Honeyjar, a San Francisco-based company building an AI co-pilot for communications and public relations, has raised a $2 million pre-seed round and opened an Early Access waitlist for agencies, in-house teams, and independent communications professionals.
The financing was led by Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures, and Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures. Honeyjar said the funding will support the rollout of its secure, collaborative workspace, which is designed to centralize communications workflows and apply proprietary AI agents to help teams plan and execute campaigns more efficiently.
Honeyjar positions its product as an operating system for modern communications work, bringing together tasks that are often handled across multiple tools and spreadsheets. The platform is built to unify strategic messaging, media research, list building, pitching, contact management, events and speaking programs, briefing materials, coverage tracking, sentiment, and reporting inside one workspace. The company said it is powered by the types of news, social, and events data communicators already rely on, while its agents use brand context, goals, and campaign history to guide end-to-end execution in a way that mirrors a teammate’s support.
The company’s founding team said the idea for Honeyjar grew out of experience across agency work, in-house roles, consulting, and communications programs spanning startups and large enterprises. Honeyjar aims to reduce the time spent on repetitive, time-intensive tasks so communicators can devote more focus to strategic planning, storytelling, relationship building, and decision making.
In addition to the lead investors, Honeyjar said it is backed by a group of media, communications, and marketing angel investors and advisors, including Margit Wennmachers, communications leader and former CMO at a16z, Jesse Angelo, Founder and CEO of Checker Media and former President of Global News and Entertainment at VICE and Publisher of the New York Post, Josh Constine, former Editor at Large at TechCrunch, Desiree Gruber, creator of Project Runway and Founder of Full Picture, Joanne Bradford, former executive at Microsoft, SoFi, and Pinterest, Becky Porter, former CEO of Outcast Agency, and Ajay Arora, Senior VP of Product Management and Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. Honeyjar also pointed to what it described as a $15 billion communications and PR market opportunity and said it is building purpose built AI capabilities specifically tailored to PR workflows and collaboration requirements.
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“The most interesting applications of AI right now are those that amplify the superpowers of professionals who are already excellent at their craft,” said Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures. “Technology shouldn’t replace how you build relationships or do your job but it should give you better tools to excel at both. Honeyjar does this for communications professionals. It handles the tedious tasks so they can focus on what humans do best — strategic thinking, storytelling, and relationship building.”
Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner, Human Ventures
“Strategy, relationships, and judgment will always be the human part of communications and PR — that’s the art,” said Michelle Masek, CEO and Founder of Honeyjar. “But communicators spend too many hours on building media lists, creating briefing docs, chasing event details, and stitching AI tools together. We’re building Honeyjar to be a secure, collaborative workspace with AI agents that work alongside you and your team, helping you shape stories, find opportunities, run campaigns, and measure impact effectively and efficiently.”
Michelle Masek, CEO and Founder, Honeyjar
“I’ve seen firsthand how, when done right, communications can be the most effective form of marketing that exists. But most teams get bogged down in the tasks and motions, leaving less time to be strategic about the story and the results. Honeyjar automates the essential tasks and workflows so more focus can go to the story, strategy, and stakeholders – with the mechanics happening automatically,” said Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures.
Kevin Mahaffey, Founder, SNR Ventures
