In the gold rush of the generative AI era, the industry has hit an adoption bottleneck. We have agents that can search the web, draft emails, and book flights, yet they are often trapped behind the walled gardens of clunky mobile apps or buried in browser tabs. For the average consumer, “app fatigue” isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a reason to not try a new product
Birmingham-based Linq believes the solution isn’t another icon on your home screen. It’s the messaging app you already open 50 times a day.
Today, Linq announced a $20 million Series A round led by TQ Ventures, along with Mucker Capital and a roster of high-profile angels, including a former Google and Apple executive. The mission? To become the “communication layer” for the AI economy, enabling autonomous agents to interact with humans via iMessage, RCS, SMS, and Voice as easily as a best friend would.
The Death of the “Green Bubble” Barrier
For years, businesses trying to reach customers via text have been hamstrung by antiquated SMS rails. These messages are often expensive, slow, and, perhaps most importantly for brand trust, they appear as “green bubbles.” In a world where iMessage and RCS offer typing indicators, high-res media, and emoji reactions, a plain-text SMS feels like a relic from the past.
“We looked at all of the top communication API platforms, and nothing came close to the reliability and security compliance of Linq,” says Samyok Nepal, Member of Technical Staff at The Interaction Company.
Linq’s proprietary platform bypasses these legacy hurdles. By providing AI agents with real phone numbers that support the full suite of modern messaging features, including group chats, voice notes, and images, Linq allows developers to move their agents out of the “junk” folder and into the primary conversation thread.
From Same-Day Grocery to Real-Time AI
The pedigree of Linq’s founding team explains their obsession with frictionless scale. CEO Elliott Potter, CTO Patrick Sullivan, and President Jared Mattsson were all early executives at Shipt, the grocery delivery giant that Target acquired for $550 million. At Shipt, they learned firsthand that the success of a platform lives or dies by the quality of the communication between the company, the shopper, and the customer.
Originally launched as a digital business card and CRM automation tool, Linq pivoted when the founders realized that the “missing link” in the AI boom wasn’t the intelligence of the agents, but their delivery mechanism.
“Every team we talked to that was building an AI agent had the same problem: they couldn’t get users to download another app,” says Elliott Potter. “By living in users’ text threads, developers aren’t limited by who downloads their app. Anyone in the world with a phone can instantly become a user.”
Disrupting the Legacy Giants
While companies like Twilio have long dominated the communication API space, Linq is positioning itself as a leaner, smarter, and significantly cheaper alternative. The company claims its platform is 90% more cost-effective than legacy providers, a critical factor for startups looking to scale AI agents that may need to send thousands of messages per user.
The market is already responding. More than 100 companies, including Poke.com, Tomo, and Hypercard, are using Linq to send over 30 million messages per month. With the new capital, Linq projects that number will skyrocket into the billions by the end of the year.
The Investor Thesis: Friction is the Enemy
For the investors behind the round, Linq represents a fundamental shift in how we will interact with technology. Andrew Marks, Co-Founding Partner of TQ Ventures, believes Linq is “enabling an entirely new category of companies” by removing the friction of AI-to-human interaction.
Omar Hamoui, Partner at Mucker Capital and the founder of AdMob, echoes this sentiment: “We backed Linq because they’re removing friction at the exact point where AI meets people. When communication becomes easier, whole new markets open up.”
As Linq scales its engineering and GTM teams, the goal is clear: to ensure that the next time you receive a text from an AI, it won’t feel like a bot, it will feel like a conversation.
Companies can try Linq today at https://linqapp.com/.
