# Luka

> Luka is the San Francisco software company behind Replika, a customizable AI companion used for conversation, friendship, coaching and romance. It began with restaurant recommendations, found its real market when people treated chatbots as confidants, and now sells a freemium relationship product whose greatest asset - continuity - is also its hardest technical and ethical promise.

- **Founded:** 2014
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Founders:** Eugenia Kuyda (Co-founder and former CEO), Philip Dudchuk (Co-founder)
- **Products:** Luka restaurant guide, Luka bot platform, Replika, Blush, Tomo
- **Notable:** Pioneered the consumer AI-companion category with Replika's public launch in 2017., Reached 2.5 million users by 2018, according to contemporary press coverage., Reached more than 10 million Google Play downloads and 42.16 million registered users worldwide by September 2026.

## Products & services

- **Luka restaurant guide** — A conversational Bay Area discovery app that recommended restaurants and learned tastes; it launched publicly with more than 2,000 restaurant listings.
- **Luka bot platform** — A collection of conversational bots for weather, news, images, games and trivia, routed through the Luka assistant.
- **Replika** — A customizable AI companion for text, voice, video and mixed-reality conversation, with memory, avatars, relationship settings, images and guided activities.
- **Blush** — An AI dating simulator designed for practicing conversations and relationships with fictional matches.
- **Tomo** — A subscription wellness and coaching app launched with more than 250 AI-guided activities including meditation, yoga and affirmations.

## Achievements

- Pioneered the consumer AI-companion category with Replika's public launch in 2017.
- Reached 2.5 million users by 2018, according to contemporary press coverage.
- Reached more than 10 million Google Play downloads and 42.16 million registered users worldwide by September 2026.
- Established consumer uses for AI companionship before the generative-AI boom, spanning friendship, romance, voice calls, AR and mixed reality.
- Prompted a growing research literature on loneliness, human-AI attachment, identity continuity, privacy and safety.
- A 2024 peer-reviewed study of 1,006 adult student users documented perceived loneliness relief and reports that Replika had stopped some participants from attempting suicide, while not establishing clinical efficacy.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Dmytro Klochko became CEO, succeeding founder Eugenia Kuyda in the operating role.
- **2025-05** — Italy's data protection authority announced a €5 million fine against Luka for GDPR violations and opened a separate investigation into the legal basis for training the underlying model.
- **2026-01** — Klochko publicly positioned Replika as a proactive emotional companion distinct from productivity assistants and argued its goal should be user happiness.
- **2026-05** — Replika updated its privacy policy for an adults-only service and said advertising partners do not receive in-app conversations, photos or other submitted content.
- **2026-09** — The official site reported 42,160,934 registered users and presented a rebuilt Replika with proactive messages, stronger memory, internet access and video calls.

## Links

- Website: https://replika.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/replikaai
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/replika
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQGqMVuAk04
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meetreplika
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/replikabeta

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/luka
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-24