A social network that lives entirely inside Apple’s iMessage has raised $5.1 million, signalling investor appetite for AI‑first consumer products that sit inside existing messaging apps. The pre‑seed round was backed by Venmo co‑founder Iqram Magdon‑Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and GPTZero founder Edward Tian. Founded by Yale seniors Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, the eight‑person startup began formal fundraising in March 2025.

What Series does - Series runs entirely inside Apple Messages: users text a single number — Series AI — and describe who they are and who they want to meet. - The service replies with “shares”: a swipeable carousel of up to ten image cards showing other users’ photos and short asks. - Each card includes a photo and a brief statement of why the person wants to connect. Pressing and holding a card opens a private conversation inside the Series AI chat without sharing personal phone numbers. - The founders position the flow as making warm introductions through conversational prompts rather than public feeds or profile pages. Founders and early build Nathaneo Johnson, a computer science and economics student who serves as Series’ CEO, co‑founded the app with Sean Hargrow, who studied neuroscience. The pair met in the Yale Entrepreneurial Society and moved from running a podcast to building a product focused on warm connections. They tested multiple iterations over the first year, refined the idea, began formal fundraising in March 2025 and assembled a team of eight. Investors and the round Series raised $5.1 million in a pre‑seed round backed by Iqram Magdon‑Ismail and Pear VC, with individual participation from Steve Huffman and Edward Tian. The company has not disclosed exact ownership stakes or a full cap table. Early backers cited the founders’ experience and the product’s AI foundations; investors have been favouring teams that design AI into products from day one, which appears to have helped Series attract both angel and institutional support. Product positioning and market fit Series aims to live inside a messaging channel users already open daily — iMessage — avoiding the need to download another app or rebuild a social graph. It uses text as the entry point and AI to match people and surface brief, image‑centric prompts for quick responses. Johnson frames the idea as part of a broader shift from scrollable feeds to conversational interfaces, arguing that chat‑based flows can surface what a user wants faster than traditional feeds.

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The startup began formal fundraising in March 2025 and closed a $5.1 million pre‑seed round backed by Iqram Magdon‑Ismail, Pear VC, Steve Huffman and Edward Tian.

This article was created with AI assistance.