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X5 Highlights From a Record-Smashing 2021 for SoCal Startups and VCs
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.

Apparently unshaken by the ongoing pandemic, the venture capital world plowed unprecedented amounts of money into startups in 2021, shattering plenty of records in the process.
Southern California was no exception, with last year proving a major growth period for startups and venture investors alike throughout the region, according to data provided to dot.LA by PitchBook. In 2021, SoCal ventures raised nearly $14 billion across more than 800 deals, while VC exits also soared. (PitchBook’s definition of Southern California covers the following counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. Curiously, it excludes select municipalities including Long Beach, Santa Ana, Irvine, Glendale and Pasadena, which are not factored in these statistics.)
Here are some key takeaways from what was a historic year for Southern California’s ever-growing startup environment—including one metric in which the region actually lagged behind the rest of the nation.
A Historic Spike in Deals
Southern California startups closed a record 831 venture deals in 2021. That was up nearly 39% from the previous year, and represented the single-biggest jump in the region’s deal count since at least 2016 (the earliest year for which PitchBook provided regional funding data).
The growth rate mirrored a national pattern: Last year, the U.S. saw about 40% more venture capital deals than in 2020, according to a joint report from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
SoCal’s 2021 deal spike was a strong rebound after a down year in 2020, when the region’s total deal count slipped 5.2% (to 599, from 632 in 2019).
Data from Pitchbook
Total Deal Value Rockets 53%
Venture capitalists poured a record $13.9 billion into Southern California businesses in 2021, representing a 52.7% increase from $9.1 billion in 2020.
While the region’s total deal value hit an all-time high, the growth rate of venture capital dollars flowing to companies actually slowed down from the previous year, when SoCal’s total deal value climbed by 62.5% between 2019 and 2020.
Southern California’s rate of venture funding growth also lagged behind the national trend. VC-backed companies in the U.S. raised an eye-watering $329.6 billion in 2021, up nearly 98% from the prior year.
In that light, what was a spectacular year for SoCal’s venture scene was relatively unremarkable by national standards. The trend speaks to the sheer volume of cash that VCs across the U.S. are deploying lately.
Exit Values Nearly Doubled
A record amount of capital flowed back to investors in 2021 thanks to a flurry of acquisitions, SPAC mergers and IPOs.
PitchBook recorded 76 venture-backed company exits in Southern California last year, up 85% from 41 in 2020. More impressively, the value of those exits more than doubled between 2020 and 2021—climbing to $25.4 billion, from $11.2 billion the previous year.
It’s early days, but so far 2022 is on track to eclipse last year’s exit total; PitchBook has already tracked $3.7 billion worth of SoCal exits between January 1 and February 2 of this year.
Data from Pitchbook
VCs Tripled Their Dollars Raised
While Southern California startups lured investors from around the world, venture capital firms based here had a bumper 2021, as well: SoCal-based VCs raised an unprecedented $1.5 billion across 27 separate funds last year, per Pitchbook data.
While the 27 funds were on par for the region, the $1.5 billion figure tripled the amount raised in the previous year—indicating that SoCal venture capitalists raised atypically large funds to funnel into startups both within and beyond the region.
Data from Pitchbook
Rising Tides—But Fewer Stratospheric Deals
While Southern California startups secured more capital than ever from investors last year, individual deals from previous years still overshadowed the region’s largest raises of 2021.
Among the top 10 deals involving VC-backed SoCal companies since 2016, only two from 2021 made it onto the leaderboard: a $420 million raise announced by L.A.-based accelerator Black Unicorn Factory, and a $400 million round by San Diego-based project management software developer ClickUp. Otherwise, deals in recent years involving the likes of Faraday Future, Quibi and CloudKitchens still lead the pack.
Update, Feb. 14: This article has been updated to specify the areas in Southern California that PitchBook includes in its statistics.
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Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
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Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.
Rivian Stock Roller Coaster Continues as Amazon Van Delivery Faces Delays
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Rivian’s stock lost 7% yesterday on the back of news that the company could face delays in fulfilling Amazon’s order for a fleet of electric delivery vans due to legal issues with a supplier. The electric vehicle maker is suing Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) over a pricing dispute related to the seats that the supplier promised, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The legal issue could mean that Amazon may not receive their electric vans on time. The dispute hinges on whether or not Commercial Vehicle Group is allowed to raise the prices of its seats after Rivian made engineering and design changes to the original version. Rivian says the price hike from CVG violates the supply contract. CVG denies the claim.
Regardless, the dispute could hamper Rivian’s ability to deliver electric vans to Amazon on time. The ecommerce/streaming/cloud computing/AI megacorporation controls an 18% stake in Rivian as one of the company’s largest early investors. Amazon has previously said it hopes to buy 100,000 delivery vehicles from Rivian by 2030.
The stock plunge marked another wild turn for the EV manufacturer. Last week, Rivian shares dropped 21% on Monday after Ford, another early investor, announced its intent to sell 8 million shares. The next few days saw even further declines as virtually the entire market saw massive losses, but then Rivian rallied partially on the back of their earnings report on Wednesday, gaining 28% back by Friday. Then came yesterday’s 7% slide. Today the stock is up another 10%.
Hold on tight, who knows where we’re going next.
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Snapchat’s Attempt to Protect Young Users From Third-Party Apps Falls Short
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Some Snap Kit platform developers have skirted guidelines meant to make the app safer for children.
A new report from TechCrunch released Tuesday found that some third-party apps that connect to users’ Snap accounts have not been updated according to new guidelines announced in March. The restrictions, which target anonymous messaging and friend-finding apps, are meant to increase child safety. However, the investigation found a number of apps either ignore the new regulations or falsely claim to be integrated with Snapchat.
The Santa Monica-based social media company announced the changes after facing two separate lawsuits related to teen suicide allegedly caused by the app. Over 1,500 developers integrate Snap features like the camera and Bitmojis. Snap originally claimed the update would not affect many apps.
Developers had 30 days to revise their software, but the investigation found that some apps, such as the anonymous Q&A app Sendit, were granted an extension. Others blatantly avoided the changes—the anonymous messaging app HMU, which is now meant for adult users, is still available to users "9+" in the App Store. Certain apps that have been banned from Snap, like Intext, still advertise Snapchat integration.
“First and foremost, we put the privacy and safety of our community first and expect the products built by our developer community to adhere to that standard in addition to bringing fun and positive experiences to people,” Director of Platform Partnerships Alston Cheek told TechCrunch.
The news is a blow to Snap’s recent efforts to cast itself as a responsible social media platform The company recently announced Colleen DeCourcy would take over as the company’s new chief creative officer and CEO Evan Spiegel to recently made a a generous personal donation to graduates of Otis College of Art and Design. The social media company currently faces a lawsuit from a teenager who claims it has not done enough to protect minors from sexual exploitation. In April, 44 attorney generals sent a letter to Snap and TikTok urging the companies to strengthen parental controls.
Lawmakers are considering new policies that would hold social media companies accountable for the content on their platforms. One such bill would require social media companies to share data with independent researchers.
Snapchat recently rolled out augmented reality shopping features and influencer-led original content to grow its younger base of users.
Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, is an investor in dot.LA.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.