A group of 20 former Snap insiders, including Max Rivera (who once ran global partnerships at the platform) and Alexandra Levitt (ex-head of Snap's corporate accelerator), have launched Ghost Angels, a new angel investment fund backing social media and AI startups.
Rivera, who now works at Microsoft's AI lab, started Ghost Angels in 2025 to formalize an existing network of Snap alumni making angel bets. The fund has backed at least five companies and plans to deploy capital into at least 15 more within the next year, though it has not disclosed total fundraising figures.
"We were intentional about the mix," Rivera told TechCrunch. "That diversity of thought and experience is core to how we evaluate deals and support founders."
Ghost Angels is hunting for a split between "social" and "media" platforms. Today's social networks rely heavily on ads and algorithmic feeds—a model Rivera says has left consumers "disillusioned." The next generation is fracturing into niche communities on the social side and AI-native creative tools on the media side.
"Founders are launching fast and iterating in public," Rivera explained. Monetization models are expanding beyond ads into subscriptions, token-based systems, and outcome-based revenue. He is backing builders experimenting with generative creative tools across music, gaming, sports, and fashion—anything that "dramatically lowers the barrier to creation and distribution."
The Snap diaspora is betting that the future looks nothing like the platforms that made them.
