“From B2C to B2B AX, Establishing Status as a ‘Global AI Agent'”
Liner AI
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global AI agent startup Liner (CEO Luke Kim) announced on August 25th that it has raised $36.1 million in a Series C funding round.
This Series C round comes roughly one year and ten months after its previous funding cycle. The financing reflects investor confidence in Liner’s expansion from consumer AI into enterprise AI. The round was led by LB Investment, with existing core shareholders including InterVest, Atinum Investment, and CJ Investment participating in follow-on investments. New investors joining the round include Korea Development Bank (KDB), KB Securities, Daishin Securities, STIC Ventures, and Helios Private Equity.
Amid a broader market correction and tightening diligence across the AI industry, existing backers from earlier rounds maintained their stakes or doubled down on their investments to support Liner’s long-term valuation.
Since its Series B2 round, Liner has proven its market viability by diversifying its agent services and scaling its B2B business model. Notably, the company scored 95.3 on OpenAI’s “SimpleQA Benchmark,” which measures factual accuracy, and outperformed GPT-4 in search-response generation, validating its proprietary technology to overcome the traditional limitations of generative AI. Leveraging these capabilities, Liner launched “Liner Scholar” for academic research, “Liner Write” for business use, and “Liner Finance” for investment research all establishing a robust portfolio of personal productivity agents. This product-led growth strategy enabled the company to secure a significant global user base without aggressive marketing expenditures.
Liner currently boasts over 14 million registered users across 220 countries, including the U.S., Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. As of late July 2026, Liner ranked 30th in global AI service web traffic on Similar Web, putting Liner ahead of prominent global AI services such as Poe, Mistral AI, and Glean. Furthermore, it remains the only South Korean AI startup to be featured on Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) “Top 100 GenAI Consumer Apps” list for four consecutive editions since 2024, demonstrating sustained demand from global consumers through tangible performance metrics.
Moving beyond consumer applications, Liner has successfully expanded its business model into the B2B enterprise domain by leveraging user data and an academic database of over 500 million records. A prime example is its partnership with HUMAIN, a state-backed Saudi Arabian AI corporation chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Liner supplied its deep research-backed AI search engine for HUMAIN’s integrated platform, “HUMAIN ONE.” HUMAIN selected Liner after a rigorous benchmarking process against global Big Tech firms to find the optimal technology for a platform serving Saudi government ministries and major corporations. This decision is a clear indication that Liner’s enterprise solution capabilities are competitive on the global stage.
Liner plans to deploy the Series C capital into R&D to maintain its technological edge globally. The company will focus on advancing its core technologies and expanding infrastructure, while dedicating research capabilities to establishing a strong foothold in the domestic and international enterprise AX markets. Resources will also be balanced toward acquiring top-tier global talent, efficient marketing, and business expansion. Through these initiatives, Liner aims to diversify monetization models for its core B2C services and optimize its agent technologies for the domestic market, positioning itself as an accessible, everyday AI service for the general public.
Ki-ho Park, CEO of LB Investment, who led the round, said: “Liner now serves 14 million users, ranks No. 30 globally in AI web traffic, has deployed its technology to HUMAIN, and has expanded into enterprise AI. Those milestones attracted $36.1M million in new funding. We led this investment without hesitation out of a strong conviction that Liner is a one-of-a-kind AI startup already proving its worth through real traffic and commercial milestones on the global stage.”
Luke Kim, CEO of Liner, said: “This investment goes beyond merely expanding our footprint. It serves as a strategic foundation to secure world-class infrastructure and top global talent, both of which are essential to anchoring reliability, the ultimate core of any AI agent. Rather than depending on short-term, marketing-driven expansion, we are focused on establishing a self-sustaining business model that builds lasting value through technological leadership and transforms us into a global AI enterprise.” He added, “As we compete on the global stage with world-class technology and proven traffic amid intense international competition, we appreciate your continued interest and support in Liner’s journey and future achievements.”
Liner Funding Round History Total Cumulative Funding: Approx. $64.3 M
- Angel Round: Approx. $0.64M
- Series A: Approx. $3.2M (July 2020)
- Investors: KB Investment, SL Investment, Capstone Partners
- Series B: $7.07M (September 2022)
- Investors: CJ Investment, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), SL Investment, We Ventures, KB Investment
- Series B2: $17.3M (October 2024)
- Investors: InterVest, Atinum Investment, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), Samsung Venture Investment, LB Investment, Capstone Partners, SL Investment
- Series C: $36.1M (August 2026)
- Investors: LB Investment, InterVest, Atinum Investment, CJ Investment, KB Securities, Korea Development Bank (KDB), Daishin Securities, STIC Ventures, Helios Private Equity
About Liner
Liner is an evidence-first AI research platform designed for people who need answers they can verify. By prioritizing citation-backed outputs and source traceability, Liner helps users quickly audit claims, evaluate information quality, and conduct research with greater speed and confidence. The platform is used by students, educators, professionals, and knowledge workers around the world who want AI that supports trustworthy learning and decision-making.
For more information about Liner, please visit https://liner.com/.
Media Contact
Len Fernandes
Firecracker PR for Liner
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6aa33405-7dcc-4188-976f-babc533be108
