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

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TLDR

  • Yale seniors raised $5.1M to build Series, an AI-powered networking app that runs entirely inside iMessage.

Key Facts

  • Investors include Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian.
  • Users text a Series AI number on iMessage; it returns a carousel of 10 profile cards from people seeking similar connections.
  • The platform is live across 750+ campuses and claims 82% Day-30 retention among activated users.
  • Founders Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow are still enrolled at Yale and have not dropped out.

Why It Matters

  • Series bets that conversation interfaces can replace scroll-based social feeds, starting with iMessage as the distribution layer.
  • The 82% Day-30 retention figure, if accurate, is notably above the benchmark the founders cite for early Facebook.

Dominic-Madori Davis, TechCrunch · 2026-04-24 · Read the original