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.

Evotrex Raises $30M to Electrify the RV
Evotrex

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

The RV has not changed much in decades: tow it, park it, plug it in and hope the campground has enough power. Evotrex is betting the next version should act less like a trailer and more like a mobile energy system.

Los Angeles-based Evotrex raised a $30M Series A, bringing its total funding to $46M, to accelerate production of its Evotrex-PG5 electric RV trailer. The round included participation from GSR United Capital, Forebright Concerto Capital, Unique Capital, Pegasus Capital, TTGG Ventures, ChunJia Capital, Thundersoft and other investors.

The PG5 is designed as both an RV and a mobile power platform, combining onboard power generation, energy storage and intelligent energy management in one off-grid trailer. In other words, Evotrex is not just selling a place to sleep outdoors. It is building a rolling power system for camping, remote work, events, mobile businesses and backup energy.

The timing lines up with a few bigger trends at once: EV adoption, off-grid travel, distributed energy and consumers treating vehicles as extensions of the home. That puts Evotrex at the intersection of several hard categories: vehicles, energy storage, consumer hardware and outdoor lifestyle.

The company plans to use the funding for final product development, automotive-standard testing and validation, and production preparation ahead of planned customer deliveries in 2027. Starting in Q4 2026, Evotrex expects to begin testing across towing, range, braking, lateral stability, structural durability, water exposure and regulatory compliance.

That testing phase matters. It is one thing to create a sleek prototype. It is another to build something that can be towed, powered, lived in and trusted far from a charging station or service center.

Evotrex says roughly 90% of its order book is for the fully loaded Premium trim, priced at $159,990, which it plans to prioritize for initial deliveries. That suggests early buyers are treating the PG5 less like a basic camper and more like a high-end mobile living product.

Now Evotrex has to prove the hardest thing in hardware: that the product works as well on the road as it does in the renderings.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

    LA Companies

    • Poetic raised a $50M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins to scale its enterprise AI automation platform. Formerly known as Forge, the company builds software that “learns like AI but runs like code,” helping automate complex, high-stakes business processes across areas like financial services, insurance, healthcare and other regulated industries. The funding will support product development, hiring and broader customer deployment. - learn more
    • Leaf Agriculture raised a $13M Series B led by Leaps by Bayer and a group of industry strategic investors. The agtech company helps agriculture businesses clean, structure and manage farm data from machinery, soil labs, weather stations, satellites and farm management systems so they can build AI tools and analytics on top of it. The funding will support Leaf’s push to become a core data infrastructure layer for agribusiness.. - learn more

