Intersect Summit Updates: Snap Inc’s AR Play; How SportsTech is Remaking the Game

Sarah Favot

Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Intersect Summit Updates: Snap Inc’s AR Play; How SportsTech is Remaking the Game

Photo by izayah ramos on Unsplash

From NFTs to augmented reality and streaming services, a new frontier reshaping entertainment and technology has exploded in Los Angeles. It's ripe with media talent and fueled by venture capital.

Dot.LA will explore that intersection of media and tech during our inaugural Intersect summit. We'll be talking to Los Angeles executives, entrepreneurs and investors at the forefront about trends moving the industry.

The event kicks off Wednesday with a keynote address from the CEO of Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud Productions and concludes with a pitch competition featuring three SoCal startups. Join the live event by applying to attend at the Intersect site. Follow us here for coverage.

The Live Events Industry Braces For a New Normal, and a 'Roaring' Return to In-Person

As more people get vaccinated, venues and stadiums are opening up, leaving a looming question: what will events look like in the future?

Leaders in the entertainment and event space said events in the near term will be hybrid, with organizers ensuring attendees feel and are safe. The industry is hoping that those watching at home will see others experiencing the in-person event, and become more comfortable with the idea of returning in person.

While some companies have found success in remote events, panelists said, it isn't equivalent to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends and strangers on the concert hall floor as they're experiencing their favorite artists.

"I'm looking forward for live to come back," said Robert Ellin, founder, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive.

LiveXLive will be testing the waters for its return to live events in June with an in-person matchup in Miami called "Social Gloves," which will pit YouTubers against TikTokers in the boxing ring. It will also be livestreamed.

VidCon will return as a live event in October in Anaheim. It's also selling digital tickets for remote access.

"I know they're going to enjoy the experience so much they're going to want to go to a VidCon somewhere else around the world when it comes near them in '22 or '23," Jim Louderback, GM and senior vice president of VidCon at Viacom, said of at-home viewers.

Ellin said he feels like we are moving into the Roaring 20s based on his experience of the excitement in Miami.

"We're all in the digital space right now," he said. "No matter what we do, the live experience is nothing like it. You're actually interacting with people and so there's going to be audiences."

In Los Angeles, SoFi stadium will host Vaxx Live on May 8, a charity concert featuring Selena Gomez. Organizers said it will host thousands of fully vaccinated frontline health care and essential workers.

Even as things return, more or less, to normal, industry insiders say the future live events will use more technology than it once did, including touchless purchasing at the ticket booth and concession stand, as well as more virtual and augmented reality experiences.

Louderback said at VidCon they're thinking of ways to incorporate those technologies, maybe a scavenger hunt or secret party through AR.

"I think there's really creative unique ways to integrate them," he said. "I think we all have to be thinking about those and those special ways to make it more interesting," he said.

Ellin said Social Gloves will feature NFTs in the form of a digital card, but also a physical card.

"As you can touch it and feel it, you're going to want to really have a responsibility of protecting those assets long term," he said.

When it comes to touchless technology at venues or processes like mobile ordering and individual packaging, Wroan said it might seem cumbersome and costly upfront, but it will put more people in seats.

"I think, once they're up and running, we're actually going to be more efficient — probably in the long run, better," she said. "Part of it, too, is just people feeling confident and safe to get off the couch and come experience a live event."

Snap Inc’s AR Play

Snap Inc. is placing big bets on AR technology.

Last year, it announced a $3.5 million fund for augmented reality (AR) creators building their own lenses for the app.

The fund will help the Santa Monica-based company keep products fresh for its 280 million users and potentially reel in big revenue for developers and artists like Frank Shi, who co-founded a boutique AR studio called Paper Triangles.

But perhaps most importantly, it feeds Snap's advertising deals as brands look for new ways to sell products.

Shi remembers the first time he showed Crocs how to use Snap's AR try-on feature, which lets users step into shoes and clothes virtually.

"That experience to us was magical," Shi said. "I think when it comes to brands, they're a little hesitant at first, but once they see the magic...how easy it is to use AR, their eyes kind of twinkle."

