Rocksalt, a San Francisco-based startup, has secured $3.5 million in seed funding to expand its AI platform that helps executives establish credibility in professional online communities, per Crunchbase News. 

The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Defy.vc and angel investors including Gokul Rajaram, Mike Volpe, and Atlassian President Anu Bharadwaj.

Founded in October 2023 by siblings Arjun and Anita Moorthy, along with Ajoy Sojan, Rocksalt addresses how AI has transformed buyer discovery and research processes. The company argues that traditional SEO and content marketing strategies have become less effective as buyers now discover products through social feeds rather than search engines.

According to Rocksalt’s blog post, the modern buyer journey begins with passive discovery in social forums like LinkedIn and Slack communities. Buyers then conduct AI-assisted research, followed by focused evaluation of vendor websites, concluding with expectations for low-friction product adoption.

“People no longer search the same way and are either passively browsing social feeds or actively researching on AI,” Anita Moorthy, who previously served as VP of Marketing at Cleverly before co-founding Rocksalt, said in a statement.

This approach aligns with recent research from Rankscale.ai showing increased AI engine reliance on user-generated content, with LinkedIn emerging as the fourth most cited source in Google AI Overviews and accounting for approximately 2% of citations for B2B queries.

Platform Functionality

Rocksalt features standard keyword monitoring tools by using AI to understand user intent and surface relevant conversations. The platform helps busy executives identify high-value online discussions and engage authentically in just 10 minutes per day.

“We also have comment-assisting functionality that guides users in engaging authentically without generating generic AI comments,” Anita explained.

Expansion Plans

The company plans to use its new capital to expand to additional platforms such as Reddit and Discord, while adding capabilities to create and repurpose content. Rocksalt currently operates on a SaaS model with customers including Tamr, Zocks, HedgeFlows, and NinjaCat, alongside nearly 15,000 free users on its Slack and LinkedIn products.

Arif Janmohamed, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, noted: “Today’s savvy buyers trust experts, not a flood of marketing content designed for SEO.”

According to Crunchbase, the funding comes as venture investment in AI marketing startups has reached $344 million globally in the first half of 2025, already exceeding the $252 million raised throughout 2024.