Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have dominated the social media landscape for years. As AI infiltrates every platform — and many corners of our lives — new social media founders, apps, and internet behaviors are emerging.
From vibe coding to cultural shifts shaping how people want to connect, it’s a perfect storm for founders to experiment with social media.
AI has “essentially brought down the cost of making anything,” Amy Wu Martin, a partner at Menlo Ventures, told Business Insider.
Menlo is an investor in Anthropic, whose product Claude Code has radically changed the product-building pipeline for startups.
“If you want to build a consumer AI company, you may not need a lot of engineers, but you still need cash for Anthropic credits,” said Vanessa Larco, who cofounded Premise, a new VC firm backing AI-native startups.
While it’s easier than ever to make an app out of thin air, it’s difficult to raise venture capital for a consumer-facing social media upstart.
PitchBook data on social startup investments shows that after a peak in 2021 (239 deals totaling $2.2 billion), the number of deals has declined each year. In 2025, PitchBook counted 97 deals totaling $330 million.
Still, there’s a cohort of investors with hungry eyes searching for what will stick.
Business Insider is highlighting investors at 22 VC firms that are actively funding or scouting out innovative social startups. Our third annual list is sourced from nominations by startup founders and venture peers, as well as our own reporting.
These investors, across the board, are excited by what AI has unlocked for the category, and many are bullish on consumer investments even as the broader VC space shies away from it. Our list includes big-shot firms that backed many of the mobile-era giants, as well as AI-era funds founded by VCs who wanted to take things into their own hands.
They’re backing startups building agentic solutions for our personal relationships, companies focused on getting us off our phones and into real life, and vibe-coding startups turning software into content.
As Nicole Quinn — a former investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners who left in 2025 to cofound Connect Ventures — put it, funding this next wave of internet startups will largely be investing in the “future of joy.”
Meet the investors at 22 VC firms on the hunt for startups changing how we connect online:
A16z has an accelerator that backs many early-stage internet startups
A16z’s Andrew Chen. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Investors: Andrew Chen, general partner; Olivia Moore, partner; Justine Moore, partner
Andreessen Horowitz backed many of the biggest hits of the mobile era, including Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, and Roblox. It’s also backed a slew of social companies from the 2020s, like BeReal, Clubhouse, Partiful, and Substack.
The firm has been actively backing consumer applications of AI, with investors including the twin-investor duo Olivia and Justine Moore.
A16z also runs a competitive accelerator, Speedrun, which invests up to $1 million in early-stage consumer startups. The accelerator is spearheaded by general partner Andrew Chen.
Recent investments:
Town: An AI agent service for managing inboxes and meetings
Sekai: A platform that creates interactive mini-apps from text prompts
Sitch: An AI-powered dating app
Wabi: A platform for creating mini-apps without any coding
Abstract Ventures is backing some of the buzziest social startups
Abstract Ventures’ Ramtin Naimi and Alex Davidov. Courtesy of Abstract Ventures
Investors: Ramtin Naimi, founder and general partner; Alex Davidov, general partner
From events app Partiful to the social-map startup Corner, Abstract’s investors have their fingers on the pulse of new internet companies.
Founded by Naimi in 2016 when he was 25, the San Francisco-based firm typically invests in seed and early-stage companies. The firm has $1.8 billion in assets under management, per its website. Outside the consumer umbrella, the firm has also made bets in crypto, AI, and enterprise.
Before joining Abstract in 2018, Davidov was a fintech investor at Core Innovation Capital.
Recent investments:
Status: an AI mobile gaming startup
Corner: an app for tracking and sharing restaurants and other local spots
BuildForever: the company behind the AI email tool Extra
Amo: the French company behind the social-map app Bump
Babylon is eyeing fresh startups with a clear impact on culture
Hugo Amsellem cofounded Babylon. Courtesy of Hugo Amsellem
Investor: Hugo Amsellem, cofounder and general partner
Amsellem is a French investor who recently moved to San Francisco. He rebranded the firm from Intuition VC to Babylon in 2026, focusing the fund on startups that “move culture.”
Before becoming a VC, he worked at creator economy startup Jellysmack, overseeing M&A strategy. Babylon has backed a string of early-stage consumer social startups, including music social app Airbuds, meme and GIF platform Klipy, and AI social startup Eigen.
