Meet 22 VCs on the hunt for the next breakout startup in social media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Investor: Adina Tecklu, partner

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

Investors: Shawn Carolan, partner; Amy Wu Martin, partner

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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