Koah, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform that embeds ads into AI search and chat apps, has raised $20.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Theory Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Forerunner, South Park Commons, and AppLovin co-founder Andrew Karam. In conjunction with the investment, Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures will join Koah’s board.
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The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of LLM-based ad formats, improve its intent-modeling system, and expand its self-serve platform for AI app developers worldwide.
Koah allows contextual ads to run directly inside generative AI apps. Its lightweight SDK can be installed in minutes, making it easy to earn revenue within AI experiences. Koah delivers high-performing ads from premium brands and has already helped popular AI apps like Liner, Viro, and Sup AI generate revenue.
For advertisers, Koah opens a new ad channel with strong user intent. Brands can reach people in real time, showing relevant products and expertise based on what users are actively searching for and discussing.
In the past year, Koah’s network has grown to over 2 million monthly active users who use conversational AI about three times a day. So far, Koah has delivered more than 35 million native ad impressions across 175 million queries.
“Generative AI has changed how people find and use information, so monetization needs to change too,” said Nic Baird, Koah’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Subscription models alone don’t work well because AI is expensive to run, and traditional ads hurt the user experience. At Koah, we’re building monetization tools made for AI that improve the experience for users and help developers earn revenue.”
“We’re seeing users research, compare options, and choose brands directly inside AI tools,” said Luke Kim, CEO of Liner, an AI search app used by more than 10 million students, academics and researchers worldwide. “Koah helps developers earn revenue from those moments in a responsible way without losing user trust.”
“Koah has created AI-native ads that our users actually appreciate,” said Nick Arbuckle, Founder of the sustainability-focused AI app Viro.
“AI apps are becoming a new way people use the internet, and they need monetization tools built for that,” said Tomasz Tunguz, GP at Theory Ventures. “We partnered with Koah because of their strong team and their approach to aligning the interests of developers, advertisers, and users.”
Koah is launching new analytics tools to measure user engagement and ad performance in AI search and chat. It is also rolling out new ad formats designed specifically for generative AI. With this latest funding, Koah has raised more than $26 million in total and plans to hire more engineers and expand its go-to-market efforts as it builds its full AI monetization platform.
About Koah
Founded in 2024 by Nic Baird, Koah is a monetization platform built for generative AI. Often called the “AdSense for AI,” Koah helps developers earn revenue from high intent conversations by placing native, contextual ads directly within AI chat experiences. Backed by Theory Ventures, Forerunner and South Park Commons, Koah partners with leading AI apps and global brands to deliver ads that protect the user experience and drive results.
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