DOT.LA TERMS OF SERVICE

Last Updated: 1/27

Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your access to and use of the websites, mobile applications and other online products and services (collectively, the "Services") provided by Intersection Media Group, Inc. ("dot.LA" or "we"). By clicking "I Accept" or by using our Services, you agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section 15.If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use our Services.

If you have any questions about these Terms or our Services, please contact us at legal@dot.la. For information about how we collect, use, share and otherwise process information about you, please see our Privacy Policy.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years of age to use our Services. If you are under 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority where you live), you may use our Services only under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a user under the age of 18 (or the age of legal majority), you agree to be fully responsible for the acts or omissions of such user in relation to our Services. If you use our Services on behalf of another person or entity, (a) all references to "you" throughout these Terms will include that person or entity, (b) you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms on that person's or entity's behalf, and (c) in the event you or the person or entity violates these Terms, the person or entity agrees to be responsible to us.

User Accounts and Account Security

You may need to register for an account to access some or all of our Services. If you register for an account, you must provide accurate account information and promptly update this information if it changes. You also must maintain the security of your account and promptly notify us if you discover or suspect that someone has accessed your account without your permission. If you permit others to use your account credentials, you are responsible for the activities of such users that occur in connection with your account. We reserve the right to reclaim usernames, including on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim, including trademark rights, in those usernames.

User Content

  1. Our Services may allow you and other users to create, post, store and share content, including messages, text, photos, videos, software and other materials (collectively, "User Content"). Except for the license you grant below, you retain all rights in and to your User Content, as between you and dot.LA.

  2. You grant dot.LA a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed without compensation to you. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your username or profile photo) may be visible to others.

  3. You may not create, post, store or share any User Content that violates these Terms or for which you do not have all the rights necessary to grant us the license described above. You represent and warrant that your User Content, and our use of such content as permitted by these Terms, will not violate any rights of or cause injury to any person or entity. Although we have no obligation to screen, edit or monitor User Content, we may delete or remove User Content at any time and for any reason with or without notice.

Prohibited Conduct and Content

You will not violate any applicable law, contract, intellectual property right or other third-party right or commit a tort, and you are solely responsible for your conduct while using our Services. You will not:

  1. Engage in any harassing, threatening, intimidating, predatory or stalking conduct;
  2. Use or attempt to use another user's account without authorization from that user and dot.LA;
  3. Impersonate or post on behalf or any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
  4. Sell, resell or commercially use our Services;
  5. Copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display all or portions of our Services, except as expressly permitted by us or our licensors;
  6. Modify our Services, remove any proprietary rights notices or markings, or otherwise make any derivative works based upon our Services;
  7. Use our Services other than for their intended purpose and in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Services or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Services in any manner;
  8. Reverse engineer any aspect of our Services or do anything that might discover source code or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any part of our Services;
  9. Use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods designed to scrape or extract data from our Services;
  10. Develop or use any applications that interact with our Services without our prior written consent;
  11. Send, distribute or post spam, unsolicited or bulk commercial electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  12. Bypass or ignore instructions contained in our robots.txt file; or
  13. Use our Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, or engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these Terms.
You may also post or otherwise share only User Content that is nonconfidential and that you have all necessary rights to disclose. You may not create, post, store or share any User Content that:
  1. Is unlawful, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory or fraudulent;
  2. Would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;
  3. May infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual or proprietary right of any party;
  4. Contains or depicts any statements, remarks or claims that do not reflect your honest views and experiences;
  5. Impersonates, or misrepresents your affiliation with, any person or entity;
  6. Contains any unsolicited promotions, political campaigning, advertising or solicitations;
  7. Contains any private or personal information of a third party without such third party's consent;
  8. Contains any viruses, corrupted data or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files or content; or
  9. In our sole judgment, is objectionable, restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying our Services, or may expose dot.LA or others to any harm or liability of any type.
1. Enforcement of this Section 4 is solely at dot.LA's discretion, and failure to enforce this section in some instances does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce it in other instances. In addition, this Section 4 does not create any private right of action on the part of any third party or any reasonable expectation that the Services will not contain any content that is prohibited by such rules.

Ownership; Limited License

The Services, including the text, graphics, images, photographs, videos, illustrations and other content contained therein, are owned by dot.LA or our licensors and are protected under both United States and foreign laws. Except as explicitly stated in these Terms, all rights in and to the Services are reserved by us or our licensors. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, you are hereby granted a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use our Services for your own personal, noncommercial use. Any use of the Services other than as specifically authorized herein, without our prior written permission, is strictly prohibited, will terminate the license granted herein and violate our intellectual property rights.

Trademarks

dot.LA and our logos, our product or service names, our slogans and the look and feel of the Services are trademarks of dot.LA and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission. All other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names and company names or logos mentioned on the Services are the property of their respective owners. Reference to any products, services, processes or other information by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by us.