    LA Venture Funds
    • UP.Partners participated in Coram AI’s $35M Series B, which was co-led by Ansa Capital and Battery Ventures, with additional backing from 8VC and Mosaic Ventures. Sunnyvale-based Coram AI turns existing security infrastructure, including cameras, badge readers, visitor logs and emergency systems, into an AI-powered physical security platform that helps organizations detect incidents, investigate footage and respond faster. The company has now raised $66M total and is deployed across more than 1,500 sites in North America. - learn more
    • Smash Capital participated in Digital Asset’s $355M funding round, which was led by a16z crypto and included backing from major financial institutions and investors including ADIA, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, Polychain, SoFi, Tradeweb and others. Digital Asset is the creator of Canton, a public layer-one blockchain built for regulated financial markets, and will use the funding to expand Canton’s ecosystem across tokenization, settlement, payments, collateral mobility and other institutional finance workflows. - learn more
    • Alexandria Venture Investments participated in SonoThera’s oversubscribed $125M Series B, which was led by Vida Ventures and included backing from ARK Invest, CureDuchenne Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, UCB Ventures, Vivo Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, RA Capital and others. SonoThera is developing ultrasound-mediated, nonviral genetic medicines designed to deliver DNA and RNA payloads without traditional viral vectors, with the funding going toward advancing its lead programs in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease into the clinic. - learn more
    • Wavemaker 360 participated in Lium’s $5.5M seed round, alongside SJF Ventures, Reach Capital and GC&H Investments. Formerly known as Astromind, Dallas-based Lium is building an “agentic harness” that helps large language models work with complex scientific and industrial datasets, including satellite imagery, seismic surveys and electromagnetic spectrum analysis. The platform is designed to make messy, non-text data easier for scientists, engineers and industrial teams to query and analyze with AI. - learn more
    • Riot Ventures participated in Endurance Energy’s $54M Series A, which was led by Founders Fund with additional backing from Ascend, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Point72 Ventures and Voyager Ventures. Founded by former SpaceX engineer Andrew Redd, Endurance is developing subsea geothermal power plants designed to tap volcanic heat deep in the ocean and provide 24/7 clean energy for rising demand from AI data centers, EVs and heavy industry. The funding will support development of its power plant plans as the company grows its team. - learn more
    • Wavemaker 360 participated in 01Health’s $15M Series A, which was led by Gresham House Ventures, with follow-on backing from Balderton Capital and Eka Ventures. 01Health is building a healthtech platform that brings specialist care into local clinics through clinical protocols, specialist oversight, AI tools, patient communication and monitoring systems, with the funding supporting its UK rollout and U.S. market expansion. - learn more
    • Calibrate Ventures led Flux’s $5M funding round, with participation from existing investors True Ventures and Glasswing Ventures. Boston-based Flux is building a code-first engineering intelligence platform that analyzes code changes to give engineering leaders visibility into quality, security, technical debt and team dynamics as AI reshapes software development. The funding will support product development and go-to-market growth. - learn more
    • Village Global led MNX’s $6.4M pre-seed round, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Cambrian, North Island Ventures, Relay Digital and angel investors. MNX is building a MegaETH-based decentralized futures exchange for the AI economy, with planned markets tied to AI company valuations, GPU compute prices, electricity costs, AI benchmarks and prediction markets. The company was valued at $40M in the round and plans to launch mainnet this summer. - learn more
    • Mantis Venture Capital participated in Sandstone’s $30M Series A, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with additional backing from SV Angel, Operator Partners, Kearny Jackson, Daybreak Ventures and Litquidity Ventures. Sandstone is building AI-powered workflow automation for in-house legal teams, helping companies manage legal requests from tools like Slack, email and Jira while automating intake, triage, drafting, review and analysis. The round brings Sandstone’s total funding to $40M. - learn more
    • WndrCo participated in Idilio’s $5.5M seed round, alongside a16z Speedrun, Goodwater Capital, Precursor Ventures and other investors. Idilio is building an AI-powered microdrama platform for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audiences, producing short-form drama series at the intersection of telenovelas and vertical mobile video. The funding will support platform development, expanded content offerings and the launch of its Idilio Creators program. - learn more
    • Mantis Venture Capital and Village Global participated in Pogo’s $32M in funding to date, alongside investors including Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures, 20VC, Lenny Rachitsky and the founders of Honey. Pogo is launching an AI-powered consumer research platform built around purchase-verified buyers, helping brands run surveys, AI-moderated interviews and behavioral research using verified transaction, receipt, app usage and location data from its opted-in consumer network. The company says its app has more than 3M users and visibility into more than $470B in transaction value. - learn more
    • Mantis Venture Capital participated in EDGE Markets’ $29.2M Series A, which was led by CoinFund with backing from Indicator Ventures, Stepstone Group and Bullpen Capital. EDGE Markets builds financial infrastructure for gaming, crypto and prediction markets, and will use the funding to launch EDGE Pro, a banking platform for market makers, and EDGE Connect, a purpose-built payment rail for regulated gaming and prediction market operators. - learn more
    • MTech Capital participated in Finovox’s €8.2M Series A, which was led by TX Ventures and included backing from Auriga Cyber Ventures II, Start Ventures, Force Over Mass and FDJ UNITED Ventures. Paris-based Finovox builds AI-powered document fraud detection software for financial services, insurance and other regulated industries, and will use the funding to expand across Europe, strengthen its technology and grow its team. The company says it now serves more than 70 organizations across 15 countries. - learn more

