Series, An AI-Powered Social Network For Gen Z Founded By Yale Students, Raises $5.1M Pre-Seed Round – AfroTech
Series has officially opened its seed round after the close of its pre-seed round at $5.1 million, TechCrunch reports.
Series is a professional network for Gen Z and the first AI social platform on iMessage, according to its founders, Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow, who launched the venture in 2024. Users are highly engaged on the platform. In 2025, Johnson noted more than 20,000 messages had been sent and received within a week, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. More recent data from Johnson reveals Series has more than 750 active campuses using the platform, and it is retaining more than 83% of active users.
“Higher than Facebook during their early days,” Johnson said on LinkedIn, referring to the retention rate.
Series announced its pre-seed round had reached $3.1 million in 2025, with the close on April 24, 2026. This was the most VC raised by Ivy League students, according to a separate AFROTECH™ article. TechCrunch reports the pre-seed round closed at $5.1 million, with investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Pear VC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and GPTZero founder Edward Tian.
“Just about a year ago, we had initially announced our Pre-Seed funding at $3.1M. But about 2 days after that, we had received another offer for $500K,” Johnson said on LinkedIn. Soon after, another offer for $8M. We ended up declining these offers because we wanted to ensure we had the right backers on our first round. But later that year, we were introduced to a few investors who shared a belief that very few do. That iMessage is the interface of the future. So we ended up closing this round at $5M late of last year, as we prepared to officially launch our platform to the rest of the world.”
He continued, “Thank you for all of you who’ve supported us and Series‘s journey so far. With graduation a few weeks away, it’s time to make history once again.”
Series’ seed round is now officially open.