Feedback

You may voluntarily post, submit or otherwise communicate to us any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, original or creative materials or other information about dot.LA or our Services (collectively, "Feedback"). You understand that we may use such Feedback for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you, including to develop, copy, publish, or improve the Feedback in dot.LA's sole discretion. You understand that dot.LA may treat Feedback as nonconfidential.

Repeat Infringer Policy; Copyright Complaints

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable law, we have adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that anything on our Services infringes any copyright that you own or control, you may notify dot.LA's designated agent as follows:

Designated Agent: DMCA Manager
Address: 212 26th st #317

Santa Monica CA, 90402

E-Mail Address: legal@dot.la

Please see 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) for the requirements of a proper notification. Also, please note that if you knowingly misrepresent that any activity or material on our Services is infringing, you may be liable to dot.LA for certain costs and damages.

Third-Party Content

We may provide information about third-party products, services, activities or events, or we may allow third parties to make their content and information available on or through the Services (collectively, "Third-Party Content"). We provide Third-Party Content as a service to those interested in such content. Your dealings or correspondence with third parties and your use of or interaction with any Third-Party Content are solely between you and the third party. dot.LA does not control or endorse, and makes no representations or warranties regarding, any Third-Party Content, and your access to and use of such Third-Party Content is at your own risk.

Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless dot.LA and our officers, directors, agents, partners and employees (individually and collectively, the "dot.LA Parties") from and against any losses, liabilities, claims, demands, damages, expenses or costs ("Claims") arising out of or related to (a) your access to or use of the Services; (b) your User Content or Feedback; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation, misappropriation or infringement of any rights of another (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights); or (e) your conduct in connection with the Services. You agree to promptly notify dot.LA Parties of any third-party Claims, cooperate with dot.LA Parties in defending such Claims and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including attorneys' fees). You also agree that the dot.LA Parties will have control of the defense or settlement, at dot.LA's sole option, of any third-party Claims. This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and dot.LA or the other dot.LA Parties.

Disclaimers

Your use of our Services is at your sole risk. Except as otherwise provided in a writing by us, our Services and any content therein are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. In addition, dot.LA does not represent or warrant that our Services are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. While dot.LA attempts to make your use of our Services and any content therein safe, we cannot and do not represent or warrant that our Services or servers are free of viruses or other harmful components. You assume the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Services.

Limitation of Liability

  1. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, dot.LA and the other dot.LA Parties will not be liable to you under any theory of liability—whether based in contract, tort, negligence, warranty, or otherwise—for any indirect, consequential, incidental, or special damages or lost profits, even if dot.LA or the other dot.LA Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

  2. The total liability of dot.LA and the other dot.LA Parties for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services, regardless of the form of the action, is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount paid by you to use our Services.

  3. The limitations set forth in this Section 12 will not limit or exclude liability for the gross negligence, fraud or intentional misconduct of dot.LA or the other dot.LA Parties or for any other matters in which liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Additionally, some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you.

Release

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release dot.LA and the other dot.LA Parties from responsibility, liability, claims, demands and/or damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown (including claims of negligence), arising out of or related to disputes between users and the acts or omissions of third parties. If you are a consumer who resides in California, you hereby waive your rights under California Civil Code § 1542, which provides: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him or her must have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor."

Transfer and Processing Data

In order for us to provide our Services, you agree that we may process, transfer and store information about you in the United States and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.

Dispute Resolution; Binding Arbitration

Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with dot.LA and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us, unless you opt out of arbitration by following the instructions set forth below. No class or representative actions or arbitrations are allowed under this arbitration provision. In addition, arbitration precludes you from suing in court or having a jury trial.

