Generative AI Is the New Interface for the Internet
Generative AI has gone from hype cycle to common place in a short time. As the application layer of AI distributes widely, AI applications face mounting pressure to monetize without compromising user experience. Every major interface shift has faced this pressure and found its answer in advertising: radio, TV, web, mobile, gaming, streaming. Generative AI will be no different.
Consumer behavior continues to shift in the direction of AI. Assistants are becoming the primary source of information for many decisions, often replacing search, creators, and curated content. Koah is the platform that enables AI applications to capture the value created by these assistants by connecting brands to users at the moment of decision.
Koah embeds native, contextual monetization directly in AI conversations. Advertisers engage users through conversational context, aligning their products and expertise with what people are actively researching and deciding.
Today, we announced a $20.5M Series A funding led by Theory Ventures, with participation from Forerunner and South Park Commons. We’re investing further in delivering uncompromising monetization options for AI apps.
What We’re Announcing as Part of Theory Ventures’ Investment
Koah exists to make it simple to monetize AI applications. Over the past 12 months, the platform has processed more than 170 million queries and 35 million native ad impressions. Our conviction shows up in results we’ve driven for AI apps like Liner, Viro, and Sup AI.
122% CTR lift and 84% increase in monetized surface area after upgrading to LLM-native formats
454% DAU growth alongside monetization, not at its expense
Near 100% retention with Koah-powered ads in live chat environments
Luke Kim, CEO of Liner, said:
“Since adopting Koah’s cutting-edge ad formats, we’ve consistently increased CTR and coverage, without eroding any of the trust at the core of our product.”
Luke Kim, CEO of Liner
From Viro’s team:
“Koah found a way to deliver AI-native ads that our user community actively welcomes.”
In Generative AI, advertising cannot interrupt. It must be embedded in the conversation.
Inside Koah’s Theory Ventures Partnership
The partnership with Theory will accelerate our mission to become the infrastructure layer for monetization across the entire AI application ecosystem. Tomasz Tunguz has backed infrastructure at major interface shifts and understands how new surfaces create new economic layers. South Park Commons backed us at inception, Forerunner led our seed round, and AppLovin Co-Founder Andrew Karam wrote our first angel check.
Today’s announcement accelerates three priorities: native, contextual monetization that preserves user trust, ad formats designed specifically for conversational AI, and scaling with leading apps like Liner, Sup AI, Viro, and more going live every week.
How Advertising Works Differently Inside AI
Search captures keywords. Social captures engagement. Generative AI captures decisions.
Inside AI, users are not browsing. They are asking, comparing, choosing and acting. Koah enables brands to appear contextually within these moments to help users in their decision making journeys.
Native Formats Built for Conversation
We do not repurpose banner ads for AI. We build native formats designed specifically for conversation, including:
Sponsored recommendations embedded directly in the answer
Contextual placements tied to live query intent
LLM-native units that follow the logic of the exchange, not interrupt it
Generative AI surfaces structured intent in real time. We help brands act on it immediately.
Data & Insights Native to Generative AI
Across hundreds of advertisers live with Koah, we are seeing new intent signals:
Deeper engagement than traditional display environments
High-intent language patterns and query clusters inside AI prompts
Commercial comparison behavior covering entire purchase journeys
If you are waiting for your content strategy to mature into AI referrals, you are already late.
Built for Scale
Advertisers using Koah are already live across leading AI apps. Our platform provides:
Self-serve access for fast deployment
Scalable distribution across high-engagement AI environments
Brand-safe placements native to conversation
Koah finds intent where it now lives.
What We’re Building Next
We are building the monetization layer for the AI interface. Koah’s system is infrastructure that aligns developers, advertisers, and users.
The problems are hard:
Building intent modeling on raw text data across millions of AI conversations
Imagining new LLM-native formats that expand beyond recommendations
Developing self-serve tools that make launching inside AI as simple as launching search
Expanding Koah’s product globally across the entire application layer of tens of thousands of AI apps.
This category will define the next decade of the internet. We are building the infrastructure to unite monetization natively inside Generative AI.
TL;WV — Too Long, Watch the Video
See Koah in action inside real AI conversations.
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