Clyx

Alyx van Der Vorm raised $14M Series A for Clyx, a Gen Z friendship platform in NYC, with Blitzscaling and Simon Sinek behind her — and here's the thing, she says investors came through personal interactions rather than cold outreach, which everyone claims until they need to close a round. The "personal touch" angle is either genuinely smart or exactly the kind of story founders tell themselves, but having Sinek in the room gives it real signal because the man's whole brand is "start with why" and apparently he saw the vision here. Whether Gen Z actually wants a designated app for making friends versus just sliding into DMs on the apps they already use is the real question, but $14M says someone with real money thinks the answer is yes.