As advertising remains a key component of Snap's business model, AR represents a natural avenue for companies scouting new customers. Fashion-oriented AR is a promising market given how shopping habits have moved online since the pandemic. Last month, Snap acquired FitAnalytics to help shoppers find the right clothing sizes.

"Before, it was a question of who's using AR," said Sophia Dominguez, who heads camera platform partnerships for Snap. "Brands have seen the value."

During its first quarter Q1 earnings call last week, Snap focused on two of its software development kits — Camera Kit and Lens Studio — and its community of "lens creators" like Shi who get early access to AR tools, training and support.

"Those who want to build AR on Snap," Dominquez said, "we hear you and we're looking for more ways to create streamlined sources of monetization."

How SportsTech is Remaking the Game

Athletes are moving from the court or the playing field into boardrooms. Increasingly they are shunning traditional endorsements for a stake in startups and other companies. It comes amid rapid-fire changes in sports tech and is altering the landscape for both investors and founders.

"What makes [athletes] really, really interesting partners is not only their ability to command an audience with their social following or their conversations on the court and in interviews and whatnot, but also their ability to support business development," said Amanda Groves, a partner at Plus Capital. The Marina del Rey-based venture advisory firm helps celebrities across entertainment and sports facilitate investments and equity-based partnerships.

Groves said athletes are particularly good storytellers and team players who are passionate about their underlying investments and can tell a complicated story in a way that's approachable and interesting for the consumer.

"It's not just a service day to go do this photoshoot to support a product line. It's like, 'this is my baby and I want to help grow it and so I'm going to give it to all my friends and I'm going to to talk about it every chance I get'," she said.

DeMarcus Williams, a partner at Silicon Valley Bank, which supports early stage entrepreneurs and VC firms, said athletes are cultural influencers, using NBA legend Michael Jordan as an example.

"I would say for startups that are pursuing athletes, it's really important that you really sit down and understand what they're passionate about and appeal to that passion point," Williams said.

Athletes' journeys through training from a young age to achieving success at a professional level is similar to the growth startups face, Groves said.

These changes are unfolding as the technology people use to interact with sports is changing.

For instance, the panelists think bite-sized highlight clips will be key to delivering sports that air on traditional regional networks.

Williams said he thinks these networks will still be around for the next 20 to 30 years, but he used the example of his 8-year-old son to highlight how younger audiences want to engage with sports.

"Can he sit down and watch a game for its entirety for three hours? No, for an hour, no, for 30 minutes, maybe, 15, maybe," he said. "A lot of these sports leaders and sports leagues, they're going to have to meet their audience where they are."

Kyle Laughlin, CEO of Surfline Wavetrak, Inc., a Huntington Beach-based company that specializes in surf forecasting and surf reports, said the World Surf League has demonstrated how to use digital platforms.

"I think there's a real range from a league perspective, from the little niche league to the mass, that is embracing technology to engage ether fans in new and interesting ways from both an athlete and a technology perspective," he said.

But it's not only in professional sports that tech is altering viewership. Pasadena-based BallerTV live streams and shows replays of youth basketball and volleyball, mainly targeting the audience of parents who can't make it to their kid's games. Since being founded in 2016, it has broadcasted more than 500,000 games, typically showing 10,000 games each weekend.

It is looking to expand into different vertices with the launch of youth soccer this summer.

"In this industry, we like to say that we're sort of first to market or category definers with respect to video at scale in this market," said Sandeep Hingorani, EVP, Founding Team at BallerTV.

PlayVS CEO Delane Parnell Has Ambitions Beyond HS, College Esports

Founder and CEO of PlayVS Delane Parnell was living in Detroit and developing the idea for his company, when he had a chance meeting at South by Southwest with Peter Pham, co-founder of Santa Monica venture fund Science Inc.

Darnell recounted that Pham encouraged him to come to L.A., saying 'You can be a millionaire in Detroit or a billionaire in L.A., but don't waste my time.'

The startup has been on a remarkable ascendency since.

PlayVS has raised $107 million since it entered the esports marketplace for high school teams in 2018 and now 43% of all high schools in the country have an esports team, playing Fortnite, SMITE, League of Legends and other games using the PlayVS platform.

It expanded into the college market last year and now has 30% of colleges in the country on the platform.

