers while providing Searchable with an additional foothold in New York.
Meridian publicly launched in October 2025 to help companies monitor how their brands and information about them appeared inside AI chatbots and AI-powered search products.
Searchable plans to incorporate Meridian’s customers and product capabilities into its broader platform rather than maintaining the Meridian product as a separate offering.
The acquisition comes less than a year after Searchable itself launched in late 2025.
Searchable was founded by British entrepreneur Chris Donnelly alongside co-founders Sam Hogan and Arya Nagabhyru and has moved quickly to establish a position in the emerging AI search optimization market.
In May 2026, the company raised $14 million in seed financing led by Headline at an $85 million valuation.
That capital has supported Searchable’s geographic expansion and continued product development as companies devote more attention to how AI systems represent their brands.
The broader AI search visibility services market is projected to reach $10.7 billion by 2031, according to market research cited by Searchable.
The rise of AEO reflects a significant change in the way consumers discover information online.
Traditional search engine optimization generally focuses on improving a company’s placement in lists of search results. AI answer engines can instead synthesize information from multiple sources and provide a direct response, potentially mentioning only a small number of companies or products.
That creates a different challenge for marketers.
Companies increasingly need to understand not only whether their websites rank well in traditional search results, but also whether major AI systems recognize their brands, cite reliable information about them and recommend them when users ask relevant questions.
Searchable is building its platform around that shift.
By analyzing hundreds of millions of brand mentions and more than a billion citations, the company aims to give marketing teams greater visibility into how AI systems perceive their businesses and what factors may influence whether a brand appears in generated answers.
Acquiring Meridian adds additional customer relationships and technology as Searchable attempts to scale quickly in the U.S., which management sees as one of the most advanced markets for AI visibility strategies.
The transaction also demonstrates early consolidation within the young AEO market, with Searchable acquiring another startup founded specifically around improving brand visibility inside AI-generated answers.
For Meridian customers, the combination provides access to Searchable’s larger data corpus and broader AI-engine monitoring infrastructure.
For Searchable, the acquisition expands its U.S. customer base while accelerating a geographic strategy that now includes operations in New York and Salt Lake City.
KEY QUOTES:
“American brands are some of the furthest ahead in the AI visibility race. Meridian brings us a strong base of businesses that want to push their AEO strategy even further.”
Chris Donnelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Searchable
“We launched Meridian because it was clear just how little visibility businesses had over how people are finding them and what people are reading about them inside AI chatbots.”
“Searchable’s team and product will be vital in continuing to lead that mission for Meridian’s customers.”
Alex Dees, Co-Founder and CEO of Meridian
