What happens when customers stop clicking on search results?

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Photo credit: Timmy Loen

While running an SEO agency, Alvin Koay saw many small businesses struggle to make sense of digital marketing. He wanted to make digital growth tools more accessible for those without expensive agency retainers.

This led him to create Zicy, a startup that transforms agency expertise into an AI co-pilot for anyone to use.

😟 Problem

Digital marketing is shifting as AI-powered engines change how people search online. Tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity increasingly provide direct answers, reducing the need to click on websites.

For brands and many businesses that means visibility now depends on whether the AI system references or cites them in its responses. If a company is not mentioned in these AI answers, they’d be invisible online, even if its website has a high search ranking.

💡 Solution

Zicy is an AI-powered platform designed to help businesses get mentioned and surfaced by AI. It checks how AI systems interpret a website’s content and provides a roadmap for improvement. The goal is to ensure AI tools can understand, trust, and recommend the business.

The platform works by:

• Auditing a website to see where AI cites or misses it in their answers.
• Identifying issues in content structure, schema, and internal links.
• Prioritizing improvements based on their estimated impact on traffic and revenue.
• Providing tools like schema builders and content suggestions to implement changes.
• Tracking performance indicators such as answer visibility and citation frequency.

Photo credit: Zicy

📊 Market size

The combined market for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) in Asia Pacific is estimated to reach between US$290 million and US$450 million in 2026. 

This market is projected to grow to between US$7 billion and US$10.5 billion by 2034. Zicy aims to capture 1% of this APAC market share.

🤝 Team

• Alvin Koay. Co-founder and CEO. An entrepreneur with experience across marketing and media.
• April Cheong. Co-founder. He focuses on leading and managing data-driven projects.
• Peter Kua. Chief data officer. The former data science and analytics team, brings over 10 years of experience in data analytics and AI.

🚀 Traction

🏆 Competition

💰 Financials