He’s eyeing startups building new takes on social networking powered by AI, such as Eigen. The social startup is building a “mutual friend” layer for AI, meaning a way to connect you with people and share bits of information, like a friend might in real life.
“That’s the type of thing that AI will enable,” Amsellem said, supercharging “those existing human behaviors without actual humans in the middle.”
Babylon typically writes checks up to $250,000 for pre-seed rounds.
Recent investments:
Eigen: an AI social startup building a “mutual friend” to connect people
Miso: an agentic travel app
Delphi: an AI twin startup
Black Jays Ventures is ‘actively looking’ for a social investment
Black Jays Ventures’ Jay Kim. Jay Kim
Investor: Jay Kim, associate
Kim started his career in equity research before joining Dig. He is an investor at Black Jays — an early-stage consumer fund based in New York. He focuses on startups across consumer, healthcare, fintech, edtech, and AI.
Kim told Business Insider that recently the firm has been spending less time on AI and more time on companies building in the physical world. He said he’s drawn to utilities “that can’t be learned in a few days or weeks or answered through an AI chat.”
While Black Jays hasn’t made many recent bets in the social category, it’s “actively looking,” though Kim said it’s been “difficult.”
Recent investments:
Birches Health: a digital health clinic that treats gambling, pornography, gaming, and other behavioral addictions
Connect Ventures backed the vibe-coding social network Sekai
Nicole Quinn. Courtesy of Nicole Quinn
Investor: Nicole Quinn, cofounder and managing partner
After 10 years at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Quinn joined Connect Ventures in 2025. The firm came together in 2020 as a partnership between Hollywood talent agency CAA and venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Michael Blank, previously head of consumer investments at CAA, is Connect’s other managing partner and cofounder.
Connect describes itself as “consumer-obsessed” and invests in early-stage companies, typically at the seed and Series A stages.
“We always invest where there’s a technology overlay on an existing human behavior,” Quinn said. Retention and engagement are by far the most important metrics Connect considers when evaluating whether a startup’s product is “sticky” and has the potential to become a “generational company.”
While at Lightspeed, Quinn led the firm’s investments in several creator economy startups, including newsletter platform Beehiiv and video platform Cameo.
Recent investments:
Sekai: A platform that creates interactive mini-apps from text prompts
Creator Ventures has ‘creator’ in its name, but it’s doubled down on consumer internet startups
Sasha Kaletsky. Lukas Schulze/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images
Investor: Sasha Kaletsky, cofounder and managing partner
Kaletsky cofounded Creator Ventures with YouTuber Caspar Lee in the UK and is now based in New York. Focused on early-stage consumer internet startups, the firm closed Fund II at $45 million in 2025.
Creator Ventures has invested in startups looking to disrupt various aspects of the internet.
For instance, it backed ElevenLabs, which many other startups use to integrate voice AI tools. It’s also backed newer applications, such as Status, an AI gaming platform that lets people role-play as characters running a social media account.
Recent investments:
Status: an AI mobile gaming startup
FirstMark recently made its first bet in the dating space
Rick Heitzmann, managing director at FirstMark Capital. FirstMark Capital
Investor: Rick Heitzmann, cofounder and partner
Heitzmann is no stranger to consumer social. Since founding the firm in 2008, Heitzmann has led investments in social media companies like Pinterest and Discord.
FirstMark recently made its first investment in a dating app, backing ex-Hinge CEO Justin McLeod’s new AI dating startup Overtone. The nascent dating app announced it raised $18 million in July.
“Probably a year ago, someone would’ve said ‘dating,’ I would’ve been like, ‘Ugh, it’s a horrible category,'” Heitzmann said. “But then you meet somebody who’s thought about the world completely differently, more originally, and better than you have, and it changes your mind.”
Overtone is one of many new consumer applications of AI that involve audio.
“We think that’s definitely going to be, in the medium term, the primary way that people interface with AI and with applications,” Heitzmann said.
Recent investments:
Posh: an IRL social feed of local events
Overtone: an AI dating app founded by Hinge’s Justin McLeod
Forerunner has funded vibe-coding and dating apps
Forerunner’s Kirsten Green, Eurie Kim, and Fawzi Itani. Courtesy of Forerunner Ventures
Investors: Kirsten Green, founding partner; Eurie Kim, managing partner; Fawzi Itani, principal
Before Kirsten Green founded Forerunner Ventures in 2012, she had never worked for a startup or VC firm.
