About 20 people who previously worked at Snap have created the Ghost Angels fund to invest in next-generation social media. TechCrunch reported on May 30 that the fund has invested in at least five companies so far. It plans to deploy remaining capital into more than 15 companies over the next year.

The fund did not disclose its size. It targets pre-seed to seed AI startups in social media and consumer sectors.

Ghost Angels was created in 2025 by Max Rivera (맥스 리베라). Rivera previously led global partnerships at Snap and now works at the Microsoft AI lab. He started the fund to turn an existing community of Snap alumni angel investors into a formal fund.

There are about 20 founding members and investors. They include some people currently working at Snap, as well as Alexandra Levitt (알렉산드라 레빗), who led Snap's corporate accelerator, and Will Wu (윌 우), a founding member of Snap's product and design team. Rivera explained that he diversified the investor base by bringing together former senior executives and early-career staff.

Rivera said the startup environment has changed recently. Teams are smaller, and founders are shipping products quickly and iterating in public. He said business models are expanding beyond advertising to include subscriptions, tokens, usage-based and performance-based approaches. He also said founder-led go-to-market strategies are emerging as a key pillar.

Ghost Angels is focusing on what it sees as a separation of social and media in next-generation social media. Rivera said current social media has become highly dependent on advertising, with algorithms driving content and recommendations. He said many users feel it has drifted away from its early promise of connecting people.

The fund is investing in teams in two directions. In social, it supports founders seeking to use AI to deliver on the early promise of connecting people. In media, it is investing in teams building AI-based formats and generative creation tools across areas such as music, games, sports and fashion. The tools focus on lowering barriers to entry for creation and distribution.