As generative AI reshapes how consumers discover information and interact with digital platforms, startups are racing to develop sustainable business models for the emerging ecosystem. Koah has announced a $20.5 million Series A funding round aimed at advancing infrastructure designed specifically to monetize generative AI experiences without disrupting user trust or engagement.
The Koah Series A funding round was led by Theory Ventures, with Tomasz Tunguz, Founder and General Partner at the firm and a former Google AdSense executive, joining Koah’s board of directors. The investment follows the company’s $5 million seed round completed in September 2025 and signals increasing investor confidence in AI native advertising models built for conversational interfaces.
Koah focuses on contextual advertising embedded directly inside generative AI environments. Unlike traditional display advertising or subscription models, the company’s approach is designed to integrate monetization seamlessly into AI driven user interactions. According to Koah, this model addresses rising inference costs associated with large language models while preserving the quality of the user experience.
“Generative AI has changed how people consume information, and monetization must evolve alongside it,” said Nic Baird, Koah’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Subscriptions models alone don’t scale given high inference costs, and legacy ad models erode user experience. At Koah, we’re designing monetization infrastructure specifically for AI that’s additive for end users and revenue-driving for developers.”
The company’s lightweight software development kit can be installed within minutes, allowing developers to activate native monetization within AI applications. Koah delivers advertising from premium brands aligned with real time conversational context, enabling advertisers to reach users while they research, compare, and form purchase preferences inside AI tools.
Koah reports early adoption among AI applications including Liner, Viro, and Sup AI. Over the past year, its ecosystem has expanded to more than two million monthly active users engaging with conversational AI an average of three times per day. The platform has delivered over 35 million native ad impressions across 175 million queries, reflecting growing demand for advertising formats tailored to generative environments.
“We’re seeing users research, compare, and form brand preferences directly inside AI tools,” said Luke Kim, CEO of Liner, the AI search app used by more than 10 million students, academics, and researchers globally. “Koah lets developers monetize those moments responsibly without compromising trust.”
Advertisers benefit from access to high intent signals generated during live conversations, creating opportunities to align messaging with user needs in real time. Investors view this as a foundational shift in digital advertising infrastructure as AI applications increasingly become a primary interface for online discovery.
“Koah found a way to deliver AI-native ads that our user community actively welcomes,” said Nick Arbuckle, Founder of the sustainability-focused AI App Viro.
“AI apps represent a new interface layer for the internet, and they require monetization infrastructure designed for that reality,” said Tomasz Tunguz, GP at Theory Ventures. “We partnered with Koah because of their team and how they’re building that layer to align incentives across developers, advertisers, and users.”
With total funding now exceeding $26 million, Koah plans to expand engineering hiring, enhance analytics tools for measuring engagement and ad performance, and introduce new context aware advertising formats. The Koah Series A funding underscores a broader industry transition toward AI native monetization models that balance developer revenue, advertiser performance, and user experience as generative AI becomes central to the digital economy.
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