This App Hopes to Give Homeless Outreach Workers Real-Time Data While They're on the Street

Eric Zassenhaus
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.
This App Hopes to Give Homeless Outreach Workers Real-Time Data While They're on the Street
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Los Angeles invests hundreds of millions each year to alleviate homelessness, but the networks that underlie those efforts are often held together by legal pads and spreadsheets.

It took a person who's suffered through the system to try to update it, so that the homeless and their advocates can get what they need, when they need it.


Anthony Greco is one of the few people who can say he's been on most sides of the issue. He's lived on the streets, dealt with homeless family members and friends, he's worked in the shelters and counseled people dealing with substance abuse.

"I've literally been on every side of this problem in one way or another," Greco says. "I've been trying to get people into treatment in some way or another since I was seven years old."

The Get Help platform is a result of his lifetime of experience with substance abuse and homelessness. And it's been so effective that Los Angeles took it from beta to a basic tool in the city's plan to deal with one of its largest emergencies: Getting homeless people off the street during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anthony Greco is the founder of the Get Help app.

A Lifetime Getting People Help 

Greco grew up bouncing from house to house while his mother sought help at substance abuse clinics.

"When I was 15 years old, one day I came home from school and my mom and her boyfriend and that family had moved away out of town," Greco says, "and the house was empty except for all the stuff in my room."

That led him into his own struggle first with homelessness, then with substance abuse and finally into recovery and toward helping people in the same circumstances he'd once found himself in. Ultimately, he got his PhD in clinical psychology and worked with patients with substance abuse issues.

But at every step in his career, Greco found himself trying to solve the same problem: How do you match a person to the services they need at the moment they're willing to ask for help? Having real-time information is key, he says.

"There's a point when someone says that they want to get help," he says. "It's a simultaneous feeling of excitement and absolute dread at the same time, because on one hand, you're so excited that they want to get help and they want to go somewhere and then on the other hand the next thought is where am I going to go? Where am I going to call with how am I going to find an available bed? And it's a nightmare."

Once someone is willing to get help, the next question is where, and how? Greco describes calling rehab and shelter facilities as a child, as a homeless man and as a clinical psychologist to find a client or friend a bed, only to find that facilities were full or not accepting new residents, or that no one at the center seemed to have an idea of whether they had a place to stay.

Later, he encountered the same problem from the other end of the phone line when he was working at those same facilities.

"I remember getting calls, late at night," Greco says. "It was a mom on the other end of the phone wanting to know whether I have space for their son or daughter. And I didn't even know what our census was."

Had he known the headcount, he would have known how many available beds there were.


If Getting Shelter Were As Easy As Ordering an Uber

The idea for the app came when Greco, now a psychologist, found himself unable to get the same basic information he was seeking as a kid.

"I realized that it was just as difficult for a licensed clinical psychologist to get someone into treatment as it was for a seven year old."

Greco had pictured a simple app that would match the world of homeless needs to the world of resources available to them.

"I said, you know, there has to be an app for that," he says. "You can order a pizza at four o'clock in the morning, or a cheeseburger from Sonic and have it delivered from Pomona, but there's no tool to be able to find a bed for my friend."

Greco quickly realized that if he wanted to be able to offer immediate help, he needed more than a list of numbers; he needed accurate real-time data. Who had open beds right now, tailored to specific needs of individuals — with substance abuse problems, with mental health problems, with kids, with domestic abuse trauma, with medical needs?

He had a vision for the app, but he didn't have a background in tech or business. Luckily, as he searched for funding for the idea, he came across Michael Root, one of the early engineering pioneers at Riot Games, who quickly volunteered to be Get Help's CTO. The company registered as a public benefit corporation in 2019.

"I had no idea what I was getting into," Greco says.

Solving Problems for Homeless People

Greco says it usually takes between 6 and 7 approaches (sometimes more) before someone who's experiencing homelessness will accept help — and often the kind of help people on the street are looking for isn't what street teams have to offer.

"The first service that they often will accept isn't a bed," says Greco, "but they'll accept a place where they can go get a meal."

