A New Search Engine Raises $1.1M To Let Obsessive Fans Dive Down Internet Rabbit Holes
Zehra Naqvi, 26, knows what it’s like to be deep in an internet fandom. She grew up during the golden age of Tumblr and Twitter, where she spent countless nights decoding Marvel release timelines and tracking One Direction’s every move. Those digital rabbit holes shaped her — and now, they’ve inspired her to build something new.
Image Credits:Lore
Her latest project, Lore, is creating buzz across tech circles because a new search engine raises $1.1M to let obsessive fans dive down internet rabbit holes like never before. The startup just closed its $1.1 million pre-seed round and is set to officially launch on October 6.
From Fandom To Founder
Naqvi’s story feels like a full-circle moment. As a teenager, she built her first online community, amassed over 250,000 followers, and learned the art of digital storytelling. Later, she studied art history at Columbia University and became a consumer investor at Headline Ventures.
But despite her success in venture capital, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the internet had lost its magic. “Those early rabbit holes taught me how magical it felt to not just consume culture but to contribute to it,” she told TechCrunch.
That nostalgia sparked the idea for Lore — a platform designed to rekindle the joy of deep-dive fandoms.
Why Lore Exists
While researching Marvel films or analyzing pop culture theories, Naqvi realized that years of her online discoveries had disappeared into the digital void. “How is it possible that I’ve spent over 500 hours reading about Marvel movies and no single platform tracks that?” she asked.
Lore was born from that frustration. It’s designed to be a search platform for internet obsessions — a space where fans can trace, organize, and relive their favorite cultural rabbit holes.
How The Platform Works
Lore combines discovery, data, and fandom. It provides links to fan theories, deep-dive analyses, easter eggs, and cultural context — all in one interactive feed.
According to Naqvi, Lore helps users “zoom in on a single theory or zoom out and see how all your fandoms connect.” It builds a personalized graph of obsessions, curates real-time fandom updates, and even delivers monthly reports showing what users are currently most obsessed with.
In short, Lore lets fans explore their favorite universes with structure, insight, and joy — not endless scrolling.
Building For The Modern Internet Fan
Naqvi says Lore offers “the tools I wished had existed when fandom felt like home before the internet became fractured and joyless.”
The app taps into a universal truth: online fandoms have always been about connection and curiosity. But with today’s fragmented web, those communities have scattered across platforms. Lore hopes to bring them back together — giving fans a smarter, more playful way to explore culture.
This isn’t just another search tool. As a new search engine raises $1.1M to let obsessive fans dive down internet rabbit holes, it signals a broader shift in how we interact with online culture. Lore blends nostalgia, discovery, and data — creating a bridge between the early internet’s creativity and today’s AI-powered information landscape.
For Naqvi, it’s a return to where it all began: not just consuming fandom, but participating in it.
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