Funding profile · Youth mental health

Koko

A venture backed startup that was acquired, then restarted as a 501(c)(3). The capital record splits cleanly in two: reported equity rounds in 2015 and 2016 with no Form D behind them, and five years of IRS Form 990 returns since.

$4.93MContributions reported on Form 990, FY2021 to FY2025
$236KProgram service revenue over those same five years
$2.5MVenture round reported closed in Aug 2016, before the nonprofit
0Form D filings on record for this company

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Jan 2015 First institutional money into Koko Inc $1.0M Union Square Ventures; Joi Ito Independent
Aug 2016 Round close $2.5M Led by Omidyar Network and Union Square Ventures Independent
Undated Named on the founder’s own site Not disclosed Union Square Ventures; Spero Ventures Founder-stated
Nov 2018 Acquisition of Koko Inc by Airbnb Not disclosed Airbnb; founders joined the buyer Independent
Late 2020 Relaunch as a 501(c)(3), Koko AI Inc Not applicable Donors and industry partners IRS
Winter 2022 Y Combinator nonprofit batch Not disclosed Y Combinator Company-stated
FY2021 to FY2025 Contributions and grants $4,928,112 Includes a research grant from Hopelab Form 990

What the filings show

Koko AI Inc · Form 990 · fiscal year ending Dec 2025, filed May 1, 2026

Contributions
$1,519,833 · 96.8% of total revenue
Program services
$16,667 · 1.1%
Investment income
$34,698 · 2.2%
Executive comp
$221,538 · 13.4% of total expenses
Other salaries
$358,536 · 21.7%
Balance sheet
Assets $1,417,330 · liabilities $103,266
Officers
Sarah Diane Lee (CMO) $235,544; Robert R Morris (president, secretary, CEO) $145,093; Kareem Kouddous (treasurer, CTO) $49,320

Koko AI Inc · Form 990 · fiscal year ending Dec 2024, filed Aug 27, 2025

Contributions
$1,462,944 · 99.3% of total revenue
Program services
$10,000 · 0.7%
Executive comp
$173,138 · 21.1% of total expenses
Other salaries
$0
Balance sheet
Assets $1,409,010 · liabilities $10,420
Officers
Robert R Morris $165,000; Kareem Kouddous $0; Fraser Kelton (director) $0

Koko AI Inc · Form 990 · fiscal year ending Dec 2021, filed Nov 10, 2022

Contributions
$366,000 · 86.9% of total revenue
Program services
$55,000 · 13.1%
Compensation
$0 to all listed officers
Balance sheet
Assets $350,400 · liabilities $0
Officers
Robert R Morris, Kareem Kouddous, Fraser Kelton
Registry
EIN 85-3604591 · NTEE category mental health, crisis intervention

Reading the filings

  1. The venture years left no Form D.Two rounds were reported in the press, $1.0M in January 2015 and a $2.5M close in August 2016, yet an EDGAR full text search returns no Form D for this company under any spelling of the name. Issuers that raise under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D file none, so the absence does not mean the money is in doubt. It does mean the only primary documents for that period are journalism.
  2. Revenue has quadrupled, and it is almost all gifts.Contributions went from $366,000 in FY2021 to $1,519,833 in FY2025, a factor of 4.2. Program service revenue over the same five years totals $236,167, or about 4.6% of the $5.16M those two lines add up to together.
  3. The expense base grew faster than the top line.FY2022 executive compensation of $275,000 was 37.6% of total expenses, implying about $731,000 of spending. FY2025 executive compensation of $221,538 was 13.4%, implying about $1.65M. Payroll below the officer line went from $31,059 in FY2022 to $358,536 in FY2025.
  4. The CEO is not the highest paid officer.In FY2025 the chief marketing officer was paid $235,544 against the chief executive’s $145,093. Morris’s own compensation fell from $165,000 in FY2024. That is an unusual shape for a research led nonprofit and worth a question at diligence.
  5. A founder left the listed board.Fraser Kelton appears as an uncompensated director in the FY2021 through FY2024 returns and not in the FY2025 compensation table. Koko’s own site lists him as an advisor, a general partner at Spark Capital and a former head of product at OpenAI.
  6. Paid platform partnerships are not yet visible in the numbers.A competing interest statement published in Child and Adolescent Mental Health in September 2026 states that Koko has paid partnerships with OpenAI and Character.AI. Program service revenue in FY2025 was $16,667. Either those agreements are recent, are booked as contributions, or are small.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Structure 501(c)(3) since 2020, filed as Koko AI Inc, San Francisco. Prior entity Koko Inc was for-profit and was acquired in 2018. Public record
Distribution Embedded in partner platforms rather than sold as an app. Koko names Tumblr, Pinterest and Discord among partners. Company-stated
AI platforms Paid partnerships with OpenAI and Character.AI, disclosed in a 2026 journal competing interest statement. Public record
Schools channel December 2025 integration with Closegap, a K-12 check-in platform, putting Koko modules inside the school day. Partner-stated
Evidence At least eight peer reviewed papers involving Koko or its predecessor, including three randomized trials. Public record
Reach 6M+ people across 199 countries, 88% reporting the service helpful. Not independently audited, and the figure differs across Koko’s own pages. Figures differ

What to watch

  • The FY2026 Form 990, for whether platform partnership income lands in program services or in contributions.
  • Whether the FY2025 jump in non-officer salaries continues, which would mark the shift from a three person shop to a staffed organization.
  • Any named institutional funder behind the contribution line, which the extracted 990 data does not break out.
  • Board composition after Fraser Kelton drops off the compensation table.

The Koko story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

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Sources

  1. Public recordIRS Form 990, Koko AI Inc, FY2025, FY2024, FY2023, FY2022, FY2021ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  2. Public recordEDGAR full text search, Form D, no result for this companySEC · Sep 23, 2026
  3. Public recordCompeting interest statement naming paid OpenAI and Character.AI partnershipsChild Adolesc Ment Health · Sep 2026
  4. Public recordConflict statement describing Koko as a nonprofit funded by industry partners, private donors and Hopelab VenturesJMIR Form Res · Jul 25, 2022
  5. IndependentKoko raises $2.5 million to put human empathy inside every virtual assistantVentureBeat · Aug 9, 2016
  6. IndependentThe empathy layer, with the January 2015 investment detailThe Verge · Mar 2, 2017
  7. IndependentIn 2018, Airbnb quietly acquired KokoBusiness Insider · Jan 29, 2020
  8. IndependentHe sold his mental-health startup to Airbnb, then relaunched it as a nonprofitFast Company · Jun 22, 2022
  9. CompanyY Combinator company page, Koko, Winter 2022ycombinator.com · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  10. CompanyKoko home page, about page and ethical commitmentskokocares.org · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  11. PartnerClosegap and Koko partnership releasePR Newswire · Dec 15, 2025

Compiled from IRS, SEC and other public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form 990 figures are as extracted by the IRS from the filed returns and reflect the fiscal year stated. No Form D notice is on record for this company; the absence of a Regulation D filing does not by itself indicate that no offering occurred. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Koko. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.