Ghost Angels, a fund founded by Max Rivera, former Head of Global Partnerships at Snap, has officially launched. Established in 2025, the fund aims to further organize Snap's expanding network of alumni angel investors, focusing on AI-driven social and consumer startups.
The fund targets early-stage AI projects.
Rivera currently works at Microsoft AI Labs. He is responsible for running the fund, which has about 20 founding members and investors, including former Snap employees who have left the company, as well as a few people who are still working at Snap.
Disclosed members also include Alexandra Levitt, who previously led Snap's accelerator, and Will Wu, an early member of Snap's product and design team. The fund focuses on investments from pre-seed to seed, primarily seeking AI startups targeting social media and consumer scenarios.
Membership structure covers different stages
According to Rivera, current startup teams are more streamlined, products are launched faster, and founders are more inclined to iterate quickly in a public environment. The fund intentionally maintains diversity in its membership, including both former executives and professionals at earlier stages of their careers.
He stated that this combination helps to create different perspectives in project screening and post-investment support, rather than relying solely on judgments from a single background.
Social products are shifting towards niche communities.
Rivera believes that a significant change in the new generation of social products is the gradual separation of "social" and "media." Platforms familiar to users today rely more on advertising models and algorithms for distributing content and recommendations.
In his view, this model has deviated from the early positioning of social networks as connecting real-world relationships, leading to disappointment among some users. TechCrunch has also previously noted that the next generation of social media startups is shifting from general-purpose platforms to more niche community products.
