Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage

Yale students' AI social network Series raised $5.1M pre-seed with backing from Venmo's co-founder and Reddit CEO, betting that embedding social discovery inside iMessage's existing user base beats standalone competition.

Friday, April 24, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: TechCrunchBY sys://pipeline

Series, an AI-powered social networking platform operating entirely through iMessage, raised a $5.1 million pre-seed round led by investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian. Founded by Yale students Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, the app uses AI to match users and deliver "shares"—carousels of profile cards from people seeking similar connections. The funding signals investor appetite for AI-first social platforms built by young, digital-native founders.