Clockout Raises $3.5 Million to Turn Gen Z Loneliness Into Revenue

Clockout, a networking app for finding professionals, clubs and events nearby, has raised $3.5 million in total funding, with 114 Ventures leading the round announced Friday. Evite Ventures, Allied Ventures, Sher Ventures, Gaingels and BMPB VC also invested.

The company, founded by 32-year-old CEO Krishna Dosapati, hit $1.1 million in annual recurring revenue within 10 months of launching monetization. The app has drawn more than 600,000 downloads since going live in October 2024. Clockout did not disclose its current valuation.

Clockout sits, by Dosapati's own description, somewhere between LinkedIn and Meetup. Users browse nearby professionals based on their work, interests and mutual connections, then join communities and events organized around industries or shared hobbies. The design goal is to give users a reason to meet someone offline rather than add another digital contact.

Dosapati's pitch is blunt. Professional networking, she argues, has grown too dependent on digital platforms, while meeting people face-to-face has become harder — especially for those who have moved to a new city or entered a new industry.

She hit the problem herself after graduating from NYU and working in New York. Even with an existing local network, she found her circle had frozen in place, and meeting new peers became nearly impossible.

"I was like, if I faced this, how are younger people going to build their network, make friends and find a professional community?" Dosapati told Fortune.

The business model is freemium. Users sign up free and can pay a $99 annual subscription for additional features such as unlimited club and event access, while non-paying users still get value from the network.

The growth mechanics are city-level. Dosapati said the company found that reaching roughly 1,000 users in a single city can generate significant word-of-mouth growth. In 2025, Clockout users sent nearly 400,000 invitations for other people to join the platform.

"The biggest issue in this space, as a working professional, is how do I actually find a community around my profession?" Dosapati said.

A market shaped by the loneliness epidemic

The demand Clockout targets is well documented. Gallup's latest global workplace data shows 22% of employees under 35 experienced loneliness for much of the previous day in 2025, with remote workers reporting higher rates. In the U.S., Gallup found 29% of Americans aged 18 to 29 experienced significant daily loneliness in the second quarter of 2025, compared with 21% of adults overall.

Employers are responding on their own front. CBRE's 2026 survey found that 89% of 97 office-using companies now require employees to be in the office at least three days a week, up from 78% a year earlier.

Outside the workplace, the shift toward in-person community is visible in fitness. Strava's 2025 Year in Sport report found the number of clubs on its platform nearly quadrupled during the year to 1 million, and that 39% more Gen Z respondents than Gen X said they use fitness to meet people who share their interests.

Loneliness has also moved onto the public-health agenda. In 2023, then Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory linking loneliness and social isolation to increased risks of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and premature death. He recommended participation in professional, community and other social groups as a way to build belonging and purpose.

"Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis," Murthy wrote. "If we fail to do so, we will pay an ever-increasing price in the form of our individual and collective health and well-being."

For Clockout, the bet is that this demand converts into subscriptions. With $3.5 million in backing and a $99-a-year product already generating seven-figure revenue, the company's next test is whether city-by-city word-of-mouth growth can scale into a durable network — before larger platforms decide loneliness is their market too.