Tech Explained: Here’s a simplified explanation of the latest technology update around Tech Explained: Linq Raises $20M Series A to Power AI Agents in Text Messaging & Voice in Simple Termsand what it means for users..
Linq, a startup building the communication layer for AI agents, announced $20 million in Series A funding led by TQ Ventures, along with Mucker Capital and leading angels including an ex-Apple executive.
The company has enabled a new category of startups through their platform that gives AI agents the ability to seamlessly communicate with users via iMessage, RCS/SMS, and voice at scale. Linq plans to use the new funding to scale its platform and expand its engineering, product, and GTM teams as it projects to send billions of messages this year.
AI’s Problem: Traditional apps create unnecessary friction between agents and users
As tech companies roll out countless AI agents to help with nearly every task imaginable, users are getting “app fatigue”. The future will be AI agents communicating with users in the mediums they are most familiar with. Existing attempts to bring AI into users’ text messages are stymied by old SMS rails that are expensive, slow, and feel inauthentic as they show up as green bubbles.
Linq’s Solution: AI that lives in your texts
Linq solves this by giving users the ability to talk to AI as they do with friends and colleagues: by interacting over iMessage. The company’s proprietary platform allows AI and traditional businesses to autonomously send iMessages, RCS, SMS, and make calls at scale. The platform allows its customers to take advantage of features like group chats, typing indicators, images, voice notes, emoji reactions, and more. Linq is 90% cheaper than legacy communication API platforms and is already being used by more than 100 companies including Poke.com, Tomo, and Hypercard to send more than 30M messages per month.
Linq was founded by former Shipt executives Elliott Potter (CEO), Patrick Sullivan (CTO), and Jared Mattsson(President). Together they helped expand Shipt’s same day delivery service nationwide before Target acquired the company for $550 million. After leaving, they initially built Linq as a digital business card and CRM automation platform before realizing the massive need for messaging automation for AI agents. Linq is SOC 2 Type II certified and partners with America’s largest cellular network for carrier integration.
Samyok Nepal, Member of Technical Staff of The Interaction Company of California
We looked at all of the top communication API platforms, and nothing came close to the reliability and security compliance of Linq
Elliott Potter, Co-founder and CEO of Linq
Every team we talked to that was building an AI agent had the same problem: they couldn’t get users to download another app. By living in users’ text threads, developers aren’t limited by who downloads their app. Anyone in the world with a phone can instantly become a user
Andrew Marks, Co-Founding Partner of TQ Ventures
By making AI-to-human communication as frictionless as texting a friend, Linq is enabling an entirely new category of companies. Linq’s founding team is extraordinary, and we have no doubt in their ability to execute on this massive opportunity
Omar Hamoui, Partner at Mucker Capital and founder of AdMob
We backed Linq because they’re removing friction at the exact point where AI meets people. When communication becomes easier, whole new markets open up. Linq sits at that intersection