SAN FRANCISCO — Fizz, a new social media platform exclusively for college students, has raised $25 million in a series B funding round led by Owl Ventures with participation from NEA. The new funding will help Fizz continue the expansion of its authentic and community-centric social media app to more colleges and universities nationwide.
Fizz aims to free Gen-Z social media users from the constant judgment, comparison and unachievable expectations that legacy social platforms have become known for. The company’s goal is to create a safer, private and more engaging digital space to encourage users to be their authentic selves and share content about what it’s actually like to be a college student.
The campus-focused model creates private communities for each school, so scrolling through Fizz is not only fun and entertaining, but it allows students to form connections with classmates they may not otherwise cross paths with.
“Especially at a larger school, I tend to spend time with the same group of people who share the same interests as me. With Fizz, I believe I have a more well-rounded understanding of activity on campus beyond those in my immediate circle. There’s a sense of equal footing that isn’t really paralleled on another social media platform – no matter who you are, you’re capable of reaching a lot of people,” said Sarah Ordway, a Fizz user and Northwestern student in the class of 2026.
Fizz is now live at over 90 college campuses. In several recent campus launches, Fizz penetrated more than 50% of the student body within two months, and across the board, app usage is showing a steeper growth rate than original launches at schools like Stanford and Pepperdine which now have over 95% adoption.
“Our generation grew up on social media and we’re tired of screen time corresponding to feeling anxious and unworthy. Fizz keeps growing because regardless of the type of school or campus culture, this experience is what college students and the rest of the Gen Z generation really want out of social media – something that’s positive and different than Instagram and Facebook,” said Teddy Solomon, co-founder and COO at Fizz. “Fizz elevates the college student’s on-campus life and makes them feel more empowered and included in their student body, on and off their devices.”
As Fizz prepares to launch at hundreds of more campuses this Fall, they are expanding their leadership team and bringing on Alex Le to be Chief Product Officer. Le, formerly an Executive Vice President at Reddit responsible for consumer product, design, and community, led a turnaround and modernization of the product suite from 2015 to 2022 and helped grow the site 10x during his tenure. Reddit is now the world’s largest network of communities. At Fizz, he’ll support expansion to more schools and use his expertise to spearhead app enhancements that both students and the market will demand.
“My time at Reddit showed me the incredible power of digital communities, and I’m excited to help build a better way for Gen Z to connect with each other online,” said Alex Le, Chief Product Officer at Fizz. “I love Rakesh, Teddy and Ashton’s vision to create a safe environment for college students to communicate and form connections with each other and I look forward to working with them to make Fizz the go-to app for Gen Z.”
