Forget the feed: Status AI raises $17M to turn social media into interactive entertainment

Status AI, a gamified social media app founded by Fai Nur, Amit Bhatnagar, and Pritesh Kadiwala, has raised $17M in combined seed and Series A funding from General Catalyst, Y Combinator, LightShed Partners, and Abstract. The platform lets users create personas and inhabit AI-generated interactive worlds based on any character or universe, blending social networking with immersive entertainment. With over 13 million worlds and 5 million character profiles already created, Status is positioning itself as a new category called 'immersive social entertainment,' betting that the next generation prefers living inside stories rather than passively scrolling feeds.