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XJadu Aims to Kick Off a New Era of Artist-Fan Engagement
Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake

Four cymbal crashes precede the heavily distorted electric guitar chords that ring out just as a hologram of Palaye Royale's lead singer jolts to life and slowly rises from a grave — which is embedded in the floor of the viewer's home.
So begins the AR experience created by Los Angeles startup 1RIC, also known as Jadu, released last week: another example of musicians' ongoing experimentation with new ways to engage fans and make up for revenues lost to the frozen touring circuit.
For Palaye Royale, composed of three Canadian-American brothers, typical livestreamed performance lost its appeal as a replacement for in-person concerts once it became evident to the band that virtual shows didn't offer much of a way for them to differentiate themselves.
The new, 10-minute experience, entitled "Curse of Calypso," features three songs from the group's latest album. For the band, it offered a way to stand out. "It's a completely different avenue of content that no one's ever done," said Sebastian Danzing, the group's guitarist.
The experience costs $4.99, which Danzing conceded will require some getting used to by fans who've grown accustomed to receiving music for free. There are accompanying posters and t-shirts, which – like the AR story itself — expand on the band's macabre aesthetic. 1RIC covered production costs, and will split revenues 50-50 with the band.
1RIC's Rise
First available on iOS, this project is the latest step in founder Asad Malik's quest to build a new platform for AR storytelling. His company has worked with various partners, including embattled AR studio Magic Leap, but eventually decided to go it alone after determining they were better off designing both the content and the platform for the still-nascent format.
Born and raised in a small town in Pakistan, Malik looked to tech as a way to "interface with the world" as a boy and began to sneak into his father's bedroom to build websites on his old PC.
Malik, who was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in December, started tinkering with creative AR projects at Bennington College in Vermont, where he met his right-hand man and de facto chief technology officer, Jack Gerrard. Together they completed two interactive AR-enhanced stories with L.A.-based documentary studio, RYOT, while at school; the projects debuted at the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals.
Both "Terminal 3" and "A Jester's Tale" received positive coverage in the press, and Malik and Gerrard received an approximately-$900,000 contract from RYOT's parent company Verizon to make two more projects. Those will be released later this year.
Wanting to reach a bigger audience and inspired by the rise of TikTok, 1RIC launched its flagship app, Jadu (meaning "magic" in Malik's native Urdu) in March 2020 and is now rebranding the company as Jadu. Jadu's most prominent feature is a digital library filled with dozens of 15-second video clips, each one a human hologram, usually of somebody performing a dance. Users can create their own videos of themselves interacting – usually dancing – with the hologram, and then post them on social media.
"Curse of Calypso" heralds the newest iteration of Jadu, which now includes an "Experiences" section in addition to its creation tools.
Behind the Scenes
Performers begin their transformation into holograms in front of 106 "volumetric video-capture" cameras at Metastage, a dome-shaped, greenscreen-cladden studio in Sylmar. The Jadu team then renders that footage into the final product using software from Microsoft and Unity.
The first acts that Jadu turned into holograms included a member of Pussy Riot; artists Poppy, Vic Mensa and Sir Chloe — and Palaye Royale, now the vanguard of Jadu's latest evolution.
This month, as Jadu hustled to finish up the new production, the company expanded its full-time team from four to 15, funded by a recent infusion of angel investment of about $1 million from high-net-worth Pakistani-Americans. The company had previously raised a separate $950,000 angel round, which included an equity-deal with Metastage. Malik sees that relationship as a big win, since it gets his company competitive studio-time rates for what normally costs around $70,000 per day, he said.
Jadu is not yet profitable, and has scarcely made money outside of project fees. But money has not been the company's focus.
Malik believes in the promise of AR and immersive storytelling, and feels confident that by enabling more creativity and distribution the format will catch on.
It remains an open question as to whether holograms and AR can prove useful to musicians or if they are mostly hype. A 2018 tour by a hologram of long-deceased music legend Roy Orbison was a financial success according to Rolling Stone, and spurred follow-on versions by other late stars Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston. But Magic Leap's flameout and the consistent uncertainty over whether AR will ever be widely adopted provide reason for caution.
Jadu is planning to release two more AR experiences by May, Malik said, adding he's in "advanced talks" with Lil Nas X's and Ashnikko's teams, as well as representatives from Interscope Records and Warner Music Group.
Danzing thinks the creative competition of the music business will spur further interest.
"This is the start of something for generations to come, to be using this kind of technology, and it's cool that we got to be at the front lines of it," he said.
Music remains the focus for now; with artists releasing albums and labels providing budgets to promote them, Malik sees it as a good fit. And the 15-second holograms core to the previous iteration of Jadu will continue to provide free, user-generated marketing for the latest step.
In the future, he sees something bigger.
"Imagine if Netflix started with only original content and then over time built the resources so other people could also build content for it," he said.
Inside Jadu, the team feels they are on the cusp of a revolution. On a recent Zoom meeting, one employee said the company's adoption of AR storytelling reminds him of what the Lumiére brothers must have felt like as they pioneered modern film.
