Linecook
5 known investors
Linecook is an AI-powered social app that lets close friends share their home cooking with each other. It targets consumers who cook and want to share their meals within their social circle.
Also known as Linecook Technologies Inc.
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 4
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Linecook operates a consumer social networking app for home cooks, distributed on iOS by Linecook Technologies Inc. Users post photos and videos of dishes they have cooked to a feed of close friends, log the meals they make over time, and browse other cooks' posts for inspiration. The product's central mechanic is AI photo analysis: the app examines images of ingredients, preparation and finished dishes and, combined with prompts for user commentary, generates a recipe, ingredient list, tips and a shareable social post, removing the need for manual entry.
Beyond posting, the app includes social and gamification layers: "Fires" for reacting to friends' meals, badges and achievements for adventurous ingredients, baking, new cuisines and other kitchen milestones, cuisine statistics and a cuisine heatmap, profile highlights, kitchen gear tracking, and Group Meals that let two cooks share credit for a dish or cover dinner parties and potlucks. Discovery surfaces include Staff Picks, "Cooking Like Yours," Local Discovery and a Cuisine Explorer, plus occasion and dietary tags (for example gluten free, vegan and high protein) used to filter community cooking. Planned or described directions include planning features for dietary considerations, nutritional-quality tags and social challenges to recreate viral dishes.
The company is based in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2025, and has 1-10 employees. It is categorized as a consumer apps and social business with food and beverage exposure, at seed stage.
Founding story
Linecook was founded in 2025 by Nick Stewart, who serves as CEO and co-founder, and Nick Kafker, co-founder. The pair previously built Recover Athletics, which they sold to Strava, after which they worked on premium features for the social fitness app; they applied that experience in social fitness product design to home cooking.
Business model
Consumer social app, offered as a free iPhone download.
Traction
The iOS app launched in public beta and holds a 5.0 average rating from 109 ratings on the US App Store, with frequent version releases through mid-2026.
Latest developments
Recent app releases added tag-based automatic meal descriptions, a redesigned notifications page, occasion and dietary tags, an improved cuisine heatmap and expanded kitchen gear options, profile highlights and video uploads. In July 2026, investor Ardent Venture Partners publicized backing Linecook's $3.3M pre-seed round.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Positioned as a social network for home cooking, described in press coverage as applying a Strava-style social and tracking model to cooking rather than competing as a recipe database or food-delivery service.
Combines automatic AI recipe generation from photos with a close-friends social graph and fitness-app-style gamification such as reactions, badges, streak-like milestones and cuisine statistics; founders bring prior experience building premium features at Strava.
Technology
AI models analyze user-submitted photos of ingredients, preparation steps and plated dishes to generate recipes, ingredient lists and improvement tips, and to produce descriptions of meals from user-applied tags. The app also provides feedback on ingredients, technique and plating, and surfaces similar meals for inspiration.
Go-to-market
Distribution is direct-to-consumer through the Apple App Store, with growth driven by friend invitations and onboarding flows designed to bring users' friends onto the platform, supported by curated discovery surfaces such as Staff Picks and Local Discovery.
Home cooks and cooking enthusiasts who want to share meals with close friends, track what they cook, and find inspiration; the app is rated 13+ and available in English.
Geography
Headquartered in San Francisco, California; the iPhone app is distributed on the US App Store in English.
History
Founded in 2025 in San Francisco, Linecook launched its iOS app in public beta and announced a $2.3M pre-seed round in March 2026. The app has shipped weekly feature updates through 2026, adding video uploads, profile highlights, expanded cuisine statistics and kitchen gear, occasion and dietary tags, and AI-generated meal descriptions.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsApp version 1.26.33 added occasion and dietary tags for meals and tag-based filtering on the Explore page.
App version 1.26.28 allowed users to add videos to their meal posts.
Ardent Venture Partners announced it backed Linecook's pre-seed round, described as $3.3M, for its Strava-style social model applied to home cooking.
$3.3M source ↗
Linecook raised a $2.3M pre-seed backed by the founders of Strava, WHOOP and MyFitnessPal, along with Ardent VC and others.
$2.3M source ↗
Linecook launched its AI-powered social cooking app in public beta, letting home cooks track meals, generate recipes from photos and connect with other cooks.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Linecooklinecook.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Linecook do?
- Linecook is an AI-powered social app that lets home cooks share meals with close friends and improve their cooking.
- Who are Linecook's investors?
- Linecook's investors include Ardent Venture.