Photon is an AI startup that helps developers create agents that work over messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp. It believes agents will replace mobile apps in the future.
The company held a real funeral for mobile apps in San Francisco, with speeches and a coffin for app icons. The event also served as a developer day with panels from companies like Vercel, Stripe, and OpenAI.
Photon has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. Its platform has attracted over 40,000 developer sign-ups and includes paying clients. Revenue has grown ten times in four months, with less than 3% churn.
The company offers a managed platform with high uptime and compliance, suitable for healthcare and business use cases. It provides tools like a unified API, channel framework, CLI, and observability suite.
Photon’s open source version is used 98% of the time. The platform allows building agents for multiple messaging and communication channels, including email and voice.
The founders built the technology during hackathons, aiming to reach users through existing messaging apps. The idea is that users prefer messaging over installing new apps.
Photon plans to expand into connecting agents to other agents, creating an A-to-A communication layer. This could help automate complex tasks with multiple agents.