The Interaction Company of California

Market position

Poke was described as the highest-profile independent product in the "text your AI assistant" category, competing with products such as Martin, Tomo, Caddy and Carly. Its differentiating regulatory asset was Apple's Messages for Business approval, which one source identifies as a significant driver of acquisition interest. The category has undergone consolidation and attrition, with contemporaneous shutdowns of Clockwise and the winding down of Relay.app cited as context.

Distribution inside messaging apps people already use rather than a new app or interface; native approval to text on Apple Messages for Business, described as unmatched by competitors; and interaction design intended to mimic human conversation (read receipts, typing indicators, interruptibility, proactive follow-up). Investors reported beta users substituting Poke for ChatGPT usage, including for tasks outside its original design scope.

Technology

Poke is built on long-context language models and integrates across text messaging, email, calendar and files to maintain memory of a user's communication patterns across platforms. It is delivered natively inside messaging platforms — Apple Messages, WhatsApp, SMS and Telegram — rather than as a separate application, and supports automations ("recipes") across roughly 30 connected apps. Apple's approval of Poke on Messages for Business gave it native texting access on Apple Messages, a status the source describes as unmatched by competitors. Following acquisition, Cognition stated it intends to run its own models and infrastructure underneath Poke to improve speed and reliability.

Go-to-market

Consumer self-serve signup with a free tier and paid upgrades, distributed via existing messaging platforms rather than app installs. Launch marketing used a short film — a love story set in Paris — instead of conventional announcement content. Growth ran through an invite/beta phase before public launch in March 2026. General Catalyst provided PR support and hiring introductions post-investment.

Individual consumers and knowledge workers who manage high volumes of email, messages and calendar obligations. Reported beta testers included employees of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Pricing tiers span free consumer use through a $199/month plan.

Geography

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Cofounder Felix Schlegel is listed as based in Munich, Germany, and the founders' academic and professional backgrounds span Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Investor base includes US and European firms (General Catalyst, Spark Capital, Village Global, Earlybird Venture Capital, Anti Fund).

History

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company initially operated in stealth building consumer AI products. It began as an email-centric product concept before repositioning around a text-based assistant. General Catalyst led a seed round announced September 8, 2025, reported by Forbes as $15 million at a $100 million valuation with participation from angels associated with Stripe, Google and OpenAI. Poke launched publicly in March 2026. In April 2026, the company raised an additional $10 million co-led by Spark Capital and General Catalyst at a reported $300 million post-money valuation. In June 2026, Apple approved Poke as the first stand-alone AI agent on Messages for Business. On July 23, 2026, Cognition announced its acquisition of the company, approximately fifteen months after Poke's public launch.

Risks & controversies

Commentary following the acquisition flags that Poke holds read access to users' email, calendar and contacts along with message history, and that this data transfers to the acquirer, making successor terms-of-service and privacy-policy updates material for users. Additional uncertainty noted includes potential reorientation of a consumer product inside an enterprise developer-tools company and possible restructuring of pricing tiers. Reported figures also conflict across sources: total funding is listed as $10.0M by one aggregator versus $15M seed plus $10M follow-on elsewhere, and headcount is reported as 2-10 in one profile and 11-50 in another.