Linq

Communications API Platformlinqapp.com

Linq App Inc. provides a unified messaging API for iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice, enabling AI agents and businesses to communicate natively within consumer messaging apps. Founded in 2019 in Birmingham, Alabama, it serves AI agent developers and enterprise customers including Poke, Tomo, and Kalshi.

Company typePrivate
Founded2019
HeadquartersBirmingham, United States
Headcount11–50
GTM typeB2B
OfferingSoftware

What Linq does

Linq App Inc. is a Birmingham, Alabama-based communications infrastructure company that operates a unified messaging API spanning iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice channels. Founded in 2019 by three former Shipt executives — Elliott Potter (CEO), Patrick Sullivan (CTO), and Jared Mattsson (President) — the company originally launched as a digital business card and QR/NFC networking product before pivoting in early 2025 to AI agent messaging infrastructure following the viral launch of the Poke AI assistant on iMessage.

The core product is the Linq Partner API, which allows AI agents and businesses to send and receive messages natively within iMessage (appearing as blue bubbles), RCS, SMS, and Voice, with support for emoji reactions, voice notes, rich media, typing indicators, group chats, and read receipts. The platform is SOC 2 Type II certified, offers a zero-data-retention option, and provides developer tools including an npm CLI package, a free sandbox, and an official Vercel Chat SDK adapter. Linq processes 150M+ messages cumulatively across 100+ customers sending 30M+ messages monthly, serving a customer base that includes consumer AI companies (Poke, Tomo, Clay, Lindy, Pika, Anything, Slash, Emergent, Zo Computer) and prediction-market platform Kalshi. Technical differentiators include a proprietary two-stage AI gate classifier (Haiku + Sonnet) for agent participation in group chats, 99.994% delivery rate, P95 latency under 90ms, and a claimed ~90% cost advantage versus legacy communications API providers.

Linq monetizes through subscription-based enterprise tiers and usage-based sandbox-to-paid conversion, with pricing designed to undercut per-message legacy carriers. The company employs 11–50 people across Birmingham, New York, and San Francisco, has raised approximately $22.5M in total disclosed funding (a $2.5M seed in 2021 from Mucker Capital and a $20M Series A in February 2026 co-led by TQ Ventures and Mucker Capital), and reports 295% net revenue retention with zero churn in the eight months following its API launch. Product extensions include Linq One (mobile CRM), Linq Blue (iMessage sales automation integrated with GoHighLevel), and the @linqapp/chat-sdk-adapter for Vercel's Chat SDK.

Linq firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Linq
Legal name: Linq App Inc.
Website: https://linqapp.com
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2019
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 11–50 employees
Short description: Linq App Inc. provides a unified messaging API for iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice, enabling AI agents and businesses to communicate natively within consumer messaging apps. Founded in 2019 in Birmingham, Alabama, it serves AI agent developers and enterprise customers including Poke, Tomo, and Kalshi.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Linq industry classification

Industry

Product category: Communications API Platform
NAICS: Telecommunications (517), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
SIC: Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone) (4813), Services-Telephone Interconnect Systems (7385)
akta.pro primary industry: ESB & Enterprise Messaging Middleware (HDAEAIAC)
akta.pro secondary industry: Contact Center (CCaaS) & Customer Engagement Voice (HDAIAHAF)

Keywords

Messaging API platform
AI communications infrastructure
IMessage API service
RCS SMS integration
Conversational AI platform

Where Linq is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: Birmingham
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

Linq business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Software
Cost components: Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

API Subscription/Usage: Subscription-based model with enterprise tiers offering cost-effective messaging compared to per-message pricing. The platform claims 90% cost savings versus legacy communications API providers. Features subscription tiers with scalable message volume.
Enterprise Messaging Platform: Enterprise tier offering includes API access, CRM integration, workflow builders, and support for iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice channels. Priced to save thousands compared to pay-per-message solutions.

Pricing tiers

Model	Billing	Price
Freemium	Pay-as-you-go	Sandbox tier for developers to get started
Subscription	Monthly	Enterprise tier for large-scale messaging operations

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Linq product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Linq provides a unified communications API infrastructure that enables AI agents and businesses to send and receive messages natively through iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice channels. The platform issues real phone numbers and exposes native messaging features including emoji reactions, voice notes, rich media, typing indicators, group chats, and read receipts. It targets AI agent developers and enterprises that need scalable, cost-effective messaging without requiring end users to download a separate application.

Product overview

Linq is a communication infrastructure company offering a unified messaging API that enables AI agents and businesses to reach users through iMessage, RCS, SMS, and voice channels. The core product is the Linq Partner API, which powers AI assistants operating natively within messaging apps. The product portfolio includes Linq One (mobile-first CRM), Linq Blue (iMessage sales automation), the Linq CLI and Sandbox for developers, and the official @linqapp/chat-sdk-adapter for Vercel's Chat SDK. The platform serves over 100 customers including AI companies like Tomo and Poke, sending more than 30 million messages monthly, with pricing approximately 90% below legacy communications API providers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

Linq One: A mobile-first CRM platform designed for sales professionals to manage customer interactions and close deals remotely.
Linq Blue
Linq Partner API

Products and services

Linq Partner API The core communications API infrastructure enabling businesses and AI agents to send messages via iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice. Supports webhooks, real-time delivery, typing indicators, read receipts, rich media, and native iMessage protocol features including tapbacks and group chats.
Linq One A mobile-first CRM platform designed for sales professionals to manage customer interactions and close deals remotely. Integrates communication features and tools for organizing and finalizing sales on the go.
Linq Blue An iMessage automation tool for sales outreach that automates and personalizes messages via iMessage without requiring an iPhone. Integrates with popular CRM platforms and provides features including scheduled messaging, campaign sequences, and unlimited messaging capabilities.

