Brand

Verified 3 November 2026

Replika

A San Francisco-registered company, Luka, Inc., behind Replika, an AI companion chatbot app for iOS and Android that presents itself as "the AI friend to do life with".

Replika launched publicly in 2017 and, per Wikipedia, grew out of a chatbot Eugenia Kuyda built in 2015 from a late friend's text messages, at Luka, a company she co-founded around 2012 whose earlier product recommended restaurants. Its own site says it went from two million users in two months to over 40 million. Dmytro Klochko became CEO in 2025; Kuyda has since left and founded Wabi, which on 29 October 2026 was reported to have raised $55 million at a $1.25 billion valuation led by IVP.

The app has drawn regulatory attention: in February 2023 Italy's data protection authority barred it from processing users' data, and the company removed then partly restored erotic role-play that year. A 2023 Mozilla Foundation review criticised its privacy. Replika's 2026 manifesto says it is building AI that "cares", with proactive follow-ups planned.