  1. No Representative Actions. You and dot.LA agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services is personal to you and dot.LA and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual action, and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.
  2. Arbitration of Disputes. Except for small claims disputes in which you or dot.LA seeks to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county of your billing address or disputes in which you or dot.LA seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property, you and dot.LA waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any other dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services, including claims related to privacy and data security, (collectively, "Disputes") resolved in court. Instead, for any Dispute that you have against dot.LA you agree to first contact dot.LA and attempt to resolve the claim informally by sending a written notice of your claim ("Notice") to dot.LA by email at legal@dot.la .la or by certified mail addressed to [insert legal department address]. The Notice must (a) include your name, residence address, email address, and telephone number; (b) describe the nature and basis of the Dispute; and (c) set forth the specific relief sought. Our notice to you will be similar in form to that described above. If you and dot.LA cannot reach an agreement to resolve the Dispute within thirty (30) days after such Notice is received, then either party may submit the Dispute to binding arbitration administered by JAMS or, under the limited circumstances set forth above, in court. All Disputes submitted to JAMS will be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration. Arbitration proceedings will be held in Los Angeles County, California unless you are a consumer, in which case you may elect to hold the arbitration in your county of residence. For purposes of this Section 15, a "consumer" means a person using the Services for personal, family or household purposes. You and dot.LA agree that Disputes will be held in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures ("JAMS Rules"). The most recent version of the JAMS Rules are available on the JAMS website and are hereby incorporated by reference. You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the JAMS Rules or waive your opportunity to read the JAMS Rules and waive any claim that the JAMS Rules are unfair or should not apply for any reason.
  3. You and dot.LA agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this Section 15 will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the "FAA"), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any Dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court, including the power to determine the question of arbitrability. The arbitrator may conduct only an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual's claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual.
  4. The arbitration will allow for the discovery or exchange of non-privileged information relevant to the Dispute. The arbitrator, dot.LA, and you will maintain the confidentiality of any arbitration proceedings, judgments and awards, including information gathered, prepared and presented for purposes of the arbitration or related to the Dispute(s) therein. The arbitrator will have the authority to make appropriate rulings to safeguard confidentiality, unless the law provides to the contrary. The duty of confidentiality does not apply to the extent that disclosure is necessary to prepare for or conduct the arbitration hearing on the merits, in connection with a court application for a preliminary remedy or in connection with a judicial challenge to an arbitration award or its enforcement, or to the extent that disclosure is otherwise required by law or judicial decision.

  5. You and dot.LA agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee (up to a maximum of $250 if you are a consumer), and dot.LA will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs. For any arbitration initiated by dot.LA, dot.LA will pay all JAMS fees and costs. You and dot.LA agree that the state or federal courts of the State of California and the United States sitting in Los Angeles County, California have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.
  6. Any Dispute must be filed within one year after the relevant claim arose; otherwise, the Dispute is permanently barred, which means that you and dot.LA will not have the right to assert the claim.
  7. You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within 30 days of the date you first accepted the terms of this Section 15 by emailing dot.LA at legal@dot.la. In order to be effective, the opt-out notice must include your full name and address and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with Section 16.
  8. If any portion of this Section 15 is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (a) the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall be severed from these Terms; (b) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall have no impact whatsoever on the remainder of this Section 15 or the parties' ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis pursuant to this Section 15; and (c) to the extent that any claims must therefore proceed on a class, collective, consolidated, or representative basis, such claims must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration, and the parties agree that litigation of those claims shall be stayed pending the outcome of any individual claims in arbitration. Further, if any part of this Section 15 is found to prohibit an individual claim seeking public injunctive relief, that provision will have no effect to the extent such relief is allowed to be sought out of arbitration, and the remainder of this Section 15 will be enforceable.

Governing Law and Venue

Any dispute arising from these Terms and your use of the Services will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of California, except to the extent preempted by U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict of law rules or principles (whether of California or any other jurisdiction) that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction. Any dispute between the parties that is not subject to arbitration or cannot be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of California and the United States, respectively, sitting in Los Angeles County, California.

Modifying and Terminating our Services

We reserve the right to modify our Services or to suspend or stop providing all or portions of our Services at any time. You also have the right to stop using our Services at any time. We are not responsible for any loss or harm related to your inability to access or use our Services.

Amendments

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we will provide you with notice of such changes, such as by sending an email, providing a notice through our Services or updating the date at the top of these Terms. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately, and your continued use of our Services after we provide such notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using our Services.

Severability

If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Miscellaneous

  1. The failure of dot.LA to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms reflect the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and supersede all prior agreements, representations, statements and understandings of the parties. The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Use of the word "including" will be interpreted to mean "including without limitation." Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third-party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity. You agree that communications and transactions between us may be conducted electronically.

  2. Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California consumers are entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice: The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite N-112, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at 1 (800) 952-5210.

This LA Startup Just Raised $49M for the Chaos Behind High-Stakes Lawsuits

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday, Los Angeles.

In a startup market obsessed with AI copilots and productivity promises, Steno just raised $49M for something far less glamorous and probably far more durable: the machinery behind depositions, transcripts, and high-stakes litigation. It is the kind of business that sounds boring right up until you realize how much money, urgency, and operational chaos moves through it every day.

The LA legal tech company, which positions itself as both a court reporting service and a software platform, said the Series C was led by Savano Capital Partners, with continued backing from First Round Capital, The Legal Tech Fund, and other strategic investors. Steno plans to use the funding to expand geographically, deepen its reach into the AmLaw 200, and roll out the next evolution of its AI-powered Transcript Genius product.

Steno’s bet is not that lawyers want another standalone AI tool dropped into an already messy workflow. It is betting that the real opportunity is owning more of the process itself, from court reporting and remote depositions to transcript analysis and financing, then using software to make the whole machine run faster.