Quantifiable outcome

90% lower cost than legacy communications API providers
+4 more outcomes

Companies that use Linq

Customer profile

Named customers10 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Linq technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: Yes
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Linq partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

VercelcoreTechnology or Integration · 23 June 2026Linq is an official vendor adapter for Vercel's Chat SDK, enabling developers to build AI agents that work across iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and Teams from a unified codebase. Integration maintained by Vercel and includes HMAC-verified webhooks, rich media support, and native tapback mapping.
The Interaction Company of California (Poke)flagshipTechnology or Integration · 1 September 2025Strategic customer-partner whose viral AI assistant Poke catalyzed Linq's pivot to AI infrastructure. Linq built custom zero data retention features for Poke and maintains close collaborative relationship. Poke's viral growth validated the AI agent messaging market.
HighLevelcoreTechnology or Integration · 9 April 2025Integration partnership enabling HighLevel users to access Linq Blue iMessage automation features. The integration supports lead management and communication efficiency within the HighLevel CRM platform.
TomoflagshipTechnology or Integration · 1 March 2025Flagship customer building personalized AI accountability product for Gen Z. Linq infrastructure supports scaling from single phone line to hundreds of thousands of messages. Featured as customer story demonstrating organic growth through social media.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Linq competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Broad incumbents

Twilio: Twilio is the dominant communications API platform offering SMS, voice, and messaging services to enterprises globally. It is a broad incumbent in Linq's category, with deeper channel coverage (WhatsApp, Messenger, email) but no native iMessage API capability.
Vonage (Ericsson): Vonage, now part of Ericsson, provides communications APIs for SMS, voice, and video serving enterprise developers. It is a broad incumbent with deeper enterprise relationships but lacks Linq's iMessage and AI-agent-specific focus.
Sinch: Sinch is a global communications platform offering messaging, voice, and email APIs with strong international presence. It competes broadly with Linq in the communications API space, particularly in SMS and WhatsApp Business APIs at scale.

Direct peers

Plivo: Plivo is a cloud communications platform offering SMS, voice, and messaging APIs for businesses and developers. It competes directly with Linq in the communications API space with similar pricing models and target customers, though without iMessage-specific support.
Bird (formerly MessageBird): Bird is a marketing, service, and payments communications platform providing SMS, WhatsApp, email, and voice APIs. It competes with Linq in enterprise messaging infrastructure with broader channel coverage and a larger international footprint.
Telnyx: Telnyx is a communications platform offering voice, SMS, and messaging APIs with private global network infrastructure. It competes with Linq on developer-first APIs and cost-effective messaging, with similar self-serve sandbox and enterprise tier models.
Sendbird: Sendbird provides in-app chat, voice, and video APIs with AI agent capabilities built specifically for conversational experiences. It overlaps with Linq in providing messaging infrastructure for AI agents, though Sendbird focuses on in-app rather than native messaging channels.
Bandwidth: Bandwidth is a communications platform offering messaging, voice, and 911 APIs with its own carrier-grade network. It competes with Linq in the enterprise communications API space with similar developer-facing products and enterprise tier offerings.
Stream: Stream provides chat, video, and activity feed APIs with AI agent support for in-app messaging experiences. It competes with Linq for developer mindshare in the messaging API space, particularly for AI-powered chat use cases, though without native messaging channel support.

Emerging players

Kore.ai: Kore.ai is an enterprise conversational AI and agent platform that uses messaging channels to deploy AI agents across SMS, WhatsApp, and voice. It is an emerging player that overlaps with Linq in enabling AI agent deployment through messaging infrastructure, but with more enterprise platform breadth.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Linq compliance and trust

Trust signal

Compliance3 records

Linq financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Linq leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Linq funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Linq M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Linq

What does Linq do?

Is Linq a public or private company?

Linq is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.

When was Linq founded?

Linq was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.

Where is Linq based?

Linq is headquartered in Birmingham, United States, in the North America region.

How does Linq make money?

Two revenue lines are on record. API Subscription/Usage is the primary driver. The others are enterprise Messaging Platform.

Who are Linq's main competitors?

Broad incumbents on record are Twilio, Vonage (Ericsson) and Sinch. Direct peers are Plivo, Bird (formerly MessageBird), Telnyx, Sendbird, Bandwidth and Stream. Kore.ai is listed as an emerging player.

Does Linq have an API?

Yes. Linq offers a Partner API that enables developers to send messages via iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice. The API supports webhooks for inbound messages, chat management, participant management, and sending various message types including text, rich media, reactions, and voice notes. The API is documented at docs.linqapp.com and is used by over 50,000 teams according to the homepage. Developer documentation is at docs.linqapp.com.

What industry is Linq in?

Linq's product category is Communications API Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAIAC, ESB & Enterprise Messaging Middleware, with a secondary code of HDAIAHAF, Contact Center (CCaaS) & Customer Engagement Voice. Its NAICS code is 517 and its SIC code is 4813.