companies

Luka, Inc.

Creator of Replika, one of the first mainstream AI companion apps, built to be a supportive, always-available friend rather than a task assistant.

Luka, Inc. was founded in San Francisco in 2012 by Eugenia Kuyda and Phil Dudchuk after going through Y Combinator, originally building a restaurant-recommendation bot before pivoting toward personal AI. In 2017, the team turned an internal project — a chatbot trained on text messages from a friend who had died — into Replika, a companion app that lets people build a persistent AI relationship, complete with a customizable 3D avatar, memory of past conversations, and adjustable relationship types from friend to romantic partner. Replika has since grown into one of the most recognized names in the AI companion category, reporting tens of millions of downloads and a dedicated subreddit community that has stayed active through several controversial product changes. In 2025, co-founder Eugenia Kuyda stepped back from day-to-day leadership to launch a new startup, Wabi, handing the CEO role to former COO Dmytro Klochko while remaining involved as a board member and the company's largest shareholder.

Founded

2012

Headquarters

San Francisco, United States

Sector

consumer