A new search engine raises $1.1M to let obsessive fans dive down internet rabbit holes

Zehra Naqvi, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, has turned her passion for fandom into a startup, Lore, which recently garnered $1.1 million in pre-seed funding. Growing up during the flourishing era of Tumblr and Twitter, Naqvi spent countless nights dissecting Marvel movie release dates and following the lives of One Direction members, amassing a following of 250,000 across both platforms. Reflecting on her early experiences, she expressed how transformative it was to contribute to cultural discussions rather than merely consuming them. After a successful tenure as a consumer investor at Headline Ventures, she decided to return to her roots, motivated by the realization that the extensive research she conducted over the years lacked a centralized platform. "How is it possible that I’ve spent probably well over 500 hours reading about Marvel movies over 17 years and no single platform tracks my consumption?" Naqvi pondered. Lore aims to fill this void by providing tools that allow fans to explore their interests deeply. The platform will offer links to fan theories, cultural contexts, and hidden details, creating a personalized map of users' fandoms and presenting updates in a user-friendly feed. Naqvi described Lore as an interactive space where users can delve into their obsessions, stating, "You can zoom in on a single theory or zoom out and see how all your fandoms connect. It’s like playing with knowledge instead of just consuming it." While she remains tight-lipped about the specifics of the platform, she highlighted the increasing fragmentation of online fandoms and the challenges of finding joy in them as users age. As an investor, Naqvi recognized that the existing social tools for fans might not be necessary, given the abundance of platforms focused on quick engagement. She envisions a quieter, more meaningful future for social media, centered around passion and nostalgia. "Lore is our attempt to rebuild the Library of Alexandria for the fandom age," she asserted. As a solo founder, Naqvi has already made her first two hires—an engineer and a marketing executive—and described her fundraising journey as intense, with Village Global leading the investment round alongside Precursor Ventures. Charles Hudson, managing partner at Precursor Ventures, remarked, "Lore is building the product fandoms have been waiting for, envisioning it as the essential app for fans to connect and deepen their engagement with their passions." With the newly acquired funding, Naqvi aims to expand Lore’s user base and continue product testing. She noted the impressive engagement metrics from recent experiments, which included over 1,000 logins and nearly 24,000 searches, totaling about 200 hours of deep fandom exploration. Despite facing competition from AI search engines and platforms like Reddit and Wikipedia, Naqvi insists that none are tailored specifically for fans. She describes Lore as a vibrant, interactive environment designed for play, hoping to restore joy to the online experience and make obsession a celebrated aspect of culture. "Consumer AI doesn’t always have to be a shopping assistant or another social app; there are inventive and joyful applications we’re excited to explore with Lore," she concluded.