Green started as an accountant and an equity research analyst. Forerunner Ventures has grown into an early-stage powerhouse, investing in companies like Glossier and Warby Parker. Green was featured on Business Insider’s Seed 40 list for 2026, which highlights women early-stage investors.
Green continues to lead consumer investments, alongside Eurie Kim — who led Forerunner’s Oura investment — and Fawzi Itani.
Recent investments:
Wabi: a platform for creating mini-apps without any coding
Known: an AI-powered dating service with audio matchmakers
Novig: a sports trading app for playing against other users
Goodwater backs Series A and growth-stage consumer startups
Goodwater’s Eric Kim and Chi-Hua Chien. Goodwater
Investors: Chi-Hua Chien, cofounder and managing partner; Eric Kim, cofounder and managing partner; Ed Robinson, venture partner
Several years ago, Goodwater made a crucial early bet on Musical.ly — before it was acquired by ByteDance and merged with TikTok.
Goodwater has since made several investments in up-and-coming social startups, such as the events app Posh, the close-friends social network Yope, and the social calendar app Howbout. Per its website, Goodwater is looking for “the most promising consumer tech entrepreneurs.”
The firm, based in the Bay Area, typically invests $5 million to $50 million into startups at the Series A and growth stages.
Recent investments:
Posh: an IRL social feed of local events
Kaon: a personalized AI entertainment platform
Google’s GV is making bets in AI content creation
GV’s Sangeen Zeb. GV
Investor: Sangeen Zeb, general partner
Zeb is a general partner at GV focused on early- and late-stage AI, enterprise, and consumer companies, including Harvey, Sierra, and OpenEvidence.
Before joining GV in 2021, Zeb was an investor with Founders Circle Capital, Centerview Capital, and Summit Partners.
Zeb said the best consumer founders have been tested early and are often “a study in contradictions.” This includes unlikely career backgrounds — such as Dollhouse’s Divanny Lamas, who worked in enterprise infrastructure before founding the AI video creation app — that allow them to see openings others miss.
Recent investments:
Cosmos: an image discovery platform for creatives seeking inspiration
Dollhouse Labs: an AI tool that creates a full production, from screenplay to finished video, which allows viewers to step in and make changes
Mother.tech: an AI creative studio that builds tools to generate images, videos, and memes
Khosla Ventures is looking for AI products that let people ‘collaborate’ and ‘build relationships’
Tecklu joined Khosla in 2019 and is focused on early-stage software, AI, and fintech companies. Previously, she worked in seed investing at Canaan and was an early employee at Zenefits.
Tecklu said that the most compelling products “don’t just help consumers accomplish tasks, they actively collaborate, create, entertain, or build relationships with them.”
“They use conversational or multimodal interfaces, compress expertise into intuitive experiences, grow more personalized as they learn each person’s preferences, and often unlock entirely new consumer behaviors,” she said.
Recent investments:
Lovable: a vibe-coding platform that can build full-stack apps
Ollie: an AI assistant for parents that manages household tasks
Sekai: a platform that creates interactive mini-apps from text prompts
Gigi: a social network for professionals
Menlo Ventures turned 50 this year — and it’s looking at the future of consumer
Menlo Ventures partners Amy Wu Martin and Shawn Carolan. Menlo Ventures
In June, Menlo announced that the 50-year-old venture firm had raised $3 billion in capital to back the next generation of AI companies. The firm made a big bet on Anthropic and, with its fresh funding, is on the hunt for standout companies building something “net new,” Carolan said.
Carolan joined the firm in 2002 and led its investments in Uber and Siri (pre-Apple acquisition). Martin joined Menlo in 2023 and was previously at Lightspeed Venture Partners and FTX Ventures. She’s led Menlo’s investments in AI companies like music startup Suno and social commerce tools like ShopMy and Alta.
One area Martin is eyeing is how startups are cracking multiplayer, multi-agent technologies that could help people better handle tasks or socialize. Carolan echoed this, adding that they’re interested in seeing how AI could bring back truly social networks (which have largely become entertainment platforms), starting with the “reinvention of the contacts book.”
Recent investments:
Suno: a music app for generating and sharing music with AI
Lemonade: a tool that lets people vibe-code Roblox games
Mother Ventures backed the biggest social tool for kids: Tin Can
Mother Ventures’ Allison Stern. Brandi Rollins
Investor: Allison Stern, founder and general partner
Stern says Mother Ventures is the first VC firm to focus on mothers as the hero consumer. It invests in pre-seed to Series A startups.
