Onton raises $7.5m to streamline online shopping with neurosymbolic AI

• Seeks to deepen its knowledge graph and data pipelines, and introduce a customisable search engine that adapts to each user.
• Long term, the company aims to become a global decision-making tool for any product category and market.

Onton, a California-based AI shopping startup, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding led by Footwork with participation from Liquid2, Parable Ventures, 43, and others, bringing total funding to about $10 million.

The company said it will use the capital to expand its product, scale hiring, and grow internationally amid rising demand for trustworthy, AI-driven search.

Onton aims to shorten what it calls a “79-day” average purchase cycle by replacing keyword-based e-commerce search with a neurosymbolic AI system that aggregates and reasons over product data. The platform allows users to search with natural language, images, or both; consolidates web sources into unified product listings; and offers creative tools—Imagine and Surfaces—to generate shoppable versions of user-defined styles.

“We are building the future of decision making online,” said Zach Hudson, Onton’s CEO and co-founder. “People deserve a way to shop that feels intelligent, transparent, and effortless.”

Widespread shopping friction

The company reports conversion rates three times the industry benchmark, with more than 20 per cent of users active weekly. Onton scaled from four employees and over one million monthly active users early in 2025 to a team of ten today, with plans to add five more roles.

Founded after co-founder Alex’s 30-hour search for a mid-century gray couch underscored widespread shopping friction, Onton’s early development included winning Pioneer and acceptance into On Deck Fellowship 5. Hudson previously built Rcmmd and studied trust in online reviews.

The funding comes as e-commerce grapples with unstructured data, SEO-saturated listings, and the spread of autogenerated content, while brands tighten into walled gardens and legacy recommendation sources fade. Consumers are increasingly adopting AI-first interfaces and expect assistants that deliver relevance and verification rather than filterable lists.

Users say Onton helps validate product uniqueness, trims research time, and compresses multi-month decisions into minutes. Power users conduct over 100 searches and generations per month, the company said.

Onton plans to expand beyond home decor and furniture into apparel and electronics, deepen its knowledge graph and data pipelines, and introduce a customisable search engine that adapts to each user. Long term, the company aims to become a global decision-making tool for any product category and market.