"We wanted to build an environment to actually reengage and reactivate that community," he said.

While there are only 1,000 professional gamers in North America, there are 2.8 billion gamers globally, many of whom don't have aspirations to become professional. Parnell wanted to tap into that market starting with high schoolers, who sometimes are prevented from playing because they are under 18.

He said the beauty of amateur esports is "there's more gamers who care about actionality and don't necessarily care or have aspirations of going pro, and so they just want to play their favorite game at the time with their friends and teammates."

Eventually he'd like to expand, building PlayVS digital playground beyond school sports.

"I still want to build the digital playground in which every gamer can compete whether they're high school-aged or college-aged or in their 40s in any sort of context of competition," he said.

But, Parnell said, the company relies on partnerships with game publishers, who drive the content.

"We don't just add any game to our platform," he said. "We're really thoughtful in which titles we decide to partner with and integrate with."

NFTs Are 'No Get Quick Rich Scheme'

The underpinning of the hottest new trend, NFTs or "non-fungible tokens," is blockchain and it's here to stay.

At least in the eyes of Zach Katz, CEO of the music-tech investment firm Raised in Space.

"Blockchain is finally finding its footing in supporting something that fans and artists have wanted to do for a long time," Katz said.

As the pandemic reshaped how businesses and creatives made money, NFTs have boomed as a new market for digital commerce. Artists and musicians can now build new and profitable relationships with fans — ones that do away with "traditional financing" they once relied upon, he said.

NFT sales have spiked in the first three months of the year. And artists and creators are looking at new ways to use the tokens to provide fans exclusive, paid experiences.

"Graphic artists and 3D designers now have a way to monetize their creativity and monetize the art that had been previously really, really hard to sell," added Shara Senderoff, president and partner at Raised in Space.

But in the world of NFTs, "there's no get quick rich scheme," Senderoff said. "This is about being able to show your loyalty and follow the people you admire and respect."

And the environmental consequences are looming.

"When you're putting in that level of energy and using that level of computing power at scale, it's absolutely doing something," Senderoff said about the climate change risks of blockchain technology. "Entrepreneurs need to be accountable and responsible for what the products they create are doing."

'It's About Reading The Room': How Kevin Hart's LOL Connects with Audiences

Created by comic Kevin Hart, the four-year-old startup Laugh Out Loud, or LOL, is quickly becoming a force, carving out its own space for comedy across multiple platforms.

The company, which originally began as a joint venture between Hart and Lionsgate, now has a deal with NBCUniversal and estimates it reaches over 100 million people on streaming and audio platforms with original scripted and unscripted series, stand-up specials, live broadcasts and other events.

Last year, it inked a deal with Snapchat for "Coach Kev," a show in which the comedian doles out wisdom and advice. The move pushed LOL's content further across media channels having already been on Roku Channel, ViacomCBS's PlutoTV, SiriusXM and YouTube. It has also given an expansive platform to comedians of color.

"An entertainment media company, you have to be involved with tech," said CEO Jeff Clanagan. "You have to embrace tech because the worldwide consumer accesses content through technology."

That's become key as demographic shifts have been playing out in media. Gen Z, for instance, would rather scroll through social media, play video games and stream music than watch TV or catch a film.

"Comedy is about keeping your finger on the pulse," said Candice Wilson Cherry, the company's head of development and production. "It's about reading the room, reading the cultures, seeing what's changing and it's changing so quickly."

NFTs: What They Are and What's Coming Next

Sam Blake

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have exploded in popularity in 2021, but what's hype, and what's here to stay? That's the main question dot.LA will be exploring with a panel of experts during one session of our inaugural Intersect conference this Wednesday.

NFTs have helped create scarcity among digital assets. Consider a photo, GIF, video or any other type of online item: previously these could be endlessly copied, with limited ability to reliably distinguish the copies from the original. Using blockchain, an NFT injects scarcity by serving as a unique, traceable certificate of ownership of that digital asset.

Not Every Robot Wants Your Job

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles,

When people talk about the robotics boom, the conversation usually turns to warehouses, defense, humanoids or automation.

But one Los Angeles company is building a very different kind of robot.