    LA Exits

    • RiskFront AI was acquired by K2 Integrity, bringing its agentic AI platform for financial crime compliance and risk operations into K2’s broader risk, compliance, investigations and monitoring business. RiskFront AI’s platform, Airos, automates research, transaction analysis and document processing to reduce manual work across financial crime and compliance workflows. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
    • LevPro was acquired by Octus, bringing its front-office software for CLO, broadly syndicated loan and private credit managers into Octus’ credit intelligence platform. LevPro will join Sky Road to help create an integrated AI-powered platform spanning market intelligence, investment analytics, trade workflows, portfolio management and monitoring. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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      Apex Hits $2.3B Valuation as Satellite Demand Grows

      🔦 Spotlight

      Happy Friday LA,

      The space economy does not just need more rockets. It needs more spacecraft that can be built quickly, reliably and at scale.

      Los Angeles-based Apex announced more than $200M in new growth funding, nearly doubling its valuation to $2.3B just months after crossing the $1B mark. The round was led by Glade Brook Capital Partners and co-led by Washington Harbour Partners, with support from new and existing investors.

      Apex builds productized, configurable satellite bus platforms for commercial and government customers. In simpler terms, it manufactures the core spacecraft infrastructure that carries payloads for missions ranging from remote sensing and communications to in-space power generation and national security architectures.

      The company is using the funding to expand its high-rate satellite manufacturing campus, vertically integrate more key subsystems and manufacture platforms ahead of customer demand. That last part is important: Apex is betting that satellite production needs to look less like one-off aerospace engineering and more like scalable, repeatable manufacturing.

      The timing makes sense. Launch has gotten faster and more available, but spacecraft production remains one of the industry’s biggest constraints. If proliferated constellations are going to become central to commercial and national security missions, the market needs suppliers that can build reliable satellites at industrial scale.

      Image Source: Apex

      Apex says its Factory One facility in Los Angeles can produce more than 200 satellites per year at peak production. The company is also expanding the campus with an additional 30,000 square feet of space and has grown to more than 350 employees, more than doubling its team over the past year.

      The company is also moving deeper into defense. Apex recently announced a collaboration with Northrop Grumman tied to scalable space-based interceptor capabilities for the U.S. Space Force, and its Nova 1 platform is expected to host Project Shadow, a commercially led on-orbit demonstration for space-based interceptor technology.

      That is the business Apex is trying to build: not custom spacecraft one mission at a time, but a repeatable satellite manufacturing operation that can keep pace with demand from commercial and government customers. If it works, Apex becomes less of a traditional aerospace contractor and more of a spacecraft production line for the proliferated constellation era.

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

      🤝 Venture Deals

        LA Companies

        • Alfred, a Hawthorne-based stealth startup building software for robots, cars and other physical AI systems, is backed by investors including Chapter One, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel and Sam Altman’s Hydrazine Capital. Co-founded by former Tesla designer Ankit Ukil and former Meta engineer Dömötör Gulyas, the company is reportedly seeking funding at a $40M valuation as it develops tools to help robotics and automotive teams shorten R&D cycles and accelerate manufacturing. - learn more
        • California Naturals closed a Series B funding round led by Align Ventures to support continued growth across major retailers including Target, Ulta Beauty and CVS. The clean personal care brand also named Hayden Hiatt as CEO as it expands its hair, body and everyday essentials business. - learn more
        • Redondo Beach-based Impulse Space raised a $500M Series D co-led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $1B. Founded by SpaceX alum Tom Mueller, Impulse is building in-space mobility infrastructure, including spacecraft and propulsion systems that help satellites and payloads move after launch. The new funding will support hiring and manufacturing growth as the company scales to meet demand across commercial, civil and government space missions. - learn more
        • Just Women’s Sports closed a new seven-figure investment round led by Bolt Ventures, with returning investors including Starry Eyed Tomorrow, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Blue Pool Capital and OVO Fund. The women’s sports media company, founded by Haley Rosen, plans to use the capital to expand news and content operations, grow its team and invest in athlete-led programming. - learn more
        • GammaTime, a microdrama streaming app, received a minority investment from Versant Media Group as part of its Series A round. The company produces short-form, mobile-first scripted series and will work with Versant to develop original projects using select entertainment IP and creative resources from the media company. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

