Linktree invented the link-in-bio category — the single URL in your Instagram or TikTok bio that opens to a page of everything else. Founded in 2016 in Melbourne by Alex Zaccaria, Anthony Zaccaria, and Nick Humphreys, Linktree now has 50 million+ users, a $1.3 billion valuation, $166 million raised from Index Ventures, Coatue, and Insight Partners, and drives nearly 2% of all traffic to Amazon. The platform was built in six hours as a side project. It became the default infrastructure layer between social media profiles and everything a creator wants to sell, share, or promote.
The Business
Linktree Pty Ltd is a privately held Australian company headquartered in Melbourne. Alex Zaccaria (CEO) co-founded the company with his brother Anthony Zaccaria and Nick Humphreys (Chief Creative Officer) in 2016, building the first version in under six hours as a tool for their digital marketing agency, Bolster, which served the music and events industry.
The initial product solved a simple platform constraint: Instagram allowed only one link in a user's bio. Linktree created a customizable landing page where that single link opened to multiple destinations — social profiles, merch stores, videos, music, tip jars, booking links.
The company bootstrapped to $10 million in annual revenue by 2020 before raising external capital. Revenue grew to $37 million in 2023. Linktree raised $166 million total: a $10.7M Series A (2020), $45M Series B led by Index Ventures (2021), and $110M Series C led by Coatue and Index Ventures (2022) at a $1.3 billion valuation — making Linktree Australia's latest unicorn.
As of 2026, Linktree has 50 million+ users with approximately 40,000 new signups per day. 90% of users are outside Australia. Celebrity users include Selena Gomez, Alicia Keys, Jamie Oliver, and Pharrell Williams. The platform drives nearly 2% of all traffic to Amazon — a staggering figure for what started as a link aggregator.
In April 2025, Linktree launched Sponsored Links — a brand integration letting creators host commission-based offers directly on their Linktree pages. Early adopters included Hulu, Sam's Club, and Harry's, with payouts on a cost-per-acquisition model. Linktree also partnered with beehiiv for newsletter integration.
The Operators
Alex Zaccaria — Co-founder and CEO. Melbourne-based. Previously co-founded Bolster, a digital marketing agency for music and events. Attended Cannes Lions 2026 with "L'Appartement Linktree." Angel investor in Side Stage (creator-focused VC fund).
Anthony Zaccaria — Co-founder. Alex's brother. Manages operations alongside the leadership team.
Nick Humphreys — Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. Leads product design and creative direction.
How Linktree Makes Money
Freemium SaaS. Four tiers: Free, Starter ($5/month), Pro ($9/month), and Premium ($24/month). The free tier covers basic link-in-bio functionality. Paid tiers add customization, analytics, scheduling, lead capture, and commerce features.
Sponsored Links. Launched April 2025. Brand integrations where creators host commission-based offers on their Linktree. Cost-per-acquisition model with plans to expand to CPC and CPM. Early brand partners: Hulu, Sam's Club, Harry's.
Commerce integrations. Shopify, PayPal, and other payment integrations let creators sell directly from their Linktree. The platform monetizes through the premium tiers required to access these features.
Category Context
Stan Store is the creator-commerce-first competitor. More transaction-focused than Linktree — built for creators who want to sell directly from their bio link with courses, coaching, and digital products.
Beacons is the AI-powered link-in-bio competitor with built-in monetization tools, media kits, and brand deal management. Raised $17M+ and targets creators who want their link-in-bio to double as a business management platform.
Koji was an early link-in-bio competitor that pivoted to mini-app infrastructure before being acquired.
Shorby, Lnk.Bio, and dozens of smaller competitors occupy the low end of the category. Linktree's brand recognition and scale give it structural advantages over commodity alternatives.
The AI Communications Layer
Linktree pages are indexed by search engines but structurally invisible to AI engines. When users ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews about a creator, the answer never cites "their Linktree" — the citations go to the destinations the Linktree links to. Linktree is the routing layer, not the retrieval layer.
For Linktree as a company, the AI Communications citation challenge is the same as Discord and LTK: the infrastructure layer that mediates enormous traffic volume is undercited relative to the destinations it serves. When AI engines answer "what is Linktree" or "best link-in-bio tools," the company retrieves well. For everything else, the citations pass through.
The PR & Comms Angle
For creators: Linktree is the default link-in-bio tool. The free tier covers most use cases. Creators earning meaningful revenue should evaluate whether Stan Store or Beacons offers a more commerce-optimized alternative.
For brands: The Sponsored Links product (launched April 2025) creates a new placement surface — commission-based offers inside the link-in-bio pages of creators with engaged audiences. The surface is new and under-competed.
For PR firms: Linktree's category creation story — six-hour side project to $1.3B unicorn — is the cleanest bootstrapped-to-venture arc in the Australian tech ecosystem. The 2% of Amazon traffic figure is the single most surprising data point in the creator-infrastructure category.