Sam Proctor, a newly full-time programmer and animator at Jadu, said "I feel like I'm a part of history right now."
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Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake
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California Debates Data Privacy as SCOTUS Allows Abortion Bans
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The United States Supreme Court called a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks constitutional on Friday, overturning the country’s founding abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court also upheld that there cannot be any restriction on how far into a pregnancy abortion can be banned.
When Politico first broke the news months before SCOTUS’s final ruling, a slew of bills entered Congress to protect data privacy and prevent the sale of data, which can be triangulated to see if a person has had an abortion or if they are seeking an abortion and have historically been used by antiabortion individuals who would collect this information during their free time.
Democratic lawmakers led by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo called on Google to stop collecting location data. The chair of the Federal Trade Commission has long voiced plans for the agency to prevent data collection. A week after the news, California Assembly passed A.B. 2091, a law that would prevent insurance companies and medical providers from sharing information in abortion-related cases (the state Senate is scheduled to deliberate on it in five days).
These scattered bills attempt to do what health privacy laws do not. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was established in 1996 when the Internet was still young and most people carried flip phones. The act declared health institutions were not allowed to share or disclose patients’ health information. Google, Apple and a slew of fertility and health apps are not covered under HIPAA, and fertility app data can be subpoenaed by law enforcement.
California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (or CMIA), goes further than HIPAA by encompassing apps that store medical information under the broader umbrella of health institutions that include insurance companies and medical providers. And several how-tos on protecting data privacy during Roe v. Wade have been published in the hours of the announcement.
But reproductive rights organizations say data privacy alone cannot fix the problem. According to reproductive health policy think tank Guttmacher Institute, the closest state with abortion access to 1.3 million out-of-state women of reproductive age is California. One report from the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy estimates as many as 9,400 people will travel to Los Angeles County every year to get abortions, and that number will grow as more states criminalize abortions.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: Adtech Firm OpenX Lures New SVP, Getlabs and DISQO Tap New VPs
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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Advertising technology company OpenX Technologies appointed Geoff Wolinetz as senior vice president of demand platforms. Wolinetz was most recently senior vice president of growth at Chalice Custom Algorithms.
Remote health care infrastructure provider Getlabs hired Jaime LaFontaine as its vice president of business development. L.A.-based LaFontaine was previously director of business development for Alto Pharmacy.
Customer experience platform DISQO tapped Andrew Duke as its vice president of product, consumer applications. Duke previously served as Oracle’s senior director of strategy and product.
Media company Wheelhouse DNA named Michael Senzer as senior manager of Additive Creative, its newly launched digital talent management division. Senzer was previously vice president of business development at TalentX Entertainment.
Fintech lending platform Camino Financial hired Dana Rainford as vice president of people and talent. Rainford previously served as head of human resources at Westwood Financial.
Kourtney Day returned to entertainment company Jim Henson’s Creature Shop as senior director of business development. Day mostly recently served as business development manager for themed entertainment at Solomon Group.
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
This Week in ‘Raises’: Miracle Miles Lands $100M, Fintech Startup Tapcheck Hauls $20M
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
In this week’s edition of “Raises”: An L.A.-based footwear company closed $100 million to boost its expansion into the global market, while there were Series A raises for local fintech, biotech and space startups.
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Venture Capital
Miracle Miles Group, an L.A.-based footwear company, raised a $100 million Series A funding round co-led by IDG Capital and Sequoia Capital China.
Deno, a San Diego-based software development startup, raised a $21 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
Tapcheck, an L.A.-based financial wellness startup that helps workers access their paycheck before payday, raised a $20 million Series A funding round led by PeakSpan Capital.
Gemelli Biotech, an L.A.- and Raleigh, N.C.-based biotech startup focused on gastrointestinal diseases, raised a $19 million Series A financing round led by Blue Ox Healthcare Partners.
Epsilon3, an L.A.-based space operations software startup, raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by Lux Capital.
Global Premier Fertility, an Irvine-based fertility company, raised an $11 million Series C funding round led by Triangle Capital Corporation.
Vamstar, an L.A.- and London-based medical supply chain platform, raised a $9.5 million Series A funding round co-led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and Dutch Founders Fund.
System 9, an L.A.-based digital asset market-making firm focused on the crypto altcoin market, raised a $5.7 million Series A funding round led by Capital6 Eagle.
Myria, an L.A.-based online marketplace of luxury goods and services, raised a $4.3 million seed round from Y Combinator, Backend Capital, Cathexis Ventures and other angel investors.
Binarly, an L.A.-based firmware cybersecurity company, raised a $3.6 million seed round from WestWave Capital and Acrobator Ventures.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).
- Vamstar Raises $9.5M For Its Medical Supply Chain Platform - dot.LA ›
- MaC Venture Capital Eyes $200 Million For Its Second Fund - dot.LA ›
- Los Angeles Venture Capital News - dot.LA ›
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.