That is what makes this story interesting: Steno is building around legal work that is already happening, already expensive, and already painful. In a market full of companies trying to invent new behavior, there is something compelling about one focused on making an old, high-friction system work better.

Now, onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

🤝 Venture Deals

      LA Companies

      • SIGMAS raised a $1M seed round co-led by Mucker Capital and HongShan Capital as the performancewear brand expands from marketplace incubation into a broader direct-to-consumer push. The company, which was incubated through SHEIN’s Supply Chain as a Service program, said it has already launched more than 600 men’s activewear SKUs and plans to use SHOPLINE to support its owned-channel and international growth. - learn more
      • Solace received an initial $50,000 investment from Audos as part of the launch of the Audos Publishing House, a new platform aimed at helping everyday entrepreneurs build AI-native businesses. The Santa Monica startup, created by founder Sarah Gwilliam after losing her father, is building an AI-powered grief coaching platform focused on active coaching, guided journaling, and memory preservation, with Audos also offering up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding through a 15% revenue-share model. - learn more
      • Triangle Health emerged with $4M in pre-seed funding after cofounder Arun Verma turned his own brain cancer diagnosis into the inspiration for the company’s AI-powered health navigation platform. The Pasadena startup says its product helps patients gather complete medical records, surface treatment options and clinical trials, and review findings with a licensed physician, with backing from investors including Kevin Mahaffey, Hannah Grey, Antler Criticality Fund, John Hering, Marty Tenenbaum, and Kestrin Pantera. - learn more
      • Primestor secured a $10M equity investment from New Jersey Community Capital for The Walk, its mixed-use development in Norwalk, marking NJCC’s expansion into Southern California. The 8.2-acre project is planned to include 374 homes, 56 of them affordable, along with about 94,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space as Primestor advances a broader community-focused development effort in the region. - learn more
      • Sift raised a $42M Series B led by StepStone Group, with GV as its largest investor, bringing total funding to $67M as it builds what it calls an observability layer for hardware engineering. The El Segundo company said the funding will help scale its platform for turning fragmented telemetry from spacecraft, defense systems, autonomous vehicles, and factories into real-time, AI-ready data. - learn more

                      LA Venture Funds

                      • Emmeline Ventures participated in Prickly Pear Health’s follow-on pre-seed round, helping bring the company’s total funding to more than $600,000 alongside existing backers Bayless Ventures and AZ Venture Capital Inc. Prickly Pear said it will use the new capital to accelerate user growth and expand deployments of its AI-powered women’s brain health platform with mental health practices, beginning in Arizona, after surpassing 2,000 active users since launching in 2024. - learn more
                      • Riot Ventures participated in Shield AI’s new financing round, which values the defense tech company at $12.7B and accompanies its planned acquisition of software simulation company Aechelon. Shield AI said the capital will support growth across its autonomy software and broader defense platform, while the Aechelon deal is meant to strengthen its simulation and training capabilities as it scales AI-powered systems for military customers. - learn more
                      • Starshot Capital participated in Rumin8’s latest funding round, which added a new $3M commitment from AgriZeroNZ as the company pushes toward commercializing its methane-reducing livestock feed additives in New Zealand. Rumin8 said the new backing will help support pivotal trials and move it toward final registration, with first commercial sales in New Zealand targeted for 2027. - learn more
                      • Compa Capital participated in Kairos Labs’ $2.4M seed round, which was led by 6th Man Ventures and also included Lattice and Advancit Capital. The company said the funding follows a beta that generated more than $300M in notional swap volume and will help support the launch of its permissionless, non-custodial interest rate swap protocol on Ethereum mainnet and Base in the coming weeks. - learn more
                      • Morpheus Ventures co-led Applied Atomics’ oversubscribed $8.3M seed round, backing the company alongside Transition as it works to deploy full-stack nuclear power plants for industrial infrastructure customers. Applied Atomics said the funding will help bring test and integration stands online, strengthen its supply chain, and move toward deployment, with plans over the next 12 months to secure first host sites and customer agreements, advance NRC Part 50 licensing engagement, and push toward first commercial construction. - learn more
                      • Upfront Ventures participated in Neon’s financing round, which brought in more than $25M in combined equity and credit from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upper90, and other investors. The company said the new capital brings total funding to nearly $27M following a $1.5M pre-seed led by Upfront, as Neon scales its platform for paying users for anonymized conversation data and supplying that audio and video data to AI labs. - learn more
                      • Helios&Partners participated in WhatIsMyAEO.com’s strategic investment round, backing the platform as it builds free AI-driven brand visibility diagnostics for answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The company said the funding will help scale its open-source efforts and expand access to tools that measure brand citations, sentiment, trust signals, and technical AI-readiness as zero-click search becomes more common. - learn more
                      • WndrCo participated in Moda’s $7.5M seed round, which was led by General Catalyst and also included Pear VC, as the company publicly launched its AI design platform. Moda said its product gives professionals a brand-aware design agent that can generate fully editable presentations, social posts, and other visual assets, and that thousands of beta users are already using it for materials like investor decks and marketing collateral. - learn more
                      • Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Bliss’s R$ 57 million, or about $11M USD, Series A round, which was co-led by Kfund and Grupo Bradesco and also included Actyus. Bliss said the funding will help expand its AI-powered platform for health insurance brokers beyond São Paulo into cities including Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, while adding to its product and technology teams as it works to modernize health-plan sales for SMEs in Brazil. - learn more
                      • MAGIC Fund participated in Guangzhou Weixiao Technology’s new strategic financing round, joining IDG Capital, 37 Interactive Entertainment, and miHoYo in the investment. The company said the new capital will be used to accelerate product development and market expansion, though it did not disclose the size of the round. - learn more
                      • Mantis Venture Capital participated in Doctronic’s $40M Series B, which was co-led by Abstract and Lightspeed Venture Partners and also included Union Square Ventures, Seven Stars, and Tusk Ventures. The company said the new funding follows rapid growth to more than 300,000 weekly users and eight-figure annualized revenue, and will help it expand its AI-powered care platform after becoming the first AI-native system authorized to autonomously renew prescriptions under Utah’s AI Learning Lab. - learn more

