9 Innovative Social Media Startups to Follow

Every year, new startups pull to the forefront of their industry through exciting innovation and industry-disrupting business models. We’ve rounded up the most exciting social media startups of 2023 that startup-lovers, investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs should follow. 

Disclaimer: With so many exciting startups launching and growing worldwide, we aren’t able to cover them all. Furthermore, the startups that are listed below are not officially ranked and are listed in no particular order.

Location: New York City, New York
Funding: Seed, $3 Million

Cobble's target market is couples, and some of the offerings include the coordination of epic date nights. The platform helps to guide the decision-making process around planning dates, which can certainly get intimidating at times.

Location: New York, United States
Funding: Angel Investors, Undisclosed 

Pepper The App is a social media platform for food lovers, chefs, home cooks, and others involved in the food industry. Pepper brings together foodies across the world to share, create, and collaborate on tantalizing new recipes. Jake Aronskind and co-founder Matthew Schkolnick came up with the idea for Pepper during the 2020 pandemic wave when home cooking (bread anyone?) became a point of interest for many. 

Location: Bangalore, India
Funding: Series H, $1.7 Billion

ShareChat specifically focuses on regions in which various Indian dialects are spoken and brings these users together on one platform for content sharing and access to its news feed. This social media startup has been so successful that there are murmurings of possible interest from Google and Twitter.

Location: New York, United States
Funding: Seed, $7.4 Million

Fishbowl aids in the networking of users in various industries with common interests (education, finance, law, etc.) The motivation behind the platform is to increase information sharing, mentorship, and networking between individuals in the same sectors. The startup has seen adoption rates exceeding 40% in their current user clients. 

Location: Port Washington, New York
Funding: Venture - Series Unknown, $22.9 Million

Songclip is a startup that provides an application programming interface (API) enabling searches for song clips by users. The platform is optimized for searchability through title, lyrics, and artists. Integrated sharing capabilities add to the social community aspect of the platform. 

Location: Chennai, India
Funding: Non-Equity Assistance, $500,000

Frilp (short for friend's help) is a social platform along the lines of Yelp and Tripadvisor but with the specific target audience being your direct friends, family, and contacts. The platform uses your online interactions and contacts to create a network of people to share reviews with and from which to request recommendations.

Location: Toronto, Canada
Funding: Series B, $22.3 Million

500px is a social sharing platform for photographers and those who love the photographic arts. Its tagline is "home to everyone's best photos," which seems in line with the high quality of the pieces being shared on the platform. Of course, the normal social media norms of "likes" and "follows" are adhered to, and amateur photographers have the opportunity to sell their work to followers as well.

Location: Paris, France 
Funding: Series C, $65.7 Million

Yubo is a French social media startup that specifically targets the Gen Z market. The premise behind the platform is that users can interact with the knowledge that their information is safe and not being sold to influencers or marketers. Instead of making money through advertising, Yubo offers its users premium features and plans for purchase. 

Location: Helsinki, Finland
Funding: Pre-Seed, €450,000

Exolyt makes TikTok profitable for brands and businesses by providing enhanced analytics and insights. The Finnish startup is powered by The Extravagant Company and takes business on TikTok to a whole new level with actionable data. 

Recommended: Check out our full list of the top startups to watch!