Lua
Lua (heylua.ai) provides a code-first, LLM-agnostic AI agent development platform for enterprises, using TypeScript with Zod-typed tools and a proprietary evaluation engine, sold via usage-based pricing and a global Implementation Network of regional partners.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2024
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Lua does
Lua (heylua.ai) operates an AI agent operating system for enterprises, providing a code-first platform that lets developers build, evaluate, and deploy production AI agents using TypeScript and Zod-typed tools. The platform is LLM-agnostic, orchestrating across OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Perplexity, and Meta models, and includes a proprietary AI evaluation engine for testing agent behavior. Founded in 2024 in London as a Delaware C Corp (Lua Global Inc.) by ex-Paystack CEO Lorcan O'Cathain and ex-Zephyr Management CTO Stefan Kruger, Lua is part of the Y Combinator F25 batch.
The company monetizes via a freemium tier plus usage-based pricing for agent execution and evaluation, targeting developers and enterprises building customer-facing or internal AI agents. Go-to-market runs through a global Implementation Network of 8 exclusive territorial partners plus 2 US regional partners, supplemented by a hackathon circuit that has driven community-led growth. Vertical focus spans fintech (with disclosed customers Numida and Money254) and a recently launched Home Services vertical targeting SMBs.
Since launching the Agent Developer Platform in October 2025, Lua has reported 30% week-over-week growth and 10x agent creation growth in Q1 2026. A $5.8M seed round closed in April 2026 led by Norrsken22, earmarked for US expansion and further vertical buildout. The company operates with a 1-10 person core team, leveraging its partner network for scalable customer reach.
Lua firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Lua
- Legal name
- Lua Global Inc.
- Website
- https://heylua.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2024
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Lua (heylua.ai) provides a code-first, LLM-agnostic AI agent development platform for enterprises, using TypeScript with Zod-typed tools and a proprietary evaluation engine, sold via usage-based pricing and a global Implementation Network of regional partners.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Lua industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Agent Development Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- AI Integration & Orchestration Platforms (Connectors, Workflow, iPaaS for AI) (HDAEANAI), Model Deployment, Serving & Inference Platforms (HDAAABAF)
Keywords
Where Lua is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices6 records
Markets served
Lua business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Usage-based pricing: Lua has publicly advocated a usage-based pricing model in a March 2026 position paper, arguing that customers should own agent infrastructure and retain all efficiency improvements rather than paying fixed per-outcome rates; positions this as the strategic approach for scaling businesses.
- Freemium / Free Trial: Self-serve 'Start Building Free' entry with no credit card required and free trial available; enables product-led acquisition before any paid conversion.
- Enterprise Platform Subscription (implied): Revenue has been growing approximately 30% week-over-week since launching the developer platform in October 2025, indicating recurring commercial contracts rather than purely transactional revenue.
- Implementation & Deployment Services (via partner network): Lua Implementation Network — certified global partner community deploying agent-based systems across 8 exclusive territories and 2 US regional partners, generating services revenue and deployment support around the core platform.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free trial / freemium self-serve entry |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Usage-based (advocated model) |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom / quote-based enterprise |
Go-to-market motion5 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
Lua product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Lua provides an AI-powered "Agent OS" that lets organizations build, deploy, and manage production-grade conversational AI agents across multiple channels including mobile, web, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS, and voice. The platform offers a TypeScript-first developer workflow via the lua-cli SDK with Zod validation, a no-code visual builder, a Claude Code plugin for conversational agent authoring, 30+ starter templates, LLM-agnostic orchestration over OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Perplexity, and Meta, and a managed zero-infrastructure runtime.
Product overview
Lua offers a single unified platform, branded 'The Agent OS,' that sits on top of leading AI providers and is delivered to builders through three complementary surfaces: the lua-cli Developer SDK (TypeScript-first coding workflow), the Lua Agent Builder visual no-code interface, and the Lua Agent Builder Plugin for Claude Code (conversational agent authoring). On top of this core platform, Lua sells a vertical product, Lua for Home Services, that packages pre-built agents for trades businesses, and it sustains a developer community through a growing Template library and Hackathon program. All surfaces share the same multi-channel runtime (mobile, web, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS, voice), the same TypeScript/Zod tool framework, and the same enterprise security baseline (SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Lua Agent OS Operating system for building, deploying, and managing enterprise-grade AI agents that work across mobile, web, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS, and voice, with built-in hosting, auto-scaling, SOC 2/GDPR/CCPA compliance, and event-driven triggers. For enterprise and mid-market teams, developers, and channel partners.
- lua-cli Developer SDK TypeScript-first CLI for defining Lua tools, skills, webhooks, and jobs as real code with Zod validation, local testing, live reload, and one-command deployment to production. For software developers building production AI agents.
- Lua Agent Builder (Visual Builder) No-code visual interface for building agents via chat, with starting templates for Sales, Customer Support, Order Management, HR, and Custom use cases, plus channel and integration configuration. For business users without coding experience.