“We believe moms are the signal consumer in the AI era,” she said. “Moms don’t want software; they want problems solved.” That said, she noted that AI has made it possible to deliver solutions at scale.
Before founding Mother Ventures, Stern was an operating partner at The Chernin Group and the cofounder of Tubular Labs, a social media analytics platform.
Recent investments:
Tin Can: a phone for children that helps them avoid screen time
Rosie: an AI-powered household platform that connects families with professionals across childcare, housework, and meal prep
Patron’s investors have backgrounds in gaming and Discord
Patron’s Brian Cho, Jason Yeh, and Amber Atherton. Courtesy of Patron
Investors: Amber Atherton, partner; Jason Yeh, cofounder and general partner; Brian Cho, cofounder and general partner
Patron’s team is passionate about gaming and the ways that people connect — online and offline.
Atherton said the firm’s approach to spotting promising consumer bets stems from keeping a close eye on “subcultures,” especially in the AI era.
“Things that are starting to change on the edges could be a predictor around where mainstream consumer behavior is going to go,” Atherton said. Wellness culture is one of those opportunities.
The early-stage firm has backed social startups like Arya, an AI relationship wellness platform, and Sweatpals, an app for finding IRL fitness and wellness classes and communities.
Recent investments:
Precursor has been around for over a decade and backs startups in the earliest stages
Precursor’s Charles Hudson and Marina Girgis. Courtesy of Precursor
Investors: Charles Hudson, managing partner; Marina Girgis, principal
Hudson, based in San Francisco, founded Precursor more than a decade ago and has a knack for backing founders early on.
Girgis, based in New York, joined Precursor in 2021 after spending several years as an analyst at Bloomberg.
“We think a lot about the longer-term staying power of an app when we first invest,” Girgis said. “What’s the goal behind the app? How can you use the habits that you’re creating or the data that you’re collecting to create something really long-lasting?”
Last year, Precursor closed a $66 million fund (the generalist firm’s fifth fund) to back early-stage startups. Precursor typically invests up to $500,000 in pre-seed or seed-stage startups.
Recent investments:
Lore: a fandom platform powered by AI search
Rec Technologies: a platform for local municipalities to coordinate IRL social experiences
Premise is a new firm focused on agentic tech at a consumer level
Premise’s Vanessa Larco and Mercedes Bent. Courtesy of Premise
Investors: Vanessa Larco, cofounder and partner; Mercedes Bent, cofounder and partner
Larco and Bent teamed up last year to found Premise and are betting their careers on the potential for consumer internet startups in this AI era. The two investors previously held posts at NEA and Lightspeed, respectively.
Gaming — particularly Roblox — is one area Larco sees as an opportunity.
“Snapchat was for young millennials,” she said. “Something like Roblox might be the next social network for Gen Alpha.”
When it comes to AI, Larco said multiplayer, truly social, agentic tools have a long way to go before they’re useful.
“The biggest problem right now in agent world is an agent has a really hard time knowing anyone exists beyond the person or the context it lives in,” Larco said.
Recent investments:
Note: Larco and Bent invested as angels
Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six fund has backed music, AI, and dating apps
Alexis Ohanian. Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for SXSW London
Investor: Alexis Ohanian
After cofounding Reddit, one of social media’s biggest companies, Alexis Ohanian is looking smaller.
One year after leaving Reddit’s board, Ohanian launched Seven Seven Six (776), his venture capital firm. 776 has consistently invested in consumer platforms, from music sharing to micro dramas and restaurant discovery. Ohanian backed a dating app, Left Field, when he starred as an investor on “Shark Tank.”
In November, Ohanian told Business Insider that he was looking to replicate the potency of the group chat.
“This generation coming up has learned, and has a preference for, a less gamified version of life,” he said. “They’re choosing a healthier type of paradigm for social.”
Recent investments:
Airbuds: an app for friends to share their music listening
GammaTime: a micro drama streaming platform for American audiences
Left Field: a dating app that matches based on shared interests and communities
Zest: an app using AI and purchase data to make restaurant recommendations
Shine Capital wants to bankroll the next gen of ‘human and social experiences’
Shine Capital’s Ethan Daly. Brian Dorsey Studios
Investor: Ethan Daly, general partner
Six years ago, Daly was Shine Capital’s first hire. Now, he’s made partner and leads investments.