                                        LA Exits

                                        • RezyFi is being acquired by ECGI Holdings in a $25M transaction that would bring a 29-state licensed mortgage origination platform and about $140M in annual mortgage funding onto ECGI’s platform. ECGI said the deal is meant to pair RezyFi’s lending infrastructure with its mortgage tokenization strategy, following a pilot program to tokenize up to $10M of residential mortgage loans and as it prepares to launch an investor portal. - learn more
                                        • Salt & Stone is being acquired by Advent, which signed a deal to buy a majority stake in the Los Angeles premium body care brand. The company said the partnership will help fuel its next phase of global growth after surpassing $165M in revenue in 2025, with founder and CEO Nima Jalali staying on as an equity holder and remaining in leadership alongside President Meagan Rosson and CMO Abby Tellam. - learn more
                                        • Victory Holdings signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dunn & Groux Beverage Holdings, marking its move into the functional beverage market. The company said the deal will make DGBH a wholly owned subsidiary and give it a platform to build and scale multiple beverage products around patented fulvic acid formulations and a distribution-first model, with initial expansion focused on California, Arizona, and Texas. - learn more

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                                                                  Arc’s $50M Push Into Commercial Maritime

                                                                  🔦 Spotlight

                                                                  Hey LA,

                                                                  As the city pushes through a record-breaking March heat wave, one of the week’s most interesting LA startup stories came with a reminder that climate tech gets a lot more real when it leaves the pitch deck and hits the water. In Arc’s case, that means tugboats.

                                                                  LA based Arc, founded in 2021 by a team of SpaceX alumni, announced a $50M Series C this week, led by Eclipse, a16z, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures, as it pushes deeper into commercial maritime. The raise follows Arc’s $160M contract with Curtin Maritime to deliver eight hybrid-electric tugboats beginning at the Port of Los Angeles, with the first expected to hit the water this year.

                                                                  Imsage Source: Arc

                                                                  That feels notable not just because of the funding, but because it marks a clear evolution in Arc’s business. What started as a premium electric boat company is now making a serious push into the industrial side of maritime transportation, with ambitions spanning tugboats, ferries, and defense vessels.

                                                                  There is also something fitting about this story happening in Los Angeles. This is a city known for spectacle, but Arc is building in a category where performance actually has to perform. No amount of branding can fake a working tugboat, and that is exactly why this moment feels worth paying attention to.

                                                                  Now, onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

                                                                  🤝 Venture Deals

                                                                      LA Companies

                                                                      • Talino closed a $7.5M Series A led by Chemonics International, with participation from Mt Sinai Capital and Gulf Blvd, as it shifts from a venture studio into what it calls a global fintech foundry. The company said the new funding will help build an API-first cross-border payments infrastructure layer connecting the U.S. with emerging markets, starting with the Philippines, where it is targeting faster, more compliant financial product launches and modernizing legacy rails with stablecoin and real-time payment capabilities. - learn more
                                                                      • PADO AI raised a $6M seed round led by NovaWave Capital to expand its AI-powered orchestration software for mid-market colocation data centers. The company said the funding will support product delivery and global growth as it helps operators better manage power, compute, cooling, and distributed energy resources to increase GPU utilization and maximize “compute per megawatt” without requiring major new infrastructure buildouts. - learn more
                                                                      • Meadow Memorials raised a $9M Series A led by Lachy Groom and Haystack to expand its software-enabled funeral planning platform, which lets families arrange services online or by phone. Founded in 2024 by former Stripe executive Sam Gerstenzang and Emma Gilsanz, the company says it is using a real-estate-light model to offer lower-cost funerals as it expands beyond California into states including Texas, Washington, and Arizona. - learn more

