Honeyjar Raises $2M to Launch an AI Operating System for Communications and PR
San Francisco - Dec. 4, 2025. Honeyjar announced a $2M pre-seed round and opened its Early Access waitlist for agencies, in-house teams, and independent pros. The round was led by Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures and Kevin Mahaffey of SNR Ventures.
Honeyjar is a secure, collaborative workspace with an AI co-pilot that operates like a comms teammate. It unifies the core workflows PR teams touch daily and runs on live news, social, and events data - with agents that learn from brand context, goals, and campaign history.
What Honeyjar Actually Does
Think of it as the operating system for your day-to-day comms work. One place, built for PR, where the essentials connect and the repetitive tasks run faster.
- Strategic messaging and announcements
- Media research and list building
- Pitching and contact management
- Events and speaking programs
- Briefing docs and prep
- Coverage tracking, sentiment, and reporting
Honeyjar's agents act like a teammate: they pull context from your brand narrative, past campaigns, and goals to guide execution across the entire lifecycle.
Why This Matters for PR Teams
Most teams aren't short on ideas - they're short on time. Hours vanish into list building, follow-ups, and stitching together tools that don't speak to each other.
- Reduce manual work so more energy goes into story, strategy, and stakeholders.
- Create a shared source of truth for teams and clients.
- Tighten ops without losing the human touch that makes comms work.
Investor perspective: "The most interesting applications of AI right now are those that amplify the superpowers of professionals who are already excellent at their craft," said Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner at Human Ventures. "Technology shouldn't replace how you build relationships or do your job but it should give you better tools to excel at both. Honeyjar does this for communications professionals. It handles the tedious tasks so they can focus on what humans do best - strategic thinking, storytelling, and relationship building."
Founder perspective: "Strategy, relationships, and judgment will always be the human part of communications and PR - that's the art," said Michelle Masek, CEO and Founder of Honeyjar. "But communicators spend too many hours on building media lists, creating briefing docs, chasing event details, and stitching AI tools together. We're building Honeyjar to be a secure, collaborative workspace with AI agents that work alongside you and your team, helping you shape stories, find opportunities, run campaigns, and measure impact effectively and efficiently."
Operator perspective: "I've seen firsthand how, when done right, communications can be the most effective form of marketing that exists. But most teams get bogged down in the tasks and motions, leaving less time to be strategic about the story and the results. Honeyjar automates the essential tasks and workflows so more focus can go to the story, strategy, and stakeholders - with the mechanics happening automatically," said Kevin Mahaffey, Founder of SNR Ventures.
Who's Backing Honeyjar
Lead investors: Heather Hartnett (Human Ventures) and Kevin Mahaffey (SNR Ventures). They're joined by a strong bench of media, communications, and marketing operators who see both the $15B PR market opportunity and the need for purpose-built AI for this field:
- Margit Wennmachers, communications leader and former CMO at a16z
- Jesse Angelo, Founder and CEO of Checker Media, former President of Global News and Entertainment at VICE, and Publisher of the New York Post
- Josh Constine, former Editor at Large at TechCrunch
- Desiree Gruber, creator of Project Runway and Founder of Full Picture
- Joanne Bradford, former executive at Microsoft, SoFi, and Pinterest
- Becky Porter, former CEO of Outcast Agency
- Ajay Arora, Senior VP of Product Management and Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN
Early Access: Who It's For and How to Join
Honeyjar's Early Access program is open to agencies, in-house teams, and independent practitioners. If you want to compress manual work and centralize your comms stack, this is worth a look.
Practical Next Steps for Comms Leaders
- Pick two workflows to pilot first: media list building and briefing docs are high ROI.
- Define guardrails: tone of voice, approval steps, and data access.
- Set simple metrics: hours saved, pitch throughput, briefing quality, coverage velocity.
- Roll out in waves: one team or client at a time, then scale.
About Honeyjar
Honeyjar is the operating system for modern communications and PR. Built by veteran comms leaders and backed by industry icons from TechCrunch, VICE, a16z, Outcast, and Disney, Honeyjar gives communications professionals and non-experts an AI co-pilot they can depend on. The platform unifies core workflows and data including strategic messaging, announcements, media research, list building, contact management, events and speaking programs, briefing docs, coverage tracking, sentiment, and reporting - bringing purpose-built AI to communicators.
Media Contact
Akeena Legall
Communications
akeena@honeyjar.ai
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