Even as schools reopen their classrooms for in-person teaching for the first time in over a year, there is a palpable fear among educators and parents that students might get infected with the coronavirus. Schools in Los Angeles, as well as many others in the country, have taken steps to prevent outbreaks. And even still, some students are getting sick.
This week, dot.LA explores the ways that the edtech sector has stepped up — and greatly benefited — to keep students on an educational track.
On one hand, academics are raising questions about the effectiveness of virtual learning apps. On the other, virtual charter schools are seeing a rise in enrollments, a result of the very real fears parents have about sending their kids into a classroom this fall.
One question remains: Is virtual education the new normal?
LA Startups To Watch 👀
🛻 Rivian, the Irvine-based electric vehicle startup backed by Amazon and Ford, on Friday filed to go public through an initial public offering.
✋ AllVoices, the L.A.-based startup born in the wake of the #MeToo movement, acts like a third-party tool to help employees report workplace harassment anonymously. This week, the company raised $9.6 million.
🛠 Tango, an L.A.-based startup that helps employers create how-to guides for their workers, has raised $5.7 million in a seed round this week.
🕹 Popularity of the gaming metaverse is on the rise. Now, Infinite Canvas is poised to capitalize on the value of user-created content in video games with $2.8 million pre-seed funding.
⭐️ Bright, the Los Angeles-based startup that offers live and interactive learning sessions with celebrities and other industry professionals, raised $15 million to aid its quest to attract big name stars to its platform.
🤖 Coco, a Los Angeles-based startup that operates a fleet of semi-automated robots that deliver food across the city, announced Wednesday that it raised $36 million.
#TechLA's Movers & Shakers This Week 📢
🧘 Headspace Inc. and Ginger are merging together to offer a variety of services such as meditation to video calls with therapists, boosting its client base to over 2,700.
🏀 Greenfly is a favorite social media tool of the NBA and MLB. This week the Santa Monica-based company secured an $8.4 million funding round and backing from NBA star Chris Paul.
🎧 An L.A. startup is stepping into the live streaming scene by offering more exclusive "moments" between creators and fans. On Thursday, Moment House announced it had raised $12 million.
🚀 Virgin Orbit, the four-year-old spinout of Richard Branson's space firm Virgin Galactic is merging with NextGen Acquisition Corp. 11 at the end of the year to become a publicly traded company under the NASDAQ ticker VORB.
LA Tech and Venture Capital News 🗞
💸 Who are the top angel investors in Los Angeles? We surveyed dozens of prominent L.A. investors to find out who they believe to be the top angels in the city, as part of dot.LA's third VC sentiment survey.
🔬 As Los Angeles imposes more COVID test mandates for workers, demand for lab testing is rising. Reporter Keerthi Vedantam takes a look at the labs achieving the critical task of keeping the virus at bay in the workplace.
💡 USC has been awarded a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a group of universities that will invest in and incubate startups.
📊 Long Beach-based Rocket Lab sputtered in its Wall Street debut this week, as the company joined a clutch of aerospace companies going public via SPAC.
Listen Up 🎙
Need a podcast recommendation this weekend? Here are some new pods we have for you:
🎙 "I had talked to a number of traditional VC firms. And many of them were like, 'this isn't going to happen.'" In this episode of the LA Venture podcast, WorkLife Ventures founder Brianne Kimmel shares her experience in becoming an investor. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
🎙 On this episode of the Behind Her Empire, Ariel Kaye discusses her entrepreneurial rise from zero experience to now founder and CEO of Parachute, a direct-to-consumer home essentials brand. Listen on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.
🚨 EXTRA EXTRA 🚨
🗳 What does Larry Elder think of Big Tech? Reporter Harrison Weber takes a closer look at the tech views of the top GOP candidate in the California election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.
🚗 Just as electric vehicles enter the mainstream, Chevrolet hits a setback as its recent Bolt EV and Bolt EUV models are being recalled due to a series of battery fires.
📱 Technology is changing the way refugees are moving, coping and integrating into the world. And today nowhere is that better exemplified than with Afghanistan. Reporter Brenda Gazzar takes a look at the tech, some of it based in Los Angeles, that is addressing the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
⚡️ Over the years Blavity has become an influential voice, birthing AfroTech, a conference that it calls the largest for Black founders and creators, and acquiring travel startup TravelNoire in 2017. Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun speaks to dotLA about what to expect at its conference and why Los Angeles was chosen for its inaugural event.
🛴 Superpedestrian is rolling out 5,000 LINK e-scooters to Los Angeles' sidewalks today, joining Bird, Spin, Lyft, Lime and Wheels in a race to capture a share of the crowded market.
⚖️ Last Friday, a California Superior Court judge ruled Proposition 22 as unconstitutional and unenforceable. The decision delivers a blow to Uber, Lyft and other apps that use gig workers to fuel their business.
LA Tech and Venture Capital Events 💬
Check out these upcoming Southern California events in the tech and startup scene in September:
- Dare to Lead Workshop: September 1
- LvlUp Ventures' Pitch Perfect competition: September 9
- 18th International System-on-Chip (SoC) Conference: September 14-15
- Data Con LA 2021 (Virtual Event): September 17-19
- TechDay Los Angeles 2021: September 29
Is your organization having an event? Let us feature it in our newsletter! Email luis@dot.la.
Am I doing this right? 🤔
Throw me feedback, compliments or questions on this newsletter at luis@dot.la or on Twitter at @rungomez.