                                                                                      LA Venture Funds

                                                                                      • Anthos Capital participated in Bluesky’s $100M Series B, which was led by Bain Capital Crypto and also included Alumni Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Knight Foundation, and True Ventures. The company said the round gave it the resources to scale both the Bluesky app and the broader AT Protocol ecosystem, which it says has grown to more than 43 million users and now supports a fast-expanding network of third-party apps and developers. - learn more
                                                                                      • Navigate Ventures participated in VerbaFlo’s oversubscribed $7M seed round, which was led by Pi Labs and also included Haatch and Old College Capital. VerbaFlo said it plans to use the funding to scale its conversational AI platform for real estate operators, building on traction across more than 200,000 units and expanding further into markets including the U.S., Middle East, and Australia. - learn more
                                                                                      • March Capital participated in Xage Security’s $15M equity financing round, which was led by Piva Capital as the company posted 81% year-over-year revenue growth and expanded its Zero Trust platform for AI and critical infrastructure. Xage said the funding, which closed in December 2025, will support go-to-market expansion and continued product innovation, including new AI security capabilities, as demand grows across sectors such as energy, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and defense. - learn more
                                                                                      • B Capital led Knox Systems’ $25M Series A, backing the company’s push to scale what it says is the largest AI-managed federal cloud and dramatically shorten the FedRAMP authorization process for software vendors. Knox said the new funding will help accelerate growth after its June 2025 seed round, with the goal of helping customers achieve FedRAMP authorization in as little as 90 days at roughly 90% lower first-year cost, while expanding adoption across both government and commercial environments. - learn more
                                                                                      • WndrCo participated in Tenkara’s $7M round, which was led by True Ventures as the company builds AI-powered operations agents for American manufacturers. Tenkara said it is creating tooling to help factories handle sourcing and operational work more efficiently at a time of rising supply-chain pressure, with backing from a broader investor group that also included Articulate Capital, Night Capital, HF0, SF1, and Transpose Platform. - learn more
                                                                                      • Aurora Capital participated in Niv-AI’s $12M seed round, backing the startup alongside Glilot Capital, Grove Ventures, Arc VC, Encoded VC, and Leap Forward as it emerged from stealth. Niv-AI is building sensors and software to measure millisecond-scale GPU power surges and help data centers use electricity more efficiently, with plans to deploy its system in a handful of U.S. facilities within the next six to eight months. - learn more
                                                                                      • Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Fuse’s $25M Series A, which TechCrunch reported was led by Footwork, Primary Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, and Commerce Ventures, with Fuse also naming Clocktower Ventures among its backers. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand its AI-native loan origination and account opening platform for credit unions, building on traction with more than 100 customers and a $5M “rescue fund” aimed at helping institutions switch off legacy systems. - learn more
                                                                                      • Kairos Ventures participated in Alomana’s €4M seed round, which was led by CDP Venture Capital and also included Founders Factory, Italian Angels for Growth, Club degli Investitori, and others. Alomana said it will use the funding to strengthen its enterprise AI platform, add more capabilities for autonomous workflow automation, and support larger deployments across Europe as demand grows in sectors like finance, manufacturing, and pharma. - learn more

                                                                                                        LA Exits

                                                                                                        • Optimal’s Entertainment Media division is being acquired by Capstone Point Holdings, with the business set to operate under its legacy name, Optimad Media, following the deal. The transaction keeps founder Kevin Weisberg in place to lead the company from Los Angeles, while giving Optimad more backing to expand its entertainment media planning, buying, and prints-and-advertising investment capabilities across theatrical, streaming, and broadcast campaigns. - learn more

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                                                                                                                                  Inside Tinder’s Biggest Product Shift in Years

                                                                                                                                  🔦 Spotlight

                                                                                                                                  Hello Los Angeles,

                                                                                                                                  Despite headlines about swipe fatigue and dating app burnout, Tinder believes the problem isn’t that people are tired of dating. They’re tired of bad dating experiences.

                                                                                                                                  So it felt fitting that Tinder chose the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, a venue known for reinvention, to make its case that the category is far from over.

                                                                                                                                  Walking into the El Rey, it was clear Tinder wanted this to feel less like a tech launch and more like a cultural moment. Music was bumping, the room buzzed with chatter and excited energy, red light beams cut through the room, and chandeliers glowed overhead.