- Lua Agent Builder Plugin for Claude Code Claude Code plugin that replaces CLI workflows with conversational commands covering architecting, scaffolding, testing, deploying, and QA of Lua agents, with 14 slash commands, 5 AI subagents, 9 safety hooks, and 5 MCP tools, plus a five-gate safe deployment sequence. For developers using Claude Code as their IDE.
- Lua Agent Templates Library of pre-built starter templates covering Customer Support (Support Assistant, Multilingual Support, Refund Handler), E-commerce (Assistant, Upsell, Cart Recovery), Sales (Lead Qualifier, Outreach, Proposal Generator), HR (Assistant, Onboarding, Interview Scheduler, IT Helpdesk), and additional use cases. For teams wanting fast time-to-value on templated agent patterns.
- Lua for Home Services Verticalized AI front-office for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, duct cleaning, painting, and electrical contractors that answers every call in under two rings, qualifies leads, quotes from a price book, checks real-time crew availability, books jobs into Jobber/Housecall Pro/ServiceTitan/Google Calendar, sends confirmations and post-job follow-ups, and processes payments. For US home services SMBs.
Quantifiable outcome
- 40% more qualified leads via Sales & Lead Gen template
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use Lua
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Lua technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration17 records
AI capability5 records
Feature8 records
Lua partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
30 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- AI.SEAcoreCo-hosted Singapore's first $1 Sprint hackathon on April 18, 2026 — a full-day builder session where teams shipped AI agents and sold them within nine hours.
- CarousellcoreHosted the Singapore $1 Sprint hackathon at Carousell Campus (Regional HQ, 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore 139955) on April 18–19, 2026.
- AntlercoreCo-organized the Nairobi (April 9) and Lagos (April 24, 2026) hackathons using Lua's lua-cli framework to surface real-world AI agents from emerging-market builders.
- OpenAIflagshipDisplayed on Lua's homepage logo bar; Lua's platform is built 'on top of the world's leading AI providers' with OpenAI as a core model provider (also powers the original mobile service per Privacy Policy).
- AnthropicflagshipDisplayed on Lua's homepage logo bar; integrated as an LLM provider behind Lua agents with no vendor lock-in.
- Gemini (Google)flagshipDisplayed on Lua's homepage logo bar; supported LLM provider within Lua's model-agnostic orchestration.
- PerplexitycoreDisplayed on Lua's homepage logo bar; Perplexity also powers the mobile service per Terms of Use.
- MetacoreDisplayed on Lua's homepage logo bar; integrated as one of Lua's underlying model providers.
- StripecoreFeatured in Event-Driven Automation capability; Lua offers HTTP endpoints for Stripe events so agents react to payments, subscriptions, and refunds in real time.
- ShopifycoreFeatured in Event-Driven Automation capability; Lua agents react to Shopify store events for e-commerce flows.
- GitHubcoreFeatured in Event-Driven Automation capability; Lua agents react to GitHub events and the Claude Code plugin is published on GitHub (lua-ai-global/claude-code-lua-plugin).
- JobbercoreNative integration in Lua's Home Services vertical; agents book jobs straight into Jobber from inbound calls and chats.
- Housecall ProcoreNative integration in Lua's Home Services vertical; agents sync bookings with Housecall Pro schedules.
- ServiceTitancoreNative integration in Lua's Home Services vertical; agents book jobs directly into ServiceTitan.
- TwiliocoreFeatured as a 'Books straight into the tools you already run' integration powering voice/SMS agent channels for home services.
- Google CalendarcoreFeatured integration; Lua agents book appointments straight into Google Calendar and accept it as a standalone scheduling backend for smaller operators.
- QuickBookscoreFeatured integration in Lua's Home Services stack so post-job agents can send invoices and collect payments.
- GmailcoreFeatured integration for Home Services; agents email customers confirmations and post-job follow-ups.
- Levi Letor (Benelux Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering the Benelux territory from Brussels; provides local-language deployment, implementation, and customer success.
- Elnar Mammadli (Canada Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering Canada from Calgary; delivers localized Lua agent deployments to Canadian enterprises.
- Marko Reis (East Africa Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering East Africa from Nairobi; supports key early-deal markets including Kenya-based fintech deployments.
- Omar Elkammah (Egypt Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering Egypt from Cairo; localized agent deployment and integration support.
- Ziad Elkammah (Egypt Implementation Partner)minorCo-exclusive Lua Implementation partner in Egypt alongside Omar Elkammah.
- Mayank Lakhani (India Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering India from New Delhi.
- Therese Sandoval (Philippines Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering the Philippines from Manila.
- Alexander Poulin (Sri Lanka Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering Sri Lanka from Colombo.
- Zimar Kaleel (Sri Lanka Implementation Partner)minorCo-exclusive Lua Implementation partner in Sri Lanka alongside Alexander Poulin.
- Conor Ryan (UK & Ireland Implementation Partner)coreExclusive Lua Implementation Network partner covering the UK and Ireland from Dublin.
