Berlin has a new startup story most people haven't heard yet. Peec AI, founded last year in Prenzlauer Berg, has doubled its annual recurring revenue over the last six months and is now running at roughly 10 million dollars ARR, according to sources close to the company. A huge figure for a startup just over 18 months old.

The company offers „generative search optimisation" - tools that show brands whether and when AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini mention them. In other words, SEO for an era in which users don't type into Google but ask an AI. A logical market, and Peec was among the first to lay the foundations.

CEO Marius Meiners comes from an unusual background - he was a top-100 player in League of Legends. That explains part of the internal culture: the whole team has access to a real-time revenue dashboard. No discretion around finances - everyone sees, everyone knows where the company stands every day. An approach borrowed from competitive gaming.

The marketing is just as unconventional. Peec put up billboards across Berlin with messages aimed directly at engineers at competing tech firms - a classic late-2010s recruiting tactic, but it's working again. The company has already opened its first New York office. A 21-million-dollar Series A at a valuation north of 100 million closed six months ago.

We're left wondering only one thing - whether these growth rates are sustainable, or whether we're back in a period when investors measure startups by ARR multiples without looking too closely at the losses. The European startup scene is less shy about these metrics now. Plenty of founders publish numbers publicly to prove they're executing, not just promising. Healthy - until the market tires of it.