Greco says it's critical to seize those moments, where a person is willing to ask for some kind of help, if only to build trust.

"It's about meeting the person where they're at," Greco says. "And that's what I do as a therapist."

In other words, he says focus on building trust, and provide people what they need, rather than what you think they need. Not everyone is looking for a shelter bed.

"That's where I operate from and where Get Help operates from," he says.

The app tries to reflect this by listing a range of services both big and small from shelter and sober living beds to food pantries, showers, laundry, storage facilities and health care services. All those services are what social workers call a continuum of care that will eventually lead to stability, he says.

Solving the Problem for Shelters

Greco at the Weingart Center in Los Angeles' Skid Row.

On the other end of the spectrum, Greco realized that if he wanted to be able to solve family members' 4 a.m. emergencies, he'd have to work with the shelters to get the data that would be crucial to getting their loved ones fast help.

What he quickly found was that many of these shelters and sober living facilities were using outdated tools to keep track of who was in their facility.

"They were still managing their inventory — and still are — is literally using yellow pads, sometimes whiteboards, Excel documents and email exchanges."

They reached out to the Weingart Center, one of the first shelters in Skid Row that specializes in providing emergency housing for people with mental illness. By the estimate of its current CEO, the company houses about 600 people nightly, and provides counseling, employment and other other services to thousands more. All of that requires an incredible amount of record keeping.

"In order to really run an operation," says Weingart's CEO, Kevin Murray, "you've got to do intake, you've got to assign room, you've got to assign food cards."

In addition, you have to make sure you're collecting the information that health insurers and the federal government require, as well as making sure you're tracking the basic needs — linen and toothbrushes, for example — of the people you're serving.

"Almost every provider is inputting this practice information in, you know, at least two, maybe multiple systems."

Greco's team met with Weingart to develop a data management system that could help them track that information.

"They actually sat down with our people at all levels to find out what they needed, and what would be helpful to them," Murray says. "We both sort of opened up to each other about what we wanted to do. And so we were participants in developing the system."

The result, Greco says, saved Weingart time and money by cutting down the number of steps that shelter staff had to take to do intake and reducing the number of data entry mistakes they made.

"Those errors result in billing errors," and those billing errors and mistakes can result in a place like The Weingart Center losing millions a year in funding opportunities.

It also made the information on how many beds the center had at any given time easily accessible, so that Get Help's app could make them available to service providers on the streets looking to get people housed.

"it's certainly, you know, added a lot of simplicity in our lives," Murray says.

From Pilot Test to a Citywide Crisis

An estimated 82,955 people fell into homelessness during 2019 in L.A County, and an estimated 52,689 people found the way out of homelessness in that time, according to the county's most recent data.Photo courtesy of Get Help

In late 2019, Get Help worked out a pilot program with a small faction of LAPD officers who patrol Skid Row and other areas to assist with routine clean ups of homeless encampments.

The officers in LAPD's Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) team downloaded the Get Help app and used it to direct the homeless folks they encountered to services in the area.

"The response was overwhelmingly positive," Greco says, adding that some officers reported it had changed the dynamic between some of their patrol and homeless in the area. Officers had real-time information they could offer to homeless folks, and their role went beyond enforcement to being able to offer assistance.

After six months, the plan was to expand the app's use in the city, when an even larger crisis hit.

"We had just got through a successful pilot with L.A. (city) and we're talking about expanding it, we were doing work on expanding to a different additional shelters, (and) we were starting conversations with L.A. County," Greco says, "And COVID-19 hit."

The city settled on an emergency plan to house vulnerable homeless people in recreation centers and other city facilities that had closed due to the pandemic.

Jimmy Kim oversees emergency operations for Los Angeles's recreation and parks department. He was tasked with creating the shelters, developing a system for keeping track of its inhabitants, and keeping them safe.

"The systems that we're using are so archaic," Kim says. "You know that saying, 'time is money', right?"

At first the city relied on regular manual headcounts, pen and paper and Google docs to keep a tally of those staying at its sites. It quickly found that process was inefficient.

