Cory Levy
About Cory Levy
Cory Levy is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor based in San Francisco. While still in high school he interned at Founders Fund, Union Square Ventures and Techstars. He left the University of Illinois after his first year. He co-founded After School, an anonymous teen social app that reached about 20 million users. He raised $1 million in venture capital for it at age 19, and the company was later acqui-hired by Ancestry. Crunchbase also lists him as a co-founder and COO of One Inc. He has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Consumer Technology and for Dorm Room Founders, and he has served on the board of the nonprofit DoSomething.org.
He started First Text in 2019. It replaced the formal pitch deck with text messages between founders and investors. TechCrunch reported that he got his start in a similar way, by tweeting at Keith Rabois about his own startup, which led to an investment.
In December 2020 he launched Z Fellows, which TechCrunch described as a one-week program that offers $10,000 in optional equity investment to technical people who want to work on a project outside school or a job. The $10,000 was offered at a $1 billion valuation cap. PitchBook also lists him as an advisor to SignalFire and NZVC. His X handle is @cory.
Levy's public bios describe him as an angel investor in 20+ startups, and event pages say he was the first investor in more than 20 of them. Crunchbase counts 38 investments for him, with no lead investments or exits recorded. PitchBook lists 48 investments. Counts differ by database, and many angel checks are never disclosed.
He usually appears as a participant in rounds led by others. Examples include Slingshot AI's $30M seed in August 2024, led by Andreessen Horowitz, and Dippy AI's $2.1M pre-seed in October 2024, led by Drive Capital. NFX Signal lists a Hilt pre-seed in October 2025 and a Ciridae pre-seed in January 2026. It also lists Swsh, Fun and Era AI rounds. In February 2026 he posted congratulations on X to Whop on a $200M strategic investment from Tether.
Crunchbase counts 22 AI investments by Levy since 2023. Its AI portfolio list includes CompLabs, Swish Robotics, Friend, Dippy AI, Omen AI, Persona, Brellium, Slingshot AI, Hilt, Ghost, Ciridae and Butler.
The AI deals with public details cover several areas:
Slingshot AI is a mental health research lab building language models for behavioral health. Dippy AI is a consumer AI companion app. Friend is a consumer AI hardware and software company founded by Avi Schiffmann. Levy has posted that he was Schiffmann's first investor. Persona is a personal AI assistant with a wearable band, founded by Zach Yadegari of Cal AI. In October 2026 it raised a $10M seed round led by Vine Ventures, with Levy and Collective Global participating. Brellium builds tools for patient chart audits, and Levy is among the investors thanked in the company's announcement of its raise.
The pattern is consumer and application-layer AI, often with very young or first-time technical founders.
Levy has said he focuses on first-time technical founders, and the Z Fellows program is built around very early-stage builders, including students and dropouts. TechCrunch's profile of the program says it offers a $10,000 initial grant and that the Z Fellows fund backs some people later.
His recorded rounds are mostly pre-seed and seed, with some later rounds where an earlier investment followed through. He is based in San Francisco, and his portfolio includes companies in the US and elsewhere. For example, Dippy AI is based in Toronto.
Levy has not published a personal check size. Third-party databases give differing estimates, so none is stated here. A 2024 post of his asked pre-seed investors who write checks under $1M to add themselves to a spreadsheet for Z Fellows. That post concerned other investors' checks, not his own.
- Persona: personal AI assistant with a wearable band from Zach Yadegari. $10M seed led by Vine Ventures, October 2026.
- Slingshot AI: AI mental health lab. $30M seed led by Andreessen Horowitz, August 2024.
- Dippy AI: AI companion app. $2.1M pre-seed led by Drive Capital, October 2024.
- Friend: AI companion hardware from Avi Schiffmann. Levy has said he was the first investor.
- Brellium: patient chart audit software. Series A in April 2025, according to Tracxn.
- Hilt: pre-seed round in October 2025, according to NFX Signal.
- Ciridae: pre-seed round in January 2026, according to NFX Signal.
- Whop: online marketplace for digital business. Levy congratulated the company on X in February 2026 after a $200M investment from Tether.
- linkedin.com/in/clevy
- crunchbase.com/person/5dee05ac-c62f-46c0-80d4-0ab76ca2e82f
- techcrunch.com/2020/12/29/zfellows-offers-10k-to-stop-what-youre-doing
- techcrunch.com/2025/10/18/this-top-vc-bet-close-to-20-of-his-fund-on-t
- luma.com/aos0l78j
- cypherhunter.com/en/p/cory-levy
- x.com/cory?lang=en
- x.com/cory/status/1814495753147973897?lang=en
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Cory Levy has made 38 investments according to Crunchbase. 22 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including CompLabs, Swish Robotics, Friend, Dippy AI and Omen AI.
Cory Levy appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the AI Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $10M. The rounds are mostly Growth and Seed, with a median round size of $10M. The most recent are Persona (Venture round, $10M, Oct 2026) and swsh (Seed, $4M, Jun 2026).
Cory Levy most often invests alongside Vine Ventures, Collective Global, Game Changers Ventures and Stellation Capital, and the companies they back on AI Lounge are mostly in Consumer AI agents and AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Cory Levy
Who is Cory Levy?
Cory Levy is a San Francisco angel investor and the founder of Z Fellows and First Text. He co-founded the teen social app After School.
What stage does Cory Levy invest in?
His recorded investments are mostly pre-seed and seed rounds. He describes his focus as first-time technical founders.
What is Cory Levy's check size?
He has not published a personal check size. Z Fellows offers $10,000 grants, but that is a program grant and not his typical angel check.
Which AI startups has Cory Levy invested in?
Crunchbase lists Slingshot AI, Dippy AI, Friend, Persona, Brellium, Hilt, Ciridae, Omen AI, CompLabs, Swish Robotics, Ghost and Butler among his AI investments. Crunchbase counts 22 AI investments since 2023.
What is Z Fellows?
Z Fellows is a program Levy launched in December 2020. It gives technical builders $10,000 to work on a project for one week.
How can founders contact Cory Levy?
His public channels are LinkedIn and X (@cory). He launched First Text to let founders and investors communicate by text instead of formal pitches.
Is Cory Levy an angel investor?
Yes. Cory Levy invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 38 investments.
What AI companies has Cory Levy invested in?
Cory Levy's AI investments include CompLabs, Swish Robotics, Friend, Dippy AI, Omen AI, Persona, Brellium and Slingshot AI. The 2 rounds on AI Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Cory Levy based?
Cory Levy is based in San Francisco, United States.
What stage does Cory Levy invest at?
In the rounds tracked on AI Lounge, Cory Levy has invested at Growth and Seed, with a median round of $10M.