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From Stem Cells to Biosensors: 3 Trends To Watch at This Yearโs First Look Startup Showcase
Keerthi Vedantam
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Some 15-odd years ago, the Alliance for SoCal Innovation put on a workshop for academics looking to wade into the world of commercialized technology.
Fast forward to 2022 and the Alliance is gearing up for the latest edition of its annual First Look SoCal Innovation Showcase, taking place Tuesday at the Skirball Cultural Center. This yearโs lineup of 24 early-stage life sciences and tech startupsโtapped from the Allianceโs network of universities and incubatorsโwill have the chance to pitch their ventures and meet with potential investors, mentors and industry executives as they look for what, in most cases, will be their first round of commercial funding.
The life cycle of biotech and medtech companies often starts at the academic level, where universities like Caltech, USC and UCLA pump research dollars into PhD projects and incubate them for a few years until thereโs proof of concept. Others are incubated at research institutions like the Lundquist Institute or City of Hope. From there, those projects that choose to become startups are spun out into standalone ventures and begin their hunt for venture capital money.
โThis is often a perilous journey from lab to market,โ Steve Gilison, the Alliance for SoCal Innovationโs chief operating officer, told dot.LA. โSo we don't just think of this as an investment pitch, but as an opportunity to really make the right connections.โ
It also gives the rest of us a peek into what kind of cutting-edge technology is most interesting to early-stage SoCal investors. Hereโs what we can glean from this yearโs cadre of startups at the First Look showcase.
Stem Cell Therapy Could Replace Current Invasive Treatments
Stem cell therapy continues to be one of the most prominent trends in disease treatment. Some of the largest biotech companies working on stem cell therapies are based in Los Angeles; the Food and Drug Administration recently approved Santa Monica-based Kite Pharmaโs CAR-T cell treatment for some forms of cancer, which could reduce or even eliminate the need for extensive radiation or other treatments loaded with dangerous side effects.
A handful of biotech startups at the First Look showcase are utilizing stem cells to tackle diseases in a similar manner. Chimera Therapeutics, a startup out of City of Hope, uses โmixed chimerismโโwhere stem cells from a donor and the patient are mixed together in the patientโs tissueโto treat autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis. The goal is to use donor stem cells to help boost a weakened immune system and potentially halt the progression of a disorder.
Simurx, another showcase participant thatโs a product of Childrenโs Hospital Los Angeles, is following local biotechs like Kite and Appia Bio in deploying CAR-T cell therapyโin Simurxโs case, to address solid tumors.
Despite how promising these cell therapies have been, the technology is still rather new, largely cost-prohibitive and comes with long wait times for patients. UC Irvineโs Cellecho aims to make the process of creating these therapies faster through precision engineering. Most existing tools on the market require great care to precisely engineer cells, which make them hard to scale and can lead to longer wait times to receive treatment. Cellechoโs toolโcalled the Acoustic-Electric Shear Orbiting Porationโis able to deliver genetic coding molecules into several cells at once. It can be automated and the disposable cartridges can be mass-produced, which should drive down costs.
Cultured Meat May Do Away with Unsustainable Meat Farming
Lab-grown meat promises to bring humane, environmentally-friendly disruption to a global meat market that is projected to be a $2.7 trillion industry by 2040, according to CB Insights. Some of the largest meat manufacturers in the U.S., such as Tyson Foods, have already invested in cultured meat that only requires a few animal cells to cultivate a protein. If embraced, these technologies could eventually do away with the need for factory farming, which accounts for 70% of the U.S.โs ammonia emissions.
Bluefin Foods, a UCLA spin-out, is entering the foray with lab-grown seafood cultivated from animal cells. The company says its technology, if borne out, could replace commercial fishing, which contributes to fish depopulation and ocean habitat degradation.
At this stage, lab-grown meat is still more expensive than its factory-farmed counterpart. But if startups like Bluefin are able to gain traction and scale, that may not be the case in the future.
The Biosensor Sector Could Pave the Way for Preventative Health Care
As the American health care industry struggles to provide a preventative modelโone that would help patients avoid illnesses and ailments while lowering health care spending overallโa few nascent ventures are attempting to leverage technology to make out-of-reach tests and treatments easier to access.
UCLAโs ViBo Health is in the backyard of one of Appleโs preferred biosensor manufacturers: Pasadena-based Rockley Photonics, which makes sensors that track blood pressure, hydration and a slew of other biomarkers. Wearables like the Apple Watch and Googleโs Fitbit are among the largest customers for biosensors that were once reserved for the doctorโs office.