Daly told Business Insider that growth in consumer AI has been relegated primarily to productivity tools and NSFW applications. Meanwhile, “legacy social networks” are more focused on engagement than connecting people, he added.
“We believe this creates a massive opportunity,” Daly said. “We’re backing the next generation of human and social experiences.”
He also cofounded Earshot, a studio hosting DJ sets, dinners, and art exhibitions.
Recent investments:
Cosmos: an image discovery platform for creatives seeking inspiration
Turnout: a consumer advocacy platform using AI to help navigate government and financial bureaucracies
Gizmo: an AI-powered social learning app that brings gamified mechanics to studying
[Untitled]: a platform for creating, editing, and sharing music
Spice Capital sees AI agents as the ‘next consumer’
Spice Capital’s Maya Bakhai. Dilpreet Shah
Investor: Maya Bakhai, founder and managing partner
Spice Capital launched in 2021 and focuses on early-stage companies that serve internet-native consumers across AI, blockchain, consumer, and deep tech. In recent months, the firm hired its first AI chief technology officer to automate internal operations and serve as a tech partner for its portfolio companies.
Consumers are becoming more “rational,” Bakhai said, increasingly turning to AI assistants to help make purchasing decisions instead of relying on emotion or marketing. Over time, she expects startups will increasingly sell not to people, but to the AI agents making decisions on their behalf.
“The end state of that is that agents are the next consumer,” she said.
Prior to Spice, Bakhai worked at Kevin Durant’s VC firm Thirty Five Ventures.
Recent investments:
Aesthetic: an AI storefront that turns creator content into shoppable product recommendations
YKB: a social app for sports predictions
Stellation Capital is a New York-based fund founded by an ex-General Catalyst investor
Stellation Capital’s Peter Boyce II and Rhian Horton. Courtesy of Stellation Capital
Investors: Peter Boyce II, founder and managing partner; Rhian Horton, principal
A New York-based firm backing early-stage startups, Stellation was founded by Boyce II after he left General Catalyst.
It’s a generalist fund, but Stellation has made several bets on consumer startups.
It backed Software Applications Incorporated, a desktop tool for LLMs, which OpenAI acquired. It has also backed companies like Koodos, which makes the social app Shelf, and Swsh, a social platform for sharing content from large events like music festivals.
Horton joined Stellation Capital in 2023.
Recent investments:
Swsh: A social app for live events
Verdict Capital is a new firm cofounded by Niko Bonatsos
Niko Bonatsos cofounded Verdict Capital. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch
Investor: Niko Bonatsos, cofounder and managing director
Bonatsos left his post at General Catalyst after 15 years to launch a new firm, called Verdict Capital, in 2026. The firm’s mandate? To lead early-stage investments in “founders who are freaks in a good way” and “building in categories that don’t have a name yet,” Bonatsos said.
Bonatsos has a history in consumer. At GC, he invested in companies like Snap, Discord, and Triumph Arcade, as well as newer social startups, including Status and IRL-social startup 222.
Verdict has already invested in 15 companies, and 30% of those investments are in the consumer category, Bonatsos said.
He sees ample opportunity as an investor right now because of how AI is allowing some founders to “reimagine entire categories” and build “much faster.”
Recent investments:
ForgeGUI: an AI game developer platform
Uncommon Projects is made up of several ex-Snapchat employees
Illustration by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Investors: Patrick Mandia, Eddie Koai, Ceci Mourkogiannis, Chad DePue, Antoine Martin
Uncommon Projects has backed several up-and-coming social startups, including close-friends social apps Locket and Retro, vibe-coding social app Gizmo, and professional networking startup Series. It also backed BeReal, as well as AI companies like Mirage (formerly Captions) and AI notetaker company Granola.
“We’re a group of friends that met while working on product at Snapchat — we look for companies with an uncommon perspective on how people communicate and grow together,” the firm’s website says.
Per DePue’s LinkedIn, Uncommon invests checks of $100,000 or more.
Some of the investors are also building startups in the space. Martin is the cofounder of Amo, the company behind Bump. DePue cofounded AI dating app Sitch.
Recent investments:
• Eigen: An AI social startup building a “mutual friend” to connect people
