Cookiy AI Raises Over $7M In Pre-Seed Funding Round

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Cookiy AI secured over $7 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, marking a strong early validation for its agentic voice AI platform. Backed by prominent early-stage VCs including Liquid2, Converge VC, GoAhead Ventures, UpHonest Capital, and Taihill Venture, alongside other top-tier funds and strategic angels. The funds will accelerate product development, operations expansion, and scaling of AI-moderated consumer interviews, aiming to deliver insights 10x faster and cheaper than traditional methods while emphasizing ethical, human-centered AI.

Cookiy AI, founded in 2025 and based in Palo Alto, California, develops an agentic voice AI platform that revolutionizes qualitative consumer research. By automating natural, dynamic conversations with participants, it transforms raw voice data into actionable insights in under 48 hours—compared to 8-12 weeks for conventional focus groups. The platform targets industries like DTC, gaming, education, and consumer goods, ensuring compliance with standards such as SOC2, GDPR, and COPPA. Led by CEO Davin YC Dong, a serial entrepreneur with experience scaling Instagram and TikTok to billions of users, Cookiy positions itself as a bridge between businesses and consumers, prioritizing speed, scalability, and fairness in compensation for participants.

This pre-seed round reflects robust investor confidence in voice AI’s potential amid the broader AI funding surge. No public valuation was disclosed, but the oversubscription suggests competitive interest in agentic AI applications for market research. The capital will fuel engineering hires, platform enhancements, and go-to-market efforts, including building a client waitlist for early adopters.

Strategic Implications

In a market where AI-driven insights are increasingly critical, Cookiy’s focus on voice-based, empathetic interactions differentiates it from text-heavy tools. This funding enables rapid iteration, potentially capturing share from legacy research firms while addressing ethical concerns around data privacy and participant equity. However, as an early-stage venture, execution risks remain, particularly in achieving widespread adoption amid regulatory scrutiny on AI.

Cookiy AI’s pre-seed funding round underscores the intensifying investor appetite for innovative AI applications in consumer insights and qualitative research. Raising over $7 million in an oversubscribed round, the Palo Alto-based startup is poised to disrupt a traditionally slow and costly industry, leveraging agentic voice AI to deliver faster, more empathetic, and scalable market intelligence. This analysis delves into the round’s structure, investor composition, strategic rationale, market context, and broader implications, drawing on the company’s trajectory and the evolving AI landscape.

Company Background and Founding Vision

Cookiy AI emerged in early 2025 from the vision of CEO Davin YC Dong, a veteran of hyper-growth tech environments. Dong, one of the first 100 engineers at Instagram, contributed to scaling the platform to over one billion users through growth science initiatives. He later led global emerging business at TikTok, managing a 600-person team and generating over $1 billion in B2B revenue via Pangle. His most recent venture, Marvy—an agentic AI for growth marketing—secured early backing from investors like Liquid2 and Converge, providing a foundational proof-of-concept for Cookiy’s voice-centric approach.

The company’s core product is an end-to-end platform that automates qualitative research through AI-moderated voice interviews. Traditional methods, such as focus groups or one-on-one sessions, often cost $50,000–$200,000 and take 8–12 weeks, limiting their use to large enterprises. Cookiy compresses this to 1–2 days at a fraction of the cost, using agentic AI for dynamic conversation guidance, participant recruitment from a pool of millions, simultaneous interviews, and automated analysis. Key features include:

• Natural Interaction: AI agents conduct human-like dialogues, probing motivations and preferences beyond static surveys.
• Scalability and Speed: Handles large-scale sessions while delivering structured reports with decision-ready intelligence.
• Ethical Safeguards: Fair participant compensation, data security via SOC2, ISO27001, COPPA, and GDPR compliance.
• Use Cases: Product validation, campaign optimization, and customer experience mapping across DTC, gaming, services, education, and consumer goods.

This human-AI hybrid model not only accelerates insights but also democratizes access, empowering smaller teams to compete with research giants. Early traction includes a waitlist for beta clients, signaling demand in a post-cookie era where understanding consumer mindsets is paramount.

Funding Round Details

Announced via a GlobeNewswire press release and amplified through LinkedIn, the round closed as oversubscribed, reflecting strong validation just months after inception. Key parameters include:

The funds will prioritize rebuilding the “bridge between companies and customers,” enabling Cookiy to turn conversations into real-time strategic advantages. A companion announcement video highlights the platform’s demo, further building hype.

Recommended: Burnt Raises $3.8 Million In Seed Funding Round

Investor Landscape

The investor syndicate blends established AI-focused VCs with strategic angels, many with prior ties to Dong’s ventures. This composition signals confidence in voice AI’s niche within the $80+ billion global market research industry, where AI adoption is projected to grow at 25% CAGR through 2030.

Liquid2 and Converge’s repeat investment underscores continuity, while GoAhead and UpHonest bring fresh networks for U.S.-Asia expansion. The syndicate’s diversity—spanning sustainability (Converge) and operator expertise—aligns with Cookiy’s ethical AI ethos and global ambitions. Post-announcement reactions on LinkedIn included over 80 comments, with congrats from tech peers like Zheqing (Bill) Zhu (potential first customer) and Rose Wang, emphasizing the mission’s inspirational appeal.

Market Context and Competitive Positioning

Cookiy enters a booming AI subsector: agentic AI, which autonomously executes tasks, is forecasted to drive $100 billion in enterprise value by 2028. Voice AI specifically addresses gaps in consumer research, where 70% of insights remain siloed in legacy tools. Comparable rounds include:

• UserTesting (voice feedback AI): $40M Series B in 2021 at $1.1B valuation.
• Delve AI (conversational insights): $5M seed in 2024.
• Broader AI trends: Q3 2025 saw $81.2B in global VC, with AI claiming 40% share, per Carta data.

Cookiy differentiates through its “agentic” layer—AI that adapts in real-time like a human moderator—reducing bias and enhancing depth. Challenges include integration with existing workflows and proving ROI amid AI hype fatigue. Opportunities lie in partnerships with agencies and e-commerce platforms, potentially accelerating to seed in 12–18 months.

Strategic Implications and Risks

This infusion catapults Cookiy toward product-market fit, enabling hires (e.g., full-stack AI engineers, voice specialists) and pilot programs. It validates voice AI as a “frontrunner” in human-AI collaboration, fostering empathy in data collection—a nod to growing calls for responsible AI. For stakeholders, it promises 10x efficiency gains: faster iterations reduce launch risks, while scalable insights level the playing field for SMBs.

Risks are inherent to pre-seed: talent retention in a competitive AI job market, regulatory hurdles (e.g., evolving AI ethics laws), and dependency on voice tech advancements. Yet, Dong’s track record—scaling products to 100M+ users—mitigates these, positioning Cookiy for outsized impact.

Cookiy AI’s $7M+ round is more than capital; it’s a mandate to humanize AI-driven research, blending technological prowess with consumer-centric values. As brands grapple with fragmented data in 2025, Cookiy could redefine how voices shape innovation, warranting close watch by investors and enterprises alike.

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