                                                                                                                                  At Tinder Sparks 2026: Start Something New, Match Group and Tinder CEO Spencer Rascoff took the stage to outline what the company calls the biggest evolution of the app in years. Tinder remains the largest dating app in the world, used by tens of millions of people across more than 185 countries and responsible for billions of matches every year.

                                                                                                                                  Match Group and Tinder CEO Spencer Rascoff

                                                                                                                                  Rascoff framed the shift around a broader cultural reality. In a world where people increasingly interact with machines, technology and AI, the need for real human connection has not gone away. If anything, Tinder believes it has only grown stronger.

                                                                                                                                  To respond to that shift, Tinder says it’s focusing on what it calls “sparks,” the moments when a match actually turns into a real conversation.

                                                                                                                                  As Rascoff put it on stage:

                                                                                                                                  “We are not optimizing for swipes or likes. We are optimizing for sparks.”

                                                                                                                                  That philosophy is shaping a wave of new features discussed throughout the keynote by Tinder’s leadership team, including Mark Kantor, SVP and Head of Product, Yoel Roth, SVP of Trust & Safety, and product leaders Claire Watanabe and Hillary Paine.

                                                                                                                                  Image Source: Tinder

                                                                                                                                  Among the updates are Music Mode, which lets users connect through shared songs and artists, and a new Astrology Mode that highlights compatibility between zodiac signs. Tinder is also leaning further into social dating with Double Date, a feature that lets friends match with other pairs together. The feature is already gaining traction with Gen Z users, reflecting a broader shift toward more social and lower-pressure ways to meet people.

                                                                                                                                  Image Source: Tinder

                                                                                                                                  Tinder is also redesigning profiles to help users express more personality. New tools can surface stronger photos from a user’s camera roll, improve lighting, and highlight interests more visually, while integrations with platforms like Spotify, Duolingo and the restaurant app Belly bring more of a person’s real life into their profile.

                                                                                                                                  Image Source: Tinder

                                                                                                                                  But the most interesting experiment might be happening right here in LA. Tinder is launching IRL Events in the city, letting users browse and RSVP to real-world meetups directly through the app. Think coffee shop raves, trivia nights and pickleball tournaments. The idea is simple. Dating works better when it feels like a social activity instead of an interview.

                                                                                                                                  Image Source: Tinder

                                                                                                                                  Under the hood, Tinder is also leaning more heavily on AI to improve recommendations. New tools like Learning Mode and Chemistry aim to better understand what users are actually looking for and surface stronger matches faster. At the same time, the company is investing heavily in safety, expanding Face Check, a facial verification system designed to reduce bots and impersonation accounts.

                                                                                                                                  Closing out the presentation, Melissa Hobley, Tinder’s Chief Marketing Officer, zoomed out from the product roadmap to the brand’s cultural footprint, noting that Tinder is mentioned in billions of TikTok videos and has become shorthand for how younger generations talk about dating.

                                                                                                                                  Taken together, the updates represent Tinder’s most significant evolution in years. And judging by the energy inside the El Rey this week, the company believes the next chapter of dating will be more social, more expressive and more intentional. It’s a shift being shaped right here in Los Angeles, and one that could redefine how the next generation meets.

                                                                                                                                  Now onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.


                                                                                                                                  🤝 Venture Deals

                                                                                                                                      LA Companies

                                                                                                                                      • Hurray’s GIRL BEER raised a $5M seed round led by Lakehouse Ventures, with participation from Spice Capital plus CPG insiders and entertainment executives, as it accelerates national expansion. The LA-based flavored light beer brand says it has already landed retail placements at Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and Whole Foods, and plans to use the new capital to deepen distribution, enter new markets, and ramp up marketing, alongside a rollout of seven new flavors. - learn more
                                                                                                                                      • Freestyle closed a $10M Series A led by Silas Capital, with significant participation from ECP Growth. The company also noted continued backing from existing investors including Mucker Capital, Adapt Ventures, and Superangel, as it scales its premium diapers and wipes business following nationwide launches at Walmart and Target. - learn more
                                                                                                                                      • MAX BioPharma announced a new investment and partnership with Technomark Life Sciences to advance Oxy210, its oxysterol-based, orally available drug candidate for MASH. Technomark is joining as a strategic lead investor by participating in MAX BioPharma’s $13M Series A to fund a Phase 1a/1b first-in-human study, and the companies say the collaboration will pair MAX’s therapeutic platform with Technomark’s drug development experience. - learn more

