One Friday evening, Alyx van der Vorm couldn’t stop thinking: “I should do something with someone.” But instead, she found herself alone again, debating whether to just head to the gym. That was when she realized how absurdly difficult making plans with friends had become.
“Figuring out who’s around, texting, waiting, researching options… It felt absurd that staying home and watching a movie was one tap, but seeing a friend was ten steps,” van der Vorm said.
At just 25, van der Vorm is very much a member of Gen Z, a generation that is hyper-connected online, yet often self-reports as feeling isolated and lonely. A Harvard-trained computational neuroscientist, she previously studied how social connections impact both mental and physical health.
“The data is stark. Isolation can be as physically damaging as things we universally agree are bad for us,” she explained. “That gave me the confidence that working on friendship isn’t ‘soft.’ It’s a real health problem.”
That conviction led her to launch Clyx in 2020, a social platform designed to help people find real-world community events. Today, the app has more than 50,000 active users buying tickets and over 200,000 browsing events.
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And this week, Clyx announced a $14 million Series A round led by Blitzscaling Ventures, with participation from investors including Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail and F1 world champion-turned-investor Nico Rosberg.
How Clyx Works
Clyx aggregates event data from sources like Ticketmaster and TikTok, then shows users what’s happening nearby. Beyond events, the app suggests places to check out, and allows users to upload their contacts to see what friends are attending.
To make meeting new people less daunting, Clyx has also built a compatibility engine that recommends people you might connect with at an event.
“So instead of walking into a room of strangers, you walk in already knowing, ‘Hey, Thomas is into the same things I am, we should connect,’” van der Vorm said.
The app even nudges people to reconnect, removing the awkwardness of reaching out cold. Its Programs feature, a series of workshops with the same group, is designed to help acquaintances become real friends through repetition.
“That repetition is where acquaintances turn into real friends, and it’s been one of the most exciting things we’ve rolled out,” she added.
“People do have friends,” van der Vorm continued. “What they lack are friends who are nearby, free at the same time, and up for the same things. We remove the planning tax and nudge the right next step so the momentum doesn’t die after ‘we should hang soon.’”
Growth and Expansion
So far, Clyx operates in Miami and London, with launches in New York this month and São Paulo later this year. The fresh funding will accelerate product development, brand partnerships, cultural collaborations, and team expansion.
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Van der Vorm met many of her investors through personal connections. A chance meeting in a coffee shop led to an intro with an investor. A Harvard Club talk connected her to Venmo’s Magdon-Ismail. And a comparison to Simon Sinek opened yet another door.
Why It Matters
Clyx joins a long line of apps, from Meetup and Eventbrite to Bumble BFF and Hinge, trying to make socializing easier. But van der Vorm sees a bigger mission:
“My dream is to create a world where it’s easy to go out and spend time with your friends as it is to sit home and scroll,” she said. “And if that helps people feel happier, healthier, and like they truly belong somewhere, that’s the impact I want Clyx to have.”