- PressWcoreNon-exclusive US Implementation partner based in Austin, TX; deploys Lua agents for US customers (pressw.ai).
- TericsoftcoreNon-exclusive US Implementation partner based in Austin, TX; provides engineering and integration services on top of Lua (www.tericsoft.com).
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Lua competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Bland AI: Bland AI provides programmable AI phone agents with enterprise telephony, multi-LLM support, and a developer API — a direct competitor in the AI-voice-agent category that overlaps with Lua's Home Services voice/SMS deployment on Twilio.
- Vapi: Vapi is a developer platform for building, testing, and deploying voice AI agents via API, with similar emphasis on low-latency voice runtime, multi-LLM support, and a TypeScript/Node SDK. It competes most directly with Lua's voice/SMS channels and Home Services vertical.
- Retell AI: Retell AI offers a voice AI agent platform with telephony integration, conversation design tools, and LLM orchestration — closely comparable to Lua's voice channel and Twilio-powered home-services offering, and similarly targets SMB and enterprise voice automation use cases.
- Voiceflow: Voiceflow is a no-code/low-code conversational AI platform for designing, prototyping, and deploying chat and voice agents across channels. It is comparable to Lua's Agent Builder visual surface and multi-channel deployment, with a longer-tenured presence in the same category.
- Botpress: Botpress is a conversational AI platform with a visual agent builder, multi-channel deployment (web, Slack, Messenger, WhatsApp), LLM integration, and an open-source core — a direct peer to Lua's Agent Builder and multi-channel orchestration layer.
Emerging players
- LangChain: LangChain provides an open-source framework and commercial platform for building LLM-powered agents and chains with integrations to data sources and tools. It is comparable to Lua's agent orchestration and tool-definition approach but sits one layer deeper, often used by developers building on top of Lua rather than alongside it.
- CrewAI: CrewAI is an open-source multi-agent orchestration framework for coordinating role-based AI agents. It overlaps with Lua's agent runtime and tool/orchestration layer, particularly for developer-led, code-first agent builds, and could substitute for parts of Lua's TypeScript agent framework.
Broad incumbents
- Cognigy: Cognigy is an established enterprise conversational and agentic AI platform with voice and chat automation for large contact centers. Comparable to Lua in multi-channel orchestration and enterprise compliance positioning, but aimed at large enterprise buyers rather than SMBs.
- Kore.ai: Kore.ai is a broad enterprise AI agent platform covering customer service, employee experience, and contact-center automation with multi-LLM orchestration. It overlaps with Lua's enterprise/mid-market agent ambitions but serves much larger organizations with a wider portfolio.
- Sierra: Sierra builds enterprise AI agents for customer experience with a focus on safety, brand voice, and large-brand deployments. It competes with Lua in the agent-platform category but targets Fortune-class enterprises rather than Lua's SMB and emerging-market segments.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights10 records
Customer concentration
Lua social profiles
Digital presenceLua compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Lua financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Lua leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Lua funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Lua M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Lua
What does Lua do?
Lua provides an AI-powered "Agent OS" that lets organizations build, deploy, and manage production-grade conversational AI agents across multiple channels including mobile, web, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, email, SMS, and voice. The platform offers a TypeScript-first developer workflow via the lua-cli SDK with Zod validation, a no-code visual builder, a Claude Code plugin for conversational agent authoring, 30+ starter templates, LLM-agnostic orchestration over OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Perplexity, and Meta, and a managed zero-infrastructure runtime.
Is Lua a public or private company?
Lua is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Lua founded?
Lua was founded in 2024. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Lua based?
Lua is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Lua make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Usage-based pricing is the primary driver. The others are freemium / Free Trial, enterprise Platform Subscription (implied) and implementation & Deployment Services (via partner network).
Who are Lua's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Bland AI, Vapi, Retell AI, Voiceflow and Botpress. Emerging players are LangChain and CrewAI. Broad incumbents are Cognigy, Kore.ai and Sierra.
Does Lua have an API?
Yes. Lua exposes a public API and CLI (lua-cli) for building, testing, and deploying AI agents. Developers can define tools, skills, webhooks, and jobs in TypeScript, with Zod schema validation, live reload, and one-command deployment. The CLI exposes commands such as `lua init`, `lua dev`, `lua chat`, `lua deploy`, `lua logs`, and `lua push`. Event-driven HTTP endpoints accept webhook events from Stripe, Shopify, and GitHub. A complete API reference is published at docs.heylua.ai/api, with a Claude Code plugin that bundles 5 MCP tools for agent scaffolding, testing, and deployment. The platform is open to the public with a free trial tier; no enterprise gating is stated. Developer documentation is at docs.heylua.ai/api.
What industry is Lua in?
Lua's product category is AI Agent Development Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEANAJ, AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs), with a secondary code of HDAEANAI, AI Integration & Orchestration Platforms (Connectors, Workflow, iPaaS for AI). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.