"And so we came across (the app) in the mayor's office," says Kim. "They actually introduced us to the folks over at Get Help as part of a pilot program."

The app allowed them to streamline the process, and provided the mayor's office with real time information on the number and location of beds occupied.

"The quicker we could get them (registered), the quicker we could get people in," Kim says. "And then the less time they have to spend on doing registration, the more time they could spend on doing more important things."

The system proved a success, allowing Kim to keep track of registrations and discharges at the 24 shelters the agency oversaw, and allowing his staff of around 94 employees access to real-time data on who was where.

"I actually want to take that and use it for our normal shelters as well because it'll help us streamline that process and get real time usable data," Kim says. "You know, literally at the tip of your fingertips."

The department is now thinking about configuring the app to do contract tracing for shelter residents who come down with COVID-19, and it's thinking about expanding beyond the homeless emergency function, to other emergencies that require rapid sheltering — such as wildfires and earthquakes.

"Now, we're having those conversations," says Kim, "because I think it will help us streamline and get data a lot quicker… And if you have real-time data, you can make better decisions that way."

Meanwhile, Get Help is available to individuals, organizations and outreach workers in Apple's App Store and Google Play. His team is working with several large local shelters and sober living facilities and the county to expand the data available in Get Help's app that can be used by families, street teams and concerned residents looking for immediate help.

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Smart Shoes for Kids? Skechers Thinks So 👟

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday, LA!

This week, Skechers may have just kicked off a new trend that’s bound to have parents and tech lovers talking. They've unveiled the "Find My Skechers" line, kids’ sneakers that come with a hidden compartment to securely hold an Apple AirTag. For $52 to $58, parents can now track their child’s shoes in real-time using the Find My app, giving a whole new meaning to "keeping an eye on things." While these tech-savvy kicks are already gaining attention, will they become the new norm in kids' footwear? And who’s next? Will Nike or Adidas be jumping on the AirTag bandwagon, or is Skechers setting the stage for a whole new wave of tech-integrated fashion?

But it’s not all smooth sailing. This innovation raises some interesting questions about privacy and surveillance. Are we crossing a line when we start tracking our kids’ every move through their shoes? While Apple’s anti-stalking features are in place to prevent misuse, it will be intriguing to see how other brands and parents respond to this new blend of fashion and tech.

What do you think? Could this become a must-have feature in the next generation of kids' gear, or is it a step too far? Let us know your thoughts!

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • LakeFS, a provider of Git-like version control for data lakes, has secured $20M in a growth funding round led by Maor Investments. The funds will support the company's expansion efforts and product development aimed at enhancing data engineering and AI initiatives within enterprise and public sector environments. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

