VCs are investing more money in social media startups this year after a dismal 2025

Elisa Schu/picture alliance via Getty Images Since 2021, there has been a steady decline in venture capital deals in the social media category.

There's been a rebound in overall deal value this year, driven by AI-powered social investments.

Two charts show how the investment landscape has changed.

It's a tough environment for a founder trying to build the next-generation Facebook .

With more apps than ever and the mainstay social media giants dominating people's screen time, the competition is fierce.

Investors, meanwhile, are pining after flashy AI deals.

There was a peak in venture capital investment in social startups in 2021 — when apps like BeReal and Clubhouse were getting people excited for new challengers taking on Instagram and TikTok — according to PitchBook data, and the number of deals has declined each year since.

That 2021 peak saw 239 deals totaling $2.2 billion, per PitchBook's data of US transactions.

In 2025, PitchBook counted 97 deals totaling $330 million. (To be fair, 2021 was an anomaly record year for venture capital across the board.) So far in 2026, PitchBook counts more than 50 deals totaling $355 million in the space as of July 21 — already surpassing 2025 in dollar flow.

If that pace continues, the category could welcome a slight rebound in investor interest.

Which startups are raising capital? There's Fizz, an anonymous social app for Gen Z, which raised a strategic round of capital as it expands globally.

There's also Corner, a social mapping app that lets people save and share local spots (such as restaurants, bars, and shops), which is gearing up for a Series A.

Zooming out, consumer-social startups — broadly ranging from social media networks to dating apps to entertainment apps — were a fraction of the overall deals in 2025.

Across all venture capital deals in 2025, PitchBook estimates $513 billion in deal flow.