                                                                                                                                                      LA Venture Funds

                                                                                                                                                      • B Capital participated in ORO Labs’ $100M Series C, which was led by Brighton Park Capital and Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, as the company pushes deeper into what it calls agentic procurement orchestration. ORO said the new funding follows 300% revenue growth over the past year and will be used to speed up product development, expand go-to-market and customer teams globally, and broaden enterprise use cases across procurement, finance, legal, and supply chain workflows. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Aliment Capital participated in Tropic’s oversubscribed $105M Series C, which was co-led by Forbion’s Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva as the company scales the commercial rollout of its gene-edited tropical crops. Tropic said the funding will help expand production of its banana portfolio, accelerate its banana and rice pipelines, and support entry into additional climate-resilient crops, following the 2025 launch of its first new banana varieties in more than 75 years and demand that is already outpacing supply. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • B Capital doubled down in Axiom’s $200M Series A, which valued the company at more than $1.6 billion and was led by Menlo Ventures. Axiom said the new funding will help it extend its lead from formal mathematics into what it calls “Verified AI,” with plans to apply its technology beyond mathematical discovery into software and hardware verification. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • WndrCo participated in Quince’s $500M Series E, a round led by ICONIQ that values the manufacturer-to-consumer retail platform at $10.1B post-money. Quince says it will use the fresh capital to accelerate growth and global expansion of its proprietary M2C operating system, which uses AI-driven demand forecasting and direct factory partnerships to cut traditional retail markups. Other investors in the round included Basis Set Ventures, Wellington Management, MarcyPen Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Notable Capital, and DST Global. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Matter Venture Partners co-led Eridu’s oversubscribed Series A, part of $200M+ raised as the AI networking startup emerges from stealth to tackle what it calls the “network wall” bottleneck in AI data centers. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Matter Venture Partners participated in Rhoda AI’s $450M Series A, backing the startup as it comes out of 18 months in stealth with FutureVision, a video-predictive control platform aimed at helping robots operate reliably in messy, real-world industrial environments. The round included a large syndicate of investors, including Capricorn Investment Group, Khosla Ventures, Leitmotif, Mayfield, Premji Invest, Prelude Ventures, Temasek, Xora, and John Doerr, and the company says the funding will accelerate development and industrial deployments. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Halogen Ventures participated in Rasa Legal’s $5M late-seed round, backing the company’s push to scale its tech-enabled criminal record sealing and expungement service nationwide. The round was led by Rethink Education with participation from Social Finance and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Rasa says the funding will help it expand leadership, speed product development, and grow beyond its current footprint (Utah, Arizona, and Pennsylvania). - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Halogen Ventures participated in Nyad’s $1.3M oversubscribed pre-seed round, backing the Birmingham-based startup as it launches an AI decision-support tool for wastewater treatment operators. The round was led by Boost VC with participation from Draper Associates, Ollin Ventures, Apprentis, First Avenue Ventures, and strategic angel Troy Wallwork, and Nyad says it will use the funding to hire, grow customers, and keep building the product as retirements thin the wastewater workforce. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • MANTIS VC participated in Scanner’s $22M Series A, which was led by Sequoia Capital and also included CRV, as the company builds a high-speed security data layer for AI-driven threat investigation. Scanner said the funding comes as security teams at companies like Notion, Ramp, and BeyondTrust use its platform to search years of log data quickly and power agentic workflows that help hunt threats, triage alerts, and investigate incidents more efficiently. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • Chapter One participated in Zcash Open Development Lab’s $25M+ seed round, joining a syndicate that included Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Cypherpunk Technologies, and Maelstrom. The new company, formed by former Electric Coin Company team members, said the funding will support continued development of privacy-focused infrastructure for the Zcash ecosystem, including its self-custodial wallet and broader shielded payments tooling. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • CIV participated in Isembard’s $50M Series A, which was led by Union Square Ventures and also included Tamarack Global, IQ Capital, and existing backer Notion Capital. Isembard said the new funding will help it open 25 AI-powered factories by the end of 2026, expand its engineering team, and enter Germany, France, and Ukraine as it scales software-driven component manufacturing for aerospace and defense customers. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                      • WndrCo participated in Crafting’s $5.5M seed round, which was led by Mischief as the startup launched general availability for Crafting for Agents. The company said the new capital will support its push to become core infrastructure for AI-driven engineering teams, giving agents secure access to production-like environments so they can validate, test, and ship code inside complex enterprise systems used by customers including Brex, Faire, and Webflow. - learn more

                                                                                                                                                                        LA Exits

                                                                                                                                                                        • Hireguide has been acquired by HireVue, which is buying Hireguide’s underlying technology and bringing the Hireguide team into HireVue’s product org. HireVue says the deal accelerates its agentic AI roadmap, starting with a voice-based AI interviewer designed to help employers qualify candidates earlier and run smarter, more conversational hiring workflows. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                                        • Ultracor has been acquired by Applied Aerospace & Defense, bringing the California-based maker of specialized honeycomb core materials into Applied’s advanced composites platform. Applied says the deal supports its selective vertical integration strategy by strengthening supply chain control and boosting speed and capacity for space and defense programs, from satellites and missiles to antennas, radomes, and next-gen aircraft. - learn more

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