A group of 20 former Snap employees has launched a venture fund called Ghost Angels, aiming to invest in early-stage startups reshaping how people connect and create online, according to a recent report by TechCrunch. The fund, started in 2025 by former Snap global partnerships lead Max Rivera, is focused on pre-seed and seed-stage AI companies in social media and consumer tech.

Ghost Angels has already backed at least five companies and plans to deploy the rest of its capital into 15 more within the next year, according to the TechCrunch report. The fund declined to disclose the amount it has raised so far.

Rivera, who now works in Microsoft’s AI division, said to TechCrunch that the group intentionally brought together senior former executives alongside people earlier in their careers. Founding members include Alexandra Levitt, who once ran Snap’s corporate accelerator, and Will Wu, a founding member of Snap’s product and design team, as well as a small number of current Snap employees. “That diversity of thought and experience is core to how we evaluate deals and support founders,” Rivera told TechCrunch.

The fund enters a social media landscape that Rivera says is splitting in two. The traditional model, algorithm-driven feeds supported by advertising, is losing appeal among users who want platforms to connect them with people they know. Ghost Angels is instead betting on founders who use AI to deliver on that original promise of social connection, while also backing AI-native formats and generative creative tools across music, gaming, sports, and fashion.

Rivera noted that the next generation of founders is launching with leaner teams, iterating in public, and experimenting with monetisation beyond ads, including subscriptions, tokens, usage-based pricing, and even outcome-based models. Founder-led go-to-market strategies are also becoming a key pillar, as per Rivera.