        LA Venture Funds
        • Pinegrove Venture Partners participated in Ramp’s $750M Series F, which valued the fintech company at $44B. Ramp’s financial operations platform has expanded beyond corporate cards and expense management into payments, procurement, vendor management, accounting automation and AI-powered spend management. The company said its total purchase volume grew roughly 170% year-over-year in March 2026. - learn more
        • Alpha Edison participated in Oxford Quantum Circuits’ $350M Series C, which was led by Bullhound Capital and included backing from the British Business Bank, COFIDES, Fulcrum Asset Management, Pentland Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Chevron Technology Ventures and others. The U.K.-based company builds and operates superconducting quantum computers for enterprise, government and research customers, with the funding going toward international expansion and continued development of its quantum computing roadmap. The round is described as Europe’s largest private funding round for a quantum computing company. - learn more
        • Patron participated in Board’s $20M Series A, which was led by Union Square Ventures, with additional backing from Raine Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Expa, 25madison, Red & Blue Ventures, Day One Ventures and others. New York-based Board is building a face-to-face gaming console and AI-powered creator platform that lets people play and make tabletop-style games together, with the funding going toward its upcoming Board Studio creation tools and broader expansion beyond hardware. - learn more
        • Pinegrove Venture Partners participated in Layup Parts’ $42M Series A, which was led by Marlinspike, with backing from Cerberus Ventures and existing investors Founders Fund, Lux Capital and Haystack. Huntington Beach-based Layup Parts is building a software-driven manufacturing platform for custom composite parts, aiming to make carbon-fiber and fiberglass components faster, easier and cheaper to source. The company plans to use the funding to grow its team, expand capacity and move into a larger facility as demand grows across aerospace, defense and other advanced manufacturing markets. - learn more
        • Overture Ventures participated in Atana Elements’ $27.5M seed round, which was led by Lowercarbon Capital with backing from Borusan Ventures, Earthshot Ventures, Redwoods Climate Capital, Sunna Ventures, Verve Ventures, Volta Energy Technologies, WovenEarth and others. Atana uses AI, machine learning and oil-and-gas-style subsurface expertise to identify and develop flowing critical mineral systems, including lithium brines, hydrogen, helium and emerging copper and uranium extraction opportunities. The company says it has already secured positions estimated to contain more than 100M tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent across the EU and Americas. - learn more
        • Bedrock Capital participated in Mach Industries’ $300M Series C, which was led by Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital and valued the Huntington Beach defense tech company at $1.8B. Mach builds advanced unmanned defense systems, including platforms for strike, surveillance and counter-drone use, and plans to use the funding to expand manufacturing, advance second-generation systems and grow its Forge manufacturing network. The round comes shortly after Mach acquired Exquadrum, now Mach Energetics, to strengthen its propulsion and vertically integrated production capabilities. - learn more
        • Strong Ventures participated in Unastella’s $24M Series B, which was led by Altos Ventures and also included Korea Development Bank, Hana Ventures and others. The Seoul-based rocket company is developing launch vehicles and engines for small satellite launch services, with a longer-term goal of crewed suborbital spaceflight. Unastella has now raised $44M total and plans to use its upcoming UNA EXPRESS-II launch to further validate its technology and commercial roadmap. - learn more
        • Connect Ventures co-led Sekai’s $20M Series A alongside Khosla Ventures, with participation from a16z Speedrun, Mayfield, A, MVP Ventures, 359 Capital, Parable VC* and 645 Ventures. Sekai is building an AI-powered platform that lets users create, remix and share mini apps through text prompts, with the new funding going toward expanding its engineering and product teams. The company has raised $26M across its seed and Series A rounds. - learn more
        • Shamrock Capital Advisors participated in a strategic growth investment in CardsHQ, alongside EnOne Ventures, bringing CardsHQ and Sports Card Investor together under one company. The combined platform will operate as CardsHQ and span sports cards, trading card games, retail, e-commerce, live breaking, content, data and technology, including Sports Card Investor’s media network and the Market Movers pricing and collection tracking platform. The funding will support new retail locations, expanded live events, broader inventory and further development of collector-facing tools. - learn more