Tombot, a local companion robotics startup, closed a $7 million Series A3 round with participation from Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living and Florida Community Health Network to scale production of Jennie, its robotic companion dog. The product is designed for older adults, people with dementia, children with autism and others who may benefit from the emotional comfort of a pet but cannot safely or practically care for a real animal.

It is a quieter kind of robotics story, but a revealing one.

The most common vision of the robotics future is built around productivity: robots that move boxes, patrol borders, assemble parts or perform repetitive tasks. Tombot is aiming at something more personal. Its bet is that robots will not only help people work faster, but also help them feel less alone.

That makes the company part of a broader shift in robotics, where the question is not just “What can a machine do?” but “What role can it play in someone’s daily life?”

The need is real. Aging populations, caregiver shortages and rising demand for dementia care are putting pressure on families and health systems. At the same time, many people who would benefit from animal companionship cannot manage feeding, walking, grooming, vet bills or the safety risks that come with a live pet.

Image Source: Tombot

Tombot’s answer is a robotic dog that behaves like a companion, not a gadget. Jennie is designed to respond to touch, voice and interaction, giving users some of the emotional benefits of pet ownership without the responsibilities of caring for a living animal.

Southern California’s robotics scene is often viewed through the lens of defense, drones, aerospace and manufacturing. Those categories are important. But LA also has deep advantages in design, storytelling, entertainment, consumer products and human-centered technology. A companion robot sits at the intersection of all of those things.

It has to work technically. But it also has to feel right. The movement, expression, texture and emotional cues matter. This is where robotics starts to look less like pure engineering and more like product design, character development and trust-building.

The broader robotics market is still difficult. Hardware is expensive. Manufacturing is hard. Consumer expectations are high. And companion robots have historically been a tricky category, with plenty of hype and uneven adoption.

But Tombot’s traction suggests there may be real demand for robots that solve emotional and caregiving problems, not just operational ones. The company says it has built a large waitlist as it moves toward commercialization, giving it a chance to test whether companion robotics can move from novelty to necessity.

The bigger takeaway is that LA’s robotics future may not fit into one box.

Some companies will build for the battlefield. Some will build for factories. Some will build for space. And some, like Tombot, will build for the living room, the care facility and the family trying to support someone they love.

The robotics boom is often framed as a story about replacing human labor.

This one is about supporting human care.

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

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Cosm received a $100M strategic investment from Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Sony taking a minority stake as the lead investor in Cosm’s Series C financing round. Cosm operates immersive “Shared Reality” venues that use dome-shaped LED screens for live sports, concerts and entertainment experiences, and the funding will support venue expansion and new technology initiatives across sports and entertainment. Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja will join Cosm’s board as part of the deal. - learn more

Pasadena-based Sophia Space finalized a $7M SAFE financing round, bringing its total funding to $22M. The round included participation from EverGreen, The NVIDIA Alumni Investment Network, SparkLabs Group and other strategic investors, with the new capital going toward product development, engineering and commercial hiring, partnerships and deployment across government, commercial and international markets. Sophia Space is building AI-powered infrastructure and intelligent systems for the space economy, including autonomous computing capabilities for orbital and terrestrial environments. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Sound Ventures participated in Warp’s $60M Series B, which was led by Battery Ventures with additional backing from Peak XV and Y Combinator. Warp is building an AI-native employee management platform for payroll, benefits, compliance, onboarding, offboarding and workforce operations, with the new funding bringing its total raised to $85M. The company says the capital will support deeper AI agents, expanded tax and compliance infrastructure, a broader product suite and more customer support. - learn more

Mucker Capital participated in Zave’s ₹4.7 crore bridge round, which was led by Inflection Point Ventures. Zave is building an AI-native shopping assistant that helps consumers discover products, compare prices and make purchase decisions across Amazon, Flipkart and more than 5,000 brand websites. The company plans to use the funding to strengthen its AI product, improve platform reliability and scalability, and support continued user growth. - learn more

B Capital co-led Seltz’s $12.5M seed round alongside Speedinvest, with participation from Future Present, Italian Founders Fund, Arc Investors, United Ventures, Vento Ventures, Mango Capital, 2100 Ventures and Future Back Ventures. Seltz is building web search infrastructure for AI agents, designed for the way agents query the internet: running long, parallel searches, pulling full documents and accessing live web context. The company plans to use the funding to scale its index to tens of billions of documents and build out engineering, sales and marketing. - learn more

Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Caplight’s $16M Series A, which was led by BlackRock and Fin Capital, with strategic participation from UBS Investment Bank. San Francisco-based Caplight is building data, trading and workflow infrastructure for private markets, including secondary market pricing, institutional trading, company and investor intelligence, and AI-powered venture deal sourcing. The company says the new funding will help expand its role in rebuilding the rails for venture capital as private markets become larger, more liquid and more complex. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Coval’s $28M Series A, which was led by Norwest with backing from Base10 Partners, Twilio Ventures, Y Combinator and others. San Francisco-based Coval builds simulation, evaluation and monitoring infrastructure for voice and chat AI agents, helping enterprises test and improve autonomous agents before and after deployment. The company works with more than 60 organizations, including Zoom and Deepgram. - learn more

B Capital participated in Cadence’s $100M Series C, which was led by Spark Capital with additional backing from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Coatue, Corewell Health Ventures, Memorial Hermann and Duke Health. Cadence is a clinical AI company automating chronic care for older adults through supervised AI agents that monitor patient vitals, surface risks and coordinate care between visits. The company now works with more than 20 health systems, treats over 100,000 active patients and will use the funding to expand across new health systems, advance its AI agents and grow value-based care models. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Partly’s $50M Series B, which was led by DST Global Partners. Partly is building AI-powered infrastructure for the auto repair industry, helping repairers, insurers and parts suppliers identify and source the right vehicle parts as cars become more complex. The new funding will support Partly’s push to bring frontier AI into repair workflows and reduce friction across the global replacement parts market. - learn more

Döpfner Capital participated in Stark Defence’s €500M funding round, which was backed by major investors including Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund and valued the German drone company at roughly €3.2B to €3.5B. Stark develops unmanned defense systems, including loitering munitions, and plans to use the funding to expand R&D and manufacturing capacity across Europe. The raise comes as European defense tech continues attracting significant investor interest amid rising military spending and demand for autonomous systems. - learn more

Smash Capital led Redo’s $81M Series B, with participation from existing investors Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures, valuing the commerce technology company at a reported $1.25B. Draper, Utah-based Redo started in returns and exchanges but has expanded into a broader post-purchase and AI-powered commerce platform covering order tracking, package protection, fulfillment, customer service, marketing and shopper engagement. The funding will support product development, AI initiatives and international expansion. - learn more

Wavemaker 360 Health participated in ChemT Biotechnology’s $4M seed round, which was led by Wavemaker Ventures with participation from co-investment partner SEEDS. Singapore-based ChemT has raised $5M total in 18 months and is building AI infrastructure for biomanufacturing, including its CelMo virtual cell platform, which helps manufacturers model and guide cell behavior to improve biologics production, scalability and cost. The funding will support expansion of ChemT’s AI and experimental infrastructure, advancement of its molecular products toward GMP standards and broader commercial partnerships. - learn more

LA Exits

The New Bar, a Venice-born non-alcoholic beverage discovery platform, was acquired by The Zero Proof. The deal combines The New Bar’s hospitality, live events and cultural partnerships with The Zero Proof’s national e-commerce, owned brand portfolio and retail distribution platform. The New Bar’s leadership will join The Zero Proof, with founder Brianda Gonzalez becoming Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships. - learn more

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Snap May Have Finally Found AR’s Moment

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

Snap has spent years trying to make augmented reality feel less like a demo and more like a daily habit. This week, it introduced its latest attempt.

At Augmented World Expo, Santa Monica-based Snap unveiled SPECS, its new standalone augmented reality glasses. The device is designed to bring AI assistance, work tools, entertainment and shared experiences into the physical world without requiring a phone, puck or tether.

The pitch is not simply “screens on your face.” Snap is trying to position SPECS as a different kind of computer: one that can understand what you are looking at, respond to your surroundings and make AI useful in the moment. That could mean directions placed where you need them, a virtual workspace that travels with you or AI assistance that sees the same context you do.

The developer piece may be just as important as the hardware. Snap says developers have already built hundreds of Lenses for SPECS, and the company is rolling out new tools inside Lens Studio, including agentic development support through Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, a new Native Development Kit and a spatial benchmark for AR experiences.

That matters because AR has always had a chicken-and-egg problem: impressive demos, but not enough everyday reasons to wear the device. Snap is trying to solve that by building not only the glasses, but the software, developer tools, operating system, computer vision stack and creative ecosystem around them.

Specs

SPECS are available for pre-order at $2,195, with a $200 refundable deposit, and are expected to ship this fall in the U.S., U.K. and France.

For Snap, the bigger question is whether augmented reality can finally move from developer demos and futuristic keynote moments into something people actually want to use. SPECS are its latest answer, but the real test will be whether developers can build experiences useful enough to make the glasses feel less like a gadget and more like a habit.

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

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Critical Energy raised $19M in seed funding co-led by Upfront Ventures and Susa Ventures, and also secured $3M in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing its total early capital to $22M. Founded by SpaceX alum Spencer Jackson, the company is adapting rocket-engine-style turbomachinery for modular geothermal power plants and plans to use the funding to build its first 2.5 MW project. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Group 11 co-led Dream’s $260M funding round alongside Bicycle Capital, with participation from Antler, Bain Capital Ventures, Tru Arrow Partners and other investors. Dream builds sovereign AI and cyber defense technology for governments and critical infrastructure operators, with the new funding valuing the company at $3B and bringing total funding to $412M. The company plans to use the capital to expand its national cyber defense and AI platforms across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. - learn more

Undeterred Ventures participated in Portal Biotechnologies’ oversubscribed $9M financing round, which was led by NFX with backing from existing investors including IA Ventures, Pear VC, IKJ Capital and TechU Ventures. Watertown-based Portal is building cell engineering infrastructure for drug discovery, AI data generation and cell therapy manufacturing, using its mechanoporation platform to deliver RNA, gene editors and other molecules into hard-to-transfect cells. The company also expanded its DARPA work through an Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative contract tied to point-of-care cell therapy manufacturing and says its platform has been adopted by more than 100 customer sites. - learn more

Clocktower Ventures participated in Trace Finance’s $32M Series A, which was led by CoinFund with backing from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Crypto, Valor Capital, Paxos, HOF Capital and others. Trace Finance is building regulated banking and stablecoin infrastructure for cross-border payments across Brazil, the U.S. and emerging markets, combining local payment rails, FX, compliance operations and stablecoin settlement. The company has processed more than $10B in institutional cross-border volume and will use the funding to expand product capabilities and grow across LatAm, APAC and other priority markets. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Vedana Therapeutics’ $46M Series A, which was co-led by Westlake BioPartners and Canaan Partners, with additional participation from Dawn Biopharma. Seattle-based Vedana is developing next-generation preventive migraine therapies, including antibody-based treatments targeting PACAP and CGRP pathways, with the funding going toward advancing its internally discovered portfolio of subcutaneously delivered antibodies. - learn more

Fulcrum Capital participated in HighGround’s $6.5M seed round, which was led by Next Frontier Capital with additional backing from Tandem Ventures and Context Ventures. HighGround is building an intelligence platform for defense and aerospace capital markets, helping investors, operators and advisors analyze government spending, procurement signals, deal risks and market demand. The funding will support expanded data coverage and deeper analytical models for defense-focused investment and business development workflows. - learn more

Bonfire Ventures participated in Vali Health’s $6M funding round, alongside Supernode, Comma Capital and healthcare industry veteran Jacquelyn Kung. San Francisco-based Vali Health is building responsible AI infrastructure for healthcare, helping providers and health systems evaluate, monitor and safely deploy AI tools across clinical and administrative workflows. - learn more

Clocktower Ventures participated in Karta’s $15M Series A, which was led by Galaxy Ventures, with additional backing from Canary and Illuminate Financial. Miami-based Karta is building a WhatsApp-first premium U.S. credit card for non-U.S. clients, helping global travelers with U.S. bank or brokerage accounts access dollar-denominated spending power without needing a traditional U.S. credit history. The company also secured a $125M credit facility from Community Investment Management, bringing its total new financing to $140M. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Triveni Bio’s $65M Series C, which was co-led by Ascenta Capital and Janus Henderson Investors, with significant participation from Deep Track Capital. Watertown-based Triveni is developing antibody treatments for immunological and inflammatory disorders, with the funding going toward expanding clinical development of TRIV-573, its bispecific antibody targeting atopic dermatitis, including a larger Phase 2 proof-of-concept study expected to begin later this year. - learn more

WndrCo participated in XDOF’s $70M funding round, alongside investors including Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z and Lux Capital. XDOF is building robotics data infrastructure for AI labs, handling the unglamorous but critical work of collecting, labeling and organizing real-world robot training data. The company says it already works with about 20 customers, including several frontier AI labs. - learn more

Fika Ventures participated in SubBase’s $7M Series A, which was led by FINTOP and brings the company’s total funding to more than $15M. Ft. Lauderdale-based SubBase is a construction materials procurement platform that helps specialty trade contractors and self-performing general contractors manage pricing requests, orders, supplier communication, delivery tracking and invoice reconciliation in one system. The company plans to use the funding to expand product and engineering, deepen supplier integrations and build more AI-driven workflow and intelligence features. - learn more

Upfront Ventures participated in Bland’s $50M Series C, which was led by Dell Technologies Capital with additional participation from HubSpot Ventures, Archerman Capital and Tribeca Venture Partners. San Francisco-based Bland builds voice AI agents for complex phone, SMS and chat conversations, with a focus on longer, high-stakes workflows in regulated industries like healthcare and financial services. The round brings Bland’s total funding to more than $100M. - learn more

Impatient Ventures participated in Traysar’s $25M seed round, which was led by Silent Ventures and included backing from Lux Capital, Ora Global, NeverLift VC, Mana, New Vista, Entree Capital and angel investors. Traysar emerged from stealth at the 2026 Reindustrialize Summit as a subterranean defense tech company building autonomous “subterra” platforms designed to detect, penetrate and secure underground environments. The company says its technology is aimed at addressing underground military facilities and other hard-to-reach subsurface domains. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Swsh’s $4M seed round, which was led by Game Changers Ventures with additional backing from Stellation Capital, SignalFire and angel investors including Scooter Braun and Guy Oseary. Swsh is building an AI-powered fan engagement platform for live events, helping artists, teams and brands organize fan-captured photos and videos while turning that content into audience insights and first-party engagement data. - learn more

B Capital led SolarSquare Energy’s $53M Series C, backing the Mumbai-based residential rooftop solar company as investor interest grows in India’s home solar market. The round valued SolarSquare at roughly $450M–$500M and included participation from existing investors including Lightspeed, Lowercarbon Capital, Rainmatter by Zerodha and Good Capital. SolarSquare plans to use the funding to expand into new cities, strengthen its technology platform and scale operations. - learn more

LA Exits

Mavida Health, a digital mental health company focused on women and families, was acquired by WPS Health Solutions. The deal expands WPS’ digital health capabilities with Mavida’s virtual therapy, medication management and specialized mental health support across fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, loss, parenting and menopause. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

Vica, an AI video startup focused on helping small businesses create cinematic-quality marketing content, was acquired by Addi. The acquisition brings Vica’s AI video capabilities into Addi’s growth platform for Main Street businesses, which combines financial intelligence with marketing tools to help small businesses attract and retain customers. - learn more

GateMaker, a female-founded influencer marketing agency, was added to Residence, the Los Angeles-based global network of independent creative companies. The deal brings GateMaker’s creator economy expertise across paid, earned and owned influencer relationships into Residence’s broader creative network, which also includes companies like BUCK, OK COOL, Giant Ant, Part & Sum and Wild. - learn more

Gavel, an AI-native legal tech company used by legal professionals to draft, review and automate legal work in Microsoft Word and on the web, was acquired by Relativity. The deal will bring Gavel’s drafting, redlining and document automation tools into Relativity’s legal data intelligence platform, allowing work product created in RelativityOne and Relativity aiR to be edited in Microsoft Word while syncing back to the underlying matter data. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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Evotrex Raises $30M to Electrify the RV

Grace Lee

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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