Funding for “AdSense for AI” enables developers to monetize high-intent AI conversations without compromising user trust.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Koah, which enables contextual advertising natively inside generative AI, today announced a $20.5 million Series A funding round led by Theory Ventures. Tomasz Tunguz, Founder and General Partner of Theory Ventures and Google AdSense alum, will join the Board as part of the investment. The round builds on Koah’s $5 million seed round in September 2025, reflecting growing confidence in Koah’s approach to monetizing generative AI without compromising the end-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.”
Koah’s lightweight SDK installs in minutes, enabling native monetization directly inside generative AI experiences. Serving performant advertising from premium brands, Koah has already driven monetization for high-engagement AI apps such as Liner, Viro, and Sup AI.
“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.”
Over the past 12 months, Koah’s ecosystem has scaled to more than 2 million monthly active users engaging with conversational AI 3x per day. Koah has already served more than 35 million native ad impressions across 175 million queries.
“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.
For advertisers, Koah unlocks a new advertising channel offering rich intent. Advertisers engage users through real-time conversational context, aligning their products and expertise with what people are actively researching and deciding.
“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.”
Koah is introducing analytics tools to track user engagement and ad performance inside AI search and chat, alongside new context-rich ad formats built specifically for generative environments. The new capital brings Koah’s total funding to more than $26 million and will accelerate engineering hiring and go-to-market expansion as the company builds out its full technology stack for AI monetization.
To learn more about Koah and request access, please visit:
koahlabs.com/theory-ventures-partnership.
About Koah
Koah is the native monetization platform for generative AI. The “AdSense for AI,” Koah helps developers monetize high-intent conversations using native, contextual advertising embedded directly within AI chat experiences. Backed by Theory Ventures, Forerunner, and South Park Commons, Koah works with leading AI apps and global advertisers to power monetization that preserves user experience and delivers performance.
Media Contact:
Cameron Ruby
press@koahlabs.com