        LA Exits

        • Catalina Capital Group, a fee-only RIA based in Torrance, was acquired by CW Advisors, giving the Boston-based wealth management firm its first Southern California office. Catalina brings about $655M in assets under management, and the deal expands CW Advisors’ national footprint to 24 offices and more than $16B in client assets. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
        • adMixt, a performance marketing agency known for its proprietary technology and expertise across Meta, Google, TikTok and other digital platforms, was acquired by Interluxe Group. The deal expands Interluxe’s luxury marketing platform by adding paid search, paid social, performance creative, API integrations and advanced analytics capabilities for premium lifestyle and luxury brands. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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          Observable Space Raises $90M to Build Beyond Rockets

          🔦 Spotlight

          Hello Los Angeles,

          Space infrastructure is having a week.

          Los Angeles-based Observable Space closed a $90M Series A and announced a $94M U.S. Space Force contract to scale its optical sensing and laser communications platforms. The round was led by Lux Capital and co-led by Upfront Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Island Green Capital and RTX Ventures, with participation from BRV Capital, Fathom Fund and Venrex.

          Observable Space is building advanced optical systems across three areas: laser communications ground stations, ground-based optical sensing and in-space payloads. In simpler terms, the company is working on the infrastructure that helps satellites and spacecraft see, track, navigate and communicate more effectively.

          Image Source: Observable Space

          The Space Force contract gives Observable Space an early $22M in task orders under a larger $94M award to deploy mobile, off-grid optical sensing stations for space domain awareness. These systems are designed to help track objects in orbit with more resilient, lower-cost and geographically distributed ground infrastructure.

          That matters because space is getting more crowded, more commercial and more strategically important. Satellites are no longer just sitting quietly above us handling GPS, weather and communications. They are becoming part of a much larger network for national security, AI, connectivity and future space-based infrastructure.

          Observable Space’s work sits in the less flashy, but increasingly critical layer of the space economy. Rockets may get the liftoff footage, but the next phase of space competition will also depend on who can track what is in orbit, move data quickly and keep communications reliable from space to ground.

          The company says its platform has already executed 2.6M automated tasks, identified more than 20M targets and completed 84,000 hours of continuous orbital monitoring. It is also expanding manufacturing across Detroit and Los Angeles, with spacecraft, engineering and design labs based in LA.

          For Southern California’s space ecosystem, Observable Space adds another signal that the region’s advantage is not just launch. It is the full stack around space: optics, software, sensing, communications, payloads and the infrastructure needed to make orbit more usable.

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

          🤝 Venture Deals

            LA Companies

            • Fragrance brand ’Ôrəbella closed a Series A growth equity investment led by Silas Capital, with participation from existing investor Celebrands, which incubated the brand. The funding will support global expansion, product innovation and retail growth as ’Ôrəbella scales beyond its Ulta Beauty base into international markets including Douglas, Selfridges and Ulta Beauty Middle East. The company also named Anish Agarwal, formerly CEO of T3 Micro, as CEO. - learn more
            • Ember LifeSciences added new strategic investments from Amgen Ventures and TDF Ventures, bringing its total Series A funding to $27M. The company makes reusable, temperature-controlled cold chain technology for transporting medicines and vaccines, and recently announced full commercial availability of its Ember Cube 2, which provides real-time monitoring and cloud-based tracking for healthcare logistics. Financial terms of the new investments were not disclosed. - learn more
            • Iconic raised $6M to build its AI-enabled M&A advisory platform for small business owners. The company combines AI software with human advisors to help owners sell businesses that are often too small for traditional investment banks to support, especially those valued under $20M. Iconic is aiming to modernize the small-business sale process as millions of baby boomer-owned businesses prepare to change hands. - learn more