    • Sound Ventures co-led the $16.1M Series A funding round for Knit, an AI-powered consumer research platform. The funds will be used to accelerate product development, enhance AI capabilities, and expand global research operations. This investment underscores the growing trend of combining AI with human expertise to deliver faster, cost-effective, and high-quality insights for enterprise research. - learn more
    • Anthos Capital co-led a $60M Series A funding round for Good Job Games, a mobile game developer known for creating casual and hyper-casual games. The investment, co-led by Menlo Ventures, will support the company's growth, enabling the expansion of its game portfolio and enhancing user engagement through innovative gameplay features. This funding marks a significant step in scaling Good Job Games’ operations and solidifying its position in the competitive mobile gaming market. - learn more
    • Pinegrove Capital Partners participated in Ramp's $500M Series E-2 funding round, which values the company at $22.5 billion. The funds will be used to accelerate Ramp's AI-driven financial tools, aiming to enhance automation and efficiency in corporate finance operations. - learn more
    • Riot Ventures participated in Oxide Computer Company's $100M Series B funding round, led by the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). This investment will enable Oxide to scale its manufacturing capabilities, enhance customer support, and accelerate product delivery to meet the growing demand for on-premises cloud computing solutions. - learn more
    • Rebel Fund participated in a $3.2M seed funding round for Caseflood.ai, a San Francisco-based legal tech startup offering AI-powered client intake solutions for law firms. The funds will support the development of Caseflood's advanced voice agent, Luna, which autonomously handles client interactions, including consultations and retainer signings, aiming to enhance conversion rates and operational efficiency for law firms. - learn more
    • Smash Capital participated in Ambience Healthcare's $243M Series C funding round, co-led by Oak HC/FT and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The investment will support Ambience's expansion of its ambient AI platform, which automates clinical documentation, coding, and workflow tasks across over 200 specialties. The platform integrates directly with electronic health records, enhancing efficiency and compliance in healthcare settings. - learn more
    • ARTBIO, a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing alpha radioligand therapies for cancer treatment, has secured $132M in a Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Sofinnova Investments and B Capital, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments and other investors. The funds will support the advancement of ARTBIO's lead program, AB001, through Phase II clinical trials, and facilitate the expansion of its manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure. - learn more
    • Rebel Fund participated in OffDeal's $12M Series A funding round, led by Radical Ventures, to support the company's mission of building the world's first AI-native investment bank. OffDeal aims to democratize access to high-quality M&A advisory services for small and mid-sized businesses by automating analyst tasks with AI, enabling efficient sell-side transactions. The funds will help scale OffDeal's technology-driven, advisor-led approach to facilitate successful exits for entrepreneurs. - learn more
    • Sandbox Studios participated in a $3M seed funding round for Sarelly Sarelly, a Mexican cosmetics brand, with backing from U.S. investors like Wollef, Morgan Creek Capital Management, and Hyve Ventures. The funds will support Sarelly Sarelly's expansion into the U.S. market, including retail launches at Ulta Beauty and growth on digital platforms like TikTok Shop. - learn more

    LA Exits
    • NEOGOV, an El Segundo-based provider of HR and compliance software for U.S. public sector agencies, has been acquired by EQT and CPP Investments in a deal valued at over $3 billion. The acquisition will help NEOGOV expand its product offerings and grow its presence across North America. - learn more

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          From Retro Cool to AI Convenience: LA’s New Tech Normal

          🔦 Spotlight

          Hello LA,

          What do you get when you cross a 1950s diner, robot-powered retail, and apps trying to do the right thing? A very Hollywood week in LA tech.

            Image Source: Tesla

           

          Let’s start with the most literal: Tesla’s long-awaited retro-futuristic diner just opened on Sunset, complete with drive-in movie screens, EV charging bays, and a neon glow that practically begs to be Instagrammed. It’s a mashup of Elon-style nostalgia and innovation, where your burger might take longer to arrive than your Model 3 finishes charging. While the menu sticks to diner classics (yes, there's a milkshake bar), the real flex is how Tesla is rebranding waiting as an “experience.” In a city where parking is currency, Tesla has turned it into a destination.

            Image Source: VenHub

           

          Just down the street, VenHub’s smart convenience store quietly opened its doors, but this is no 7-Eleven. The Pasadena-based startup is betting on AI-powered, cashier-free retail hubs that can be dropped anywhere, anytime. Think vending machine meets Apple Store. Investors are buying in on the promise of 24/7 access to snacks, essentials, and even meds. No human required. In a city of hustle, VenHub wants to make “convenient” even more convenient. Check out their locations here.

          Uber also rolled out new "Women Rider Preferences" in LA, letting women and nonbinary drivers opt to pick up women riders. It's a long-requested feature aimed at improving safety and comfort, especially for those driving at night. And while it’s opt-in for now, it’s a significant move toward rethinking trust and transparency in ride-hailing, starting with the people behind the wheel.

            Image Source: Snap

           

          And finally, Snap launched "Home Safe Alerts" to quietly keep you safer on the move. You can now send automatic updates to trusted friends when you're heading out or getting home. It’s a subtle yet powerful shift toward making tech feel more protective and less performative. Snap’s way of saying, "Text me when you get home," but without the follow-up guilt.

          So whether you're grabbing a burger under the glow of a Tesla screen, scanning a QR code at a robot-run bodega, or just getting home a little safer, this week reminded us that LA doesn’t just build the future. It makes it weird, wonderful, and just a little more user-friendly.

