A startup has reportedly closed a Series A funding round after securing both the .COM and .AI versions of its brand name, highlighting a trend where founders are opting for dual-extension brand stacks to cover multiple positioning angles. The move reflects growing awareness among venture-backed companies that owning both the legacy .COM and the tech-forward .AI gives them flexibility to market across different audiences without risking brand confusion or losing traffic to competitors holding the alternate extension.
The dual-extension strategy makes sense for startups straddling traditional business models and AI-driven product features. The .COM serves as the primary brand anchor for general audiences, investors, and enterprise customers who default to .COM credibility, while the .AI extension signals technical sophistication and positions the company within the AI ecosystem. By securing both, the startup avoids the scenario where a competitor, squatter, or confused customer ends up on the wrong domain.
What makes this noteworthy is that it’s becoming a pattern among well-funded startups rather than an isolated case. Founders are increasingly treating domain strategy as part of their brand defensibility, recognizing that a $10K to $50K investment in securing matching extensions early is cheaper than trying to acquire them later after raising visibility. Investors and advisors are also pushing for cleaner cap tables when it comes to digital assets, which means fewer loose ends like contested or unavailable domain variations.
Worth watching is whether the dual-extension approach extends beyond .COM and .AI to include other pairings like .COM + .IO or .COM + .CO. Right now, .AI is the dominant secondary extension for tech startups, but that could shift as naming trends evolve.
For domain investors holding matching .COM and .AI pairs, this trend is a bullish signal that buyers are willing to pay for both extensions as a package deal rather than settling for one or the other.
