Yope, an AI-native private social platform built for micro communities, announced it has raised $12.3 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Northzone, with participation from Inovo, Redseed, and Geek Ventures. The round brings the company’s total funding to $20 million.
Yope is designed as a private space where close friends and family share moments, in contrast to public social platforms built around content performance and consumption. The company said its research among more than 10,000 U.S. users found that one in three want to leave Snapchat but stay because their memories are stored there, a gap Yope aims to address by combining private sharing with AI-generated recaps that preserve shared moments over time. More than 14 million people have joined Yope organically, sharing over half a billion photos and videos, with its largest user base falling between ages 16 and 19.
Founded in 2021, Yope operates as an AI-native company, with its growth, product, design, moderation, and operations increasingly run through internal multi-agent systems. The company said it is developing AI agents that turn shared moments into personalized, gamified experiences, an effort already underway that it expects to bring to users within the next few months. The new funding will be used to double Yope’s team and accelerate product development toward what the company calls a new category, “Friendspace,” a private space centered on close relationships rather than public audiences. Yope currently operates across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.
KEY QUOTES:
“We believe the future of social is active participation, powered by AI. Our AI agents turn the moments close friends share into personalized, gamified experiences. The same way Roblox and Minecraft became social worlds for hundreds of millions of young people, we can make real-life communication feel playful, alive and deeply personal.”
Bahram Ismailau, Co-founder and CEO, Yope
“Social media stopped being social. It turned into media built to hold your attention and sell it, and made this the loneliest generation yet. Young people don’t need a bigger audience; they need a private place for the friends who actually matter. Our mission is to help them build healthier social lives, rooted in real friendships rather than performance.”
Paul Rudkouski, Co-founder and CTO, Yope
“Yope is a fresh, empowering and safe take on social media, where the users are in full control of their experience, in contrast to the predatory practices of Meta, TikTok or X. We are very excited to partner with Bahram, Paul and their team to build the service far beyond the current millions of users and half a billion moments shared.”
Pär-Jörgen Pärson, Partner, Northzone