          Catch you next week ✌️

          🤝 Venture Deals

          LA Companies

          • Nevoya has raised $9.3M in seed funding, led by Lowercarbon Capital, to transform the American trucking industry with its advanced freight platform. The company aims to modernize logistics by optimizing routes, improving efficiency, and better connecting shippers and carriers. The funding will help Nevoya expand its technology and scale operations to redefine how goods move across the country. - learn more

          LA Venture Funds

          • Pinegrove Capital Partners joined Armada’s $131M Series B round to support the San Francisco-based edge computing startup in its mission to bring secure, modular data centers to remote and infrastructure-poor environments. Armada builds rugged, containerized units like its flagship Galleon and newly unveiled Leviathan, designed to enable real-time AI and compute at the edge. The funding will accelerate the deployment of these solutions globally and scale development for critical defense, energy, and industrial use cases. - learn more
          • Rebel Fund joined Lyra’s $6M seed round, supporting the San Francisco startup that’s redefining video conferencing with its AI-native platform. Lyra transforms traditional meetings into interactive workspaces with real-time collaboration and auto-generated summary notes. The capital will bolster infrastructure and support rapid growth as the company scales its go-to-market operations. - learn more
          • Plassa Capital participated in Bloom’s $1.6M pre-seed round to support the startup’s mission of building an all-in-one hub for the crypto trading community. Based in Miami, Bloom offers a social platform that combines trading tools, real-time news, and community-driven insights for crypto traders. The funding will help the company grow its team, enhance its product, and expand its user base. - learn more
          • Embark Ventures participated in TRIC Robotics’ seed funding round to support its development of autonomous robots that help farmers manage pests and plant diseases without chemicals. Based in Delaware, TRIC uses ultraviolet light and computer vision to treat crops like strawberries in a sustainable, labor-efficient way. The funding will help the company expand deployments, grow its team, and scale its technology to more farms across the U.S. - learn more
          • Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Dispatch Bio’s $11.2M seed funding round. Based in San Diego, Dispatch Bio is developing a novel immunotherapy platform that aims to deliver a universal treatment for solid tumors by reprogramming immune cells at the tumor site. The funds will support further development of its platform and expansion of preclinical studies. - learn more
          • Mucker Capital led Vaudit’s $7.3M seed round, reinforcing its belief in the San Francisco Bay Area-based startup. Vaudit delivers an AI-powered media audit platform that automates real-time validation of ad spend, detecting discrepancies before payments are processed. The funding will enable Vaudit to enhance its platform, expand its team, and scale its global reach across web and mobile channels. - learn more
          • Morpheus Ventures participated in xLight’s $40M Series B funding round to support its mission of transforming semiconductor manufacturing. The Palo Alto-based company develops advanced laser-based lithography technology designed to make chip production faster, more precise, and more cost-effective. The new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand the team, and scale operations to meet growing demand. - learn more
          • Magnify Ventures participated in Alix’s $20M Series A funding round to help the company modernize the estate settlement process. Based in New York, Alix offers a digital platform that simplifies and streamlines estate administration for families and professionals. The funds will be used to enhance the platform, grow the team, and expand its reach to meet increasing demand. - learn more
          • Untapped Ventures participated in Nexxa AI’s $4.4M seed round to support the company’s mission of bringing specialized AI solutions to heavy industries like manufacturing, logistics, and energy. Based in Sunnyvale, Nexxa’s platform enables domain-specific AI deployment tailored to industrial operations. The funding will help the company expand its engineering team, accelerate product development, and onboard new enterprise customers. - learn more

          LA Exits
          • Exverus Media, a Los Angeles-based media agency known for its data-driven approach to brand growth, has been acquired by global marketing firm Brainlabs. The acquisition strengthens Brainlabs’ U.S. presence and adds strategic media planning and measurement capabilities to its portfolio. Exverus will continue operating under its brand while gaining access to Brainlabs’ global resources and infrastructure. - learn more
          • Generous Brands is set to acquire Health-Ade Kombucha, the Los Angeles-based beverage company known for its premium, gