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FaZe Clan Announces New West Hollywood Pop-Up Shop
Kristin Snyder
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Though it’s not an invite to FaZe Clan’s Burbank mansion, fans of the Los Angeles-based esports and entertainment organization will soon be able to plug themselves into its hype house vibes with the launch of a new pop-up store.
Founded in 2010, FaZe Clan has grown from a small group of gaming YouTubers into a conglomerate of professional esports games, celebrity investors and brand partnerships.
Open during select times and days from May 14 to June 10, The Armory—located at the primo L.A. retail coordinates of Melrose and Fairfax—will be FaZe Clan's first-ever immersive gaming lounge and retail store, the company said in a statement Monday. Livestream shopping platform and FaZe Clan partner NTWRK will oversee the store, designed by FaZe's newly-appointed creative director Jay "JVY" Richardson.
Operating in both physical and digital realms, The Armory will sell FaZe Clan’s custom gaming products and merchandise. Some of the drops will necessitate actually being physically present at the store—a page taken from the playbook of its new retail neighbor, Supreme.
The Armory will also host tournaments and events for the length of its installation, giving fans an opportunity to experience the events that FaZe Clan is known for. Different showrooms will host retail offerings, esports gaming setups and a central screen for console gaming.
“Our approach with this pop-up is showing the fans what's next and where we're at in the future already,” Richardson said in a statement. “The store itself is essentially the vortex entry point and it's being conveyed through the graphics of all the featured items you'll see.”
While this move is set to get the blood of FaZe’s millions of young fans pumping, it may be a smokescreen masking legitimate concerns about the financial state of its business. After announcing plans to go public in a merger with a valuation of $1 billion last year and jumping the gun by adding Snoop Dogg to its board of directors, Sports Business Journal reported last week that SEC filings revealed FaZe to be operating under heavier losses than they’d originally claimed.
The amendment showed FaZe’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) currently sits at an adjusted loss of nearly $29 million. (The brand’s original estimated EBITDA showed a $19 million loss.) And since the December 31 deadline for its merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by investment bank B. Riley has blown by, FaZe will be unable to access the 75% of proceeds from the SPAC’s $173 million trust account and a planned $118 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment it was counting on, SBJ reported.
Meaning: FaZe isn’t making anywhere near enough money to sustain its costs—and with no way to tap into investment funds, the only thing it’s managed to raise is skepticism that FaZe is esports first real unicorn.
Whether or not a flashy pop-up like The Armory can generate enough money to keep a household of gaming influencers in their accustomed lifestyles—let alone sway a market that’s seen scores of SPAC mergers terminated amid bearish market conditions—is anyone’s guess.
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Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
https://twitter.com/ksnyder_db
Weekly Tech Round Up: LA's Electric Vehicle Incentives
05:55 PM | June 11, 2021
Image by Ian Hurley
This week in L.A. tech and startup news: Fintech Dave announced plans to go public via a SPAC. LegalZoom filed for an IPO. Lightspeed bought SoCal retail sites Ecwid and NuORDER, and startups Dispo, StoryFile, ImaginAb and Relativity Space raised funding.
LA's EV Incentives Explained
Southern California residents — especially those living in L.A. — are well positioned to take advantage of rebates and incentives for electric vehicles. In addition to the $1,500 California Clean Fuel Reward and $7,500 maximum federal EV tax credit, L.A. residents can get a $500 rebate toward the purchase of home chargers through the the LADWP.
Techstars' New Space Startups
Techstars' Space Accelerator took off this week with its third class of space-related companies. They make everything from AI-powered smart cameras to technology that can anticipate celestial collisions. Get to know them here.
BallerTV's Plan to Let High School Athletes Earn
Should high school athletes be able to make money from endorsements? Youth sports streaming platform BallerTV is creating NFTs for student athletes. The organization that writes the rules for high school sports says it will "completely disrupt the high school environment."
A New Marketplace for Creative Educators
Encantos, the L.A.-based children's book publisher-turned-edtech startup, plans to include a creator platform on its learning app that will roll out this fall. "Where Roblox as a creator platform connects gamers and developers, we're going to be connecting creators and kids," its CEO says.
Fisker's Climate Neutral Car
Henrik Fisker announced plans for what could be the world's first "climate neutral" vehicle, a car that will be built with the lowest-possible effect on the environment — from how the parts are sourced and assembled to the way it's charged and recycled. "We will prioritize partners with stated pledges to achieve climate neutrality," Fisker said.
How NFTs Are Changing Gaming
What if in-game purchases were also an investment for gamers? Los Angeles-based Mythical Games is bringing NFTs into the gaming world, raising concerns for some that game developers will focus more on the investment opportunity and less on the quality of gameplay.
Vaccination Proof (Not 'Passports')
As L.A. reopens, businesses will have to choose how (or whether) to verify their customers are vaccinated. The county has partnered with Healthvana to offer Angelenos digital cards they can use to share their vaccination record without losing or damaging the physical copy.
Talking to the Past Using AI
Los Angeles startup StoryFile creates interactive videos that archive personal stories and parse them using artificial intelligence, allowing future audiences to ask subjects questions about their lives — including, most recently, the two living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
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Eric Zassenhaus is dot.LA's managing editor for platforms and audience. He works to put dot.LA stories in front of the broadest audience in the best possible way. Prior to joining dot.LA, he served as an editorial and product lead at Pacific Standard magazine and at NPR affiliate KPCC in Los Angeles. He has also worked as a news producer, editor and art director. Follow him on Twitter for random thoughts on publishing and L.A. culture.
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eric@dot.la
From Uber to Atoms: Travis Kalanick’s $1.7 Billion Return
09:31 AM | July 24, 2026
🔦 Spotlight
Hello LA,
Nine years after his turbulent exit from Uber, Travis Kalanick is back with a new company, an enormous war chest and, apparently, some unfinished business.
Los Angeles-based Atoms announced this week that it has secured a $1.7 billion equity investment led by Andreessen Horowitz, with a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz joining its board. Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, Uber and several other investors participated, while a roster of major banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America, are listed as debt partners.
Yes, Uber itself is now backing the comeback of its famously ousted cofounder. Silicon Valley may preach disruption, but it has always appreciated a good redemption arc.
Atoms is the culmination of the company Kalanick has spent the past eight years building largely out of public view. Formerly known as City Storage Systems, the parent company behind CloudKitchens, it is now bringing its businesses together under one ambitious umbrella: Atoms Food, Atoms Mining and Atoms Transport.
The premise is that AI’s next major frontier will not be confined to screens, chatbots or software. Atoms wants to build what Kalanick calls a “computer for the physical world,” using software, sensors, robotics and AI to automate how physical goods are produced, stored and moved.
That means tackling decidedly unglamorous but enormous industries such as mining, construction, food production and heavy transportation. Rather than betting on humanoid robots that can theoretically do everything, Atoms is focused on specialized machines designed to perform specific, economically useful jobs.
In other words, the robot does not need a face. It needs a business model.
For a16z, the investment is as much a bet on Kalanick as it is on industrial AI. In an essay bluntly titled “Travis Is Back,” Horowitz argues that Kalanick possesses the rare mix of technical range, endurance and sheer force of will required to drag old-line industries into a new technological era. The firm’s broader thesis is that robotics will eventually handle much of the repetitive work involved in making, moving and storing physical goods, creating a market potentially as consequential as computing itself.
There is also some history being settled. Kalanick, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen nearly partnered during Uber’s early days but never completed the deal. In a new conversation about Atoms, Kalanick and Horowitz revisit that missed opportunity and the long road that brought them back together. Sixteen years later, the check is considerably larger.
The scale of the investment is remarkable, but so is its location. Atoms is headquartered in Los Angeles, giving the city a front-row seat to one of tech’s boldest industrial AI bets. It also reinforces something increasingly evident across LA’s startup ecosystem: the next era of AI will not only be written in code. It will be built in kitchens, warehouses, mines, vehicles and factories.
Whether Atoms becomes the operating system for the physical world or simply proves that even $1.7 billion cannot make atoms behave like bits remains to be seen. But Kalanick is taking another enormous swing, and this time, Los Angeles is where the comeback story begins.
More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Hawthorne-based Andrenam raised an $18M Series A led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Also Capital, First Round Capital and Long Journey Ventures, bringing its total funding to $30M. The maritime defense startup will use the capital to scale production of its sonar-equipped buoys and expand its AI-powered platform for detecting and tracking underwater activity. - learn more
- Long Beach-based Bluecore Energy emerged from stealth with approximately $10M in oversubscribed financing led by Slauson & Co., with participation from Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Hartbeat Ventures and others. The company is developing small modular nuclear reactors that can operate aboard floating barges and deliver zero-emission power to ports, data centers and other critical infrastructure. - learn more
- Vikk AI raised $4.2M across a $700K pre-seed and $3.5M seed round, with backing from MagnaSci Ventures and several angel investors. The legal AI startup will use the funding to expand its consumer assistant, document tools and advertising platform that connects users with lawyers based on their needs and location. - learn more
- Final Boss Sour raised $4M in strategic funding from Evolution VC Partners, The Angel Group, Mondelēz International’s SnackFutures Ventures and others, bringing its total funding to $12M. The gaming-inspired real-fruit snack brand will use the capital to expand into major retailers, including Walmart, Kroger, Target and 7-Eleven, while developing new products and collaborations. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Overture Ventures participated in Fluxco’s $26M seed round, led by 8VC and Congruent Ventures, alongside Trust Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies and others. The Austin startup uses AI to help companies source electrical transformers from more than 150 manufacturers, reducing a procurement process that can take months to just days. - learn more
- Alexandria Venture Investments and Wedbush Healthcare Partners participated as returning investors in Crystalys Therapeutics’ oversubscribed $130M Series B, which was led by Frazier Life Sciences. The San Diego biotech will use the funding to advance Phase 3 trials and commercialization preparations for dotinurad, its once-daily oral treatment for gout. - learn more
- Rebel Fund participated in Klaimee’s $5.5M seed round, led by FundersClub’s Alexander Mittal and backed by ex/ante, Pioneer Fund, Y Combinator and others. The San Francisco insurtech startup certifies and insures autonomous AI agents, helping businesses manage financial and liability risks that traditional cyber and technology policies may not cover. - learn more
- M13 participated in Skyfall AI’s undisclosed funding round alongside Fidelity, Inovia Capital, Touring Capital, NextView Ventures and Garage Capital. Founded by former Microsoft researchers, the San Francisco startup is developing AI systems capable of making long-term decisions across finance, operations, marketing and other business functions, with the goal of building an autonomous enterprise. - learn more
- Interlagos Capital led Beyond Reach Labs’ $10M seed round, with participation from TerraForge Capital, Off-Piste Capital, Y Combinator and Augur VC. The startup will use the funding to scale production of its deployable solar-array hardware for satellites at a new 16,000-square-foot facility in Brooklyn, with plans to achieve flight qualification by the end of 2026. - learn more
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