            LA Venture Funds
            • Capital Group participated in Anthropic’s $65B Series H, which was led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $965B post-money. Anthropic said the new funding will support continued AI safety research, expanded compute capacity and broader product development as demand for Claude grows across enterprise customers and developers. - learn more
            • WndrCo participated in Reactor’s $59M seed and Series A funding, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with backing from Amplify Partners, Sky9 Capital, FPV Ventures and others. San Francisco-based Reactor is building a developer platform for real-time generative video and “world models,” giving developers SDK and API access to create interactive AI applications across media and entertainment, physical AI and robotics. The company was co-founded by former Apple Vision Pro technical leads Alberto Taiuti and Bryce Schmidtchen, and WndrCo founding partner Jeffrey Katzenberg will join as a board observer. - learn more
            • Upfront Ventures led Kubera Health’s $6.5M seed round, with participation from Company Ventures, Dria Ventures and SemperVirens. Kubera is building a contract-to-payment system of record for healthcare, helping providers translate complex payer contracts into auditable payment logic so they can better identify underpayments, reimbursement gaps and administrative inefficiencies. The funding will support product development and growth as the company works to modernize healthcare’s payment infrastructure. - learn more
            • Sound Ventures participated in Polsia’s $30M round, alongside True Ventures, Offline Ventures, Adjacent, Tekton Ventures, Drysdale Ventures, VaynerFund and angel investors. Polsia is building an AI operations platform designed to run company workflows across coding, research, sales, customer support, ads and investor diligence, with founder Ben Cera saying the company is approaching $10M in annual run rate with one founder and no employees. The round valued Polsia at $250M. - learn more
            • Blue Bear Capital participated in Lastwall’s $16M Series A extension, which was led by BDC Capital’s StrongNorth Fund, with additional backing from New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, Frostbite Capital, BlueWing Ventures and 18West. Fredericton-based Lastwall builds identity-first, quantum-resilient cybersecurity software for defense, government and critical infrastructure environments, with the funding going toward expanded deployment across North American municipal utilities, defense infrastructure and public sector cloud portals. - learn more
            • Upfront Ventures participated in Itera’s $12M seed round, alongside Costanoa Ventures and Colle Capital, as the deep tech company emerged from stealth with its real-time electronics prototyping platform. Itera has developed a fluid circuit board that uses glass and liquid metal to let engineers rewire and test real electronic designs in under a minute, aiming to cut traditional PCB prototyping cycles from weeks to days. The funding will support the launch and commercialization of its first product. - learn more
            • Rebel Fund participated in Didit’s $7.5M seed financing, alongside Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Orange Collective, Founders Future, Phosphor Capital, SaaSholic and angel investors including Tomer London and Taro Fukuyama. San Francisco-based Didit is building AI-native identity and fraud infrastructure for verifying people, businesses, wallets, transactions and AI agents, with the new funding going toward global go-to-market growth, product expansion and hiring across sales and customer success. - learn more
            • Fifth Wall participated in NavigateAI’s $25M seed round, which was led by Elad Gil and backed by investors including Khosla Ventures, Lennar, Tishman Speyer and Helix Electric. Founded by Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu, NavigateAI is building an AI coach for construction workers that helps answer job-site questions, troubleshoot issues and improve field productivity across construction teams. - learn more
            • Strong Ventures participated in K-Zone’s 6.3B won Series B, alongside TimeWorks Investment, BonAngels Venture Partners and Singapore-based Guardian Fund. K-Zone is building a global reverse logistics platform for returned, overstocked and obsolete inventory, using its REMEX platform and AI agents to automate buyer matching, deal proposals, sales workflows and market analysis as it expands further into the U.S. market. - learn more

            LA Exits

            • Comscore Movies, the box office data business used by studios and exhibitors to track theatrical performance, was acquired by Advaya Capital in a $70M cash deal. The business will be renamed Rentrak, reviving the brand Comscore acquired in 2016, and former Paramount domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson will join the board. - learn more

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