Linkup aims to build a new 'AI-friendly' framework to connect content creators and AI firms
Linkup has tasked itself with an ambitious mission: building innovative infrastructure that allows AI model providers to connect more efficiently with data sources and content publishers while ensuring the latter are properly compensated for their data.
Paris-based startup Linkup has tasked itself with an ambitious goal: address the shortcomings emerging from scraping the web, an environment originally optimized for human consumption and highly dependent on the attention-based economy. Thus, to address the consequences of AI bots becoming the main source of internet traffic such as declining advertisement revenue, uncompensated use of websites' content, and reduced traffic due to the difficulties associated with competing with AI search services to reach new audiences, Linkup is proposing a platform enabling an alternative "AI bot-friendly" way to connect model providers and content publishers.
Linkup's platform favors semantic relevance and data precision, which means bots no longer need to be deployed to scrape dozens of SEO-optimized websites for redundant content, by making search more efficient for bots, data gathering becomes more cost-effective (including in its environmental impact) and less prone to inaccuracies (due to distracting elements meant for human consumption). Moreover, by providing bots with a single point of access that leverages APIs and structured information, AI agents' access and interaction with content become transparent, fostering fairer transactions with content providers.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Linkup's platform aims to unlock new business models for transactions between model providers looking for data and content publishers of all sizes. As recent events have shown, negotiating power is not equally distributed among publishers, and model providers are being quite selective concerning the media companies they pick as their partners. As a result, some publishers have no other recourse but to seek legal action to demand proper compensation for AI model providers' ethically questionable use of their content.
Linkup recently raised €3 million in a round led by Seedcamp, with participation from Axeleo Capital, Motier Ventures, Financière Saint James, OPRTRS Club, Kima Ventures, and several business angels. Besides developing its platform and growing its technical team, Linkup plans to use the investment to arrange more partnerships with data sources and publishers.
