Poke is a consumer AI assistant from The Interaction Company of California, founded by Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel, that reimagines how people interact with AI agents. Rather than asking users to download yet another app or learn a new chat interface, Poke embeds itself inside the messaging surfaces people already check constantly: Apple Messages, SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram. After connecting accounts like Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, Asana, and Oura, users simply text Poke the way they would text a friend, and it handles tasks, reminders, and automations conversationally.
The product's defining trait is proactivity. Poke does not just answer questions; it watches connected services and surfaces what matters, such as flagging an email that needs a reply, reminding you about an upcoming flight, or nudging you about a calendar conflict. Each surfaced item arrives as a short text bubble with one-tap actions, so a user can confirm a reschedule, send a drafted reply, or pay an invoice without leaving their inbox of messages. Poke also offers a 'Poke Kitchen' for building custom integrations and automations across more than 30 connected services.
During its private testing phase in the summer of 2025, roughly 6,000 Silicon Valley insiders, including operators from Dropbox, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Figma, and General Catalyst, tried Poke and exchanged more than 200,000 texts per month with it. The company reported near-perfect retention among early users, a signal that the messaging-native approach resonated with a demanding audience.
Poke publicly launched on September 8, 2025, alongside a $15 million seed round at a $100 million valuation led by General Catalyst, with Village Global, Earlybird VC, CDTM Venture Fund, and others participating. The company subsequently raised additional capital at a higher valuation from Spark Capital and General Catalyst. Apple granted Poke a rare integration lane into iMessage for AI agents, underscoring the strategic importance of the messaging-native model.
Poke targets busy professionals, founders, and power users who want an AI assistant that fits invisibly into their existing communication habits rather than demanding a new place to look. Its bet is that the winning consumer AI interface is not a standalone app but the chat thread people already trust.