ViBoโs trajectory, however, is slightly different. Rather than affixing its biosensors to the body, its scannersโwhich track cholesterol, glucose and cardiac biomarkersโwill be in pharmacies, clinics, gyms and offices. Lowering the barrier to entry and allowing patients to more quickly and easily check their own biomarkers may unburden the diagnostics space, as routine tests can be cost- and time-prohibitive for labs that often have more pressing tests to run.
Zoetic Motion, a startup in the physical therapy space, is taking a different approach. Physical therapy attendance among patients after a stroke or injury is notoriously low, yet critical to ensuring a full recovery and preventing a recurrence. Through an interactive and gamified platform, Zoetic allows physical therapists to prescribe exercise routines that promise to improve patientsโ engagement and help them build habits that keep them out of the hospital. One L.A.-based startup and First Look alum, Moving Analytics, raised $6 million in seed funding last year with a similar philosophy toward improving patient engagement at rehabilitation centers.
Besides Moving Analytics, several other startups that previously participated in the First Look showcase have also gone on to raise funds from investors. One notable success story is San Diego-based RNA therapeutics firm DTx Pharma, which has raised more than $100 million since it first appeared at the showcase in 2019.
This yearโs crop of ambitious young companies will hope Tuesdayโs event can be a platform that helps them replicate that kind of success.
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Keerthi Vedantam
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
https://twitter.com/KeerthiVedantam
keerthi@dot.la
Tinder Co-Founders' $2 Billion-Plus Legal Battle is Finally Getting Its Day in Court
07:00 AM | October 29, 2021
Shutterstock
A multi-billion-dollar lawsuit waged by several Tinder co-founders and early employees is getting its day in court on Monday, more than three years after the former Tinder executives first launched their legal battle against Match Group and its former owner, IAC.
Tinder's two-time CEO and dot.LA investor Sean Rad, former CMO Justin Mateen, and others argue Match and IAC downplayed the dating app's growth potential and overestimated costs in 2017, with the alleged goal of watering down stock options awarded to Tinder's early team.
Lawyers for the former Tinder executives, who popularized swiping right for hookups and dates, said leadership at Match and IAC handed "bogus doom-and-gloom numbers" to two investment banks for an analysis of Tinder's worth, which pegged Tinder's valuation at $3 billion. The private assessment was used to determine the value of Rad, Mateen and others' options.
Former Match and Tinder CEO Greg Blatt had reportedly estimated the fast-growing service was worth $12 billion just a year earlier. But the suit alleges that by deliberately undervaluing Tinder, IAC and Match would be responsible for a smaller payout when the options were exercised.
The complaint also says Match and IAC covered up sexual assault allegations made against Blatt in order to carry out the plan.
Match, IAC and Blatt have denied the claims, while the plaintiffs seek at least $2 billion in damages.
"The company has nothing to hide," IAC said in May. "We did prepare for exactly what came to pass: Sean Rad making scurrilous accusations, completely unsupported by even the alleged victim, in an attempt to harm the company and improperly benefit himself," the firm said. IAC and Tinder did not respond to a request for further comment on the case.
IAC is a publicly-traded conglomerate that buys and spins out media and tech companies, such as Match, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, Tripadvisor, Angi (formerly Angie's List) and Ask Media Group (formerly Ask Jeeves).
Tinder was launched in 2012 out of IAC's former incubator, Hatch Labs, and is headquartered in West Hollywood. MatchGroup and IAC โ which separated in 2020 โ are based in New York, where the case will be tried by the state's Supreme Court.
The case could offer a rare peek behind the curtain on Tinder's early days as it proceeds remotely due to the ongoing pandemic.
Jury selection is expected to begin on Monday, and live-streamed opening statements are anticipated to start the following week.
Former Tinder executive Rosette Pambakian, who accused Blatt of assault and Match of retaliation, was originally named as a plaintiff in the case, but she dropped out amid litigation over a forced-arbitration clause. Pambakian hit Match and IAC in a separate lawsuit over the agreement. And earlier this year, a New York state judge cut the assault allegations from the co-founders' case.
Former Tinder executive and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd also isn't involved in the lawsuit. Herd sued Match and IAC over sexual harassment and sex discrimination in 2014, and she has argued she was wrongly stripped of her co-founder status at Tinder.
Tinder was reportedly valued around $10 billion in 2019 in a Match-commissioned analysis of its worth. And in August 2021, an independent Morgan Stanley analysis valued Tinder around $42 billion. The app is currently the top dating app by downloads in the U.S. as well as internationally, analytics firm App Annie told dot.LA.
Today, IAC and Match are collectively worth nearly $57.5 billion, while IAC chairman and Fox founder Barry Diller is estimated to be worth about $5.6 billion.
Back in 2014, Diller remarked that Tinder found success because IAC didn't get in the way. "And we were lucky enough โ smart enough, I wouldn't say so much โ that we left it alone to the founders," he recalled.
This story has been updated with new information on Tinder's valuation.
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Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
Locket, Disney, Instagram and the Battle for Your Attention
07:00 AM | August 08, 2025
๐ฆ Spotlight
Happy Friday, Los Angeles!
This week, LAโs biggest tech and media players made one thing clear: they want to own the relationship. Whether itโs a celebrity sending selfies straight to your home screen or a content giant rewriting the rules of sports broadcasting, the power shift toward more curated, direct experiences is unmistakable, and itโs being engineered right here.
Image Source : Locket
๐ธ Locket Doubles Down on Star Power
Venice-based Locket, the viral photo sharing app that made homescreen widgets cool, is now leaning into what LA does best: celebrity. Its new feature, Celebrity Lockets, allows artists to send exclusive photos directly to fansโ home screens. Early adopters include Suki Waterhouse and JVKE, with creators curating limited fan access to maintain intimacy and exclusivity. As Locket evolves from a casual social tool into a direct fan engagement platform, itโs becoming an increasingly relevant player in LAโs creator tech ecosystem.
๐ Disneyโs ESPN Plays Offense
Disney made a trio of bold moves this week that solidify ESPNโs future and its dominance in sports media. Itโs buying out the NFLโs stake in ESPN, securing exclusive NFL Draft and behind the scenes content through 2033, and finally giving its standalone ESPN streaming service a launch date: August 21, 2025. Thatโs a power play straight out of Burbank. At the same time, Disney announced it will no longer report individual subscriber numbers for Disney Plus and Hulu, signaling a shift in how it wants investors and maybe consumers to measure success.
๐๏ธ The New York Post Bets on LA
In a sign of LAโs growing national influence not just in entertainment, but in news, the New York Post is launching a West Coast vertical called The California Post. With an editorial mission to cover the stateโs cultural and political pulse, this move reflects a broader trend of major media brands planting roots in LA to chase both readers and relevance. For local media startups, content creators, and civic tech players, itโs yet another sign that the competition and the opportunity is growing.
Image Source: Meta
๐ฑ Instagram Wants Your Inner Circle
Instagram rolled out a new set of features this week that prioritize connection with close friends. Users can now share what theyโre doing, watching, or feeling with a smaller group, clearly borrowing from the intimacy playbooks of apps like BeReal, Snapchat, and yes, Locket. As social platforms shift from mass broadcast to curated circles, LA-based creators and consumer startups should take note: the next frontier might not be going viral, it might be going personal.
From star-powered lockets to streaming shakeups and platform reinventions, this weekโs stories highlight how LAโs tech and media companies are rewriting the rules on connection and control.
Now onto this weekโs venture deals ๐
๐ค Venture Deals
LA Venture Funds
- Starburst co-invested in Madrid-based SpaceTech startup Orbital Paradigmโs โฌ470,000 raise, part of an ongoing โฌ2M funding round led by Akka. The company is developing reusable orbital re-entry capsules aimed at reducing costs and increasing sustainability for space missions. Starburstโs participation underscores its focus on backing innovative aerospace technologies with commercial and defense applications. - learn more
- Rebel Fund participated in Orbital Operationsโ $8.8M seed round, which came shortly after the company graduated from Y Combinator. The funding will support development of the companyโs high-thrust orbital transfer vehicle, designed to maneuver satellites and other payloads in space more efficiently. - learn more
- Fourth Revolution Capital participated in SuperGamingโs $15M Series B round, which valued the company at $100M, five times its previous valuation. The funds will help expand titles like Indus Battle Royale internationally and scale SuperGamingโs tools for developers in emerging markets. - learn more
- Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures participated in Elionโs $9.3M seed round, joining NEA and others in backing the AI-powered healthcare research and intelligence platform. Elion helps over 60% of U.S. health systems evaluate emerging technologies through its structured vendor marketplace. The funds will support platform development, new product launches, market expansion, and team growth. - learn more
- M13 led the $10M seed round for Kontext, an AI-powered contextual advertising startup emerging from stealth mode. Kontextโs platform enables real-time ads inside chatbot responses using large language models, and the funding will help expand its engineering team and develop image-based ad formats. - learn more
- STORY3 Capital Partners made a significant minority investment in U.K.-based activewear brand Adanola, valuing the company at approximately $530โฏmillion. This strategic partnership brings STORY3โs deep experience in consumer brand scaling to support Adanolaโs global expansion, particularly across the U.K. and U.S. markets. - learn more
- Walkabout Ventures participated in OLarryโs $10M Series A round, which was led by TTV Capital and included Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures. The funding brings OLarryโs total capital raised to $14.5M and will be used to scale its AI-powered tax advisory platform for high-net-worth individuals and to acquire regional CPA firms as part of its growth strategy. - learn more
- Glendon Capital Management participated in Grasshopperโs $46.6M funding round, which was led by Patriot Financial Partners, to support the bankโs merger with Auto Club Trust in April 2025. Their investment reflects confidence in Grasshopperโs ability to scale its digital banking platform and expand its suite of business and consumer financial products. Growth metrics as of June 30, 2025 showed a 53% increase in assets, an 81% surge in deposits, and a 49% rise in loans, all backed by this strategic capital infusion. - learn more
- Mucker Capital participated in beatBreadโs $124M capital raise, alongside Citiโs SPRINT team, Deciens Capital, and Advantage Capital. Their involvement supports beatBreadโs strategy to expand sales, marketing, and technology operations, while enabling greater funding flexibility for independent artists, songwriters, and labels through its AI-powered platform. - learn more
- B Capital co-led Positive Developmentโs $51.5M SeriesโฏC funding round alongside aMoon and Flare Capital Partners, helping to fuel expansion of its developmental therapy model for autistic children. Their involvement underscores confidence in the companyโs family-centered, play-based approachโwhich lowers costs by about 50% compared to traditional ABA therapyโand supports growth through new Medicaid partnerships and technology enhancements. - learn more
- Clocktower Ventures participated in Creditopโs latest $3.7M funding round, which was led by Collide Capital and also included Alaya Capital, Amador Holdings, Newtopia, and Driven VC. Their involvement supports Creditopโs mission to enable credit access at the point of sale, without a credit card, and will help fintech deepen its footprint in Colombia while exploring expansion across Central America and Peru. - learn more
- Thiel Capital participated in Pilgrimโs $4.3 million seed funding round, backing the biotech startup founded by 21-year-old Jake Adler after he demonstrated its hemostatic dressing, Kingsfoil, on himself. Their support underscores confidence in Pilgrimโs aggressive R&D and dual-use medical platform targeting both military and civilian emergency care. - learn more
LA Exits
- ElectroMagnetic Systems, Inc., a California-based specialist in AI and machine learning-powered target recognition software for space-based radar, has been acquired by Voyager. The deal strengthens Voyagerโs AI-native surveillance and intelligence capabilities, enabling real-time monitoring across ground, air, and space domains to meet evolving defense and commercial demands. - learn more
- Daring Foods is being acquired by Australiaโs leading plant-based meat company, v2food, in a move that strengthens v2foodโs push into the U.S. market. Daring will continue operating under its own brand and will serve as a platform to introduce v2foodโs own products across the States. The deal, paired with a strategic partnership with Japanese food giant Ajinomoto, aims to accelerate innovation in clean-label protein and expand global reach. - learn more
- Irwin Naturals is being acquired by FitLife Brands in an all-cash transaction valued at $42.5M, which includes approximately $16M in net working capital. The deal, expected to close around August 8, 2025, will nearly double FitLifeโs scale, with projected combined annual revenue of over $120M and adjusted EBITDA between $20โ25M. It will be funded with cash on hand, a new term loan, and a revolving credit facility, and is expected to generate synergies through complementary product lines, broader mass-market distribution, and improved operational efficiencies. - learn more
- Solsniper, a Solana-focused trading and analytics platform known for high-speed memecoin execution, has been acquired by Phantom as part of its strategy to expand beyond wallets into full-service on-chain finance. The Solsniper team will join Phantom to enhance its advanced trading features, while the platform will continue operating independently. The move underscores Phantomโs ambition to offer seamless, integrated trading tools within the Solana ecosystem. - learn more
- Cinelease is being acquired by Zello, a private investment platform dedicated to scaling businesses across the entertainment industry, in a strategic move to bolster production infrastructure and amplify its presence across North America. Under Zelloโs ownership, Cinelease will continue operating as a standalone company led by its veteran team, enhancing its lighting, grip, and studio offerings for film, TV, and commercial productions. This acquisition sets the stage for disciplined growth and stronger relationships within the film and television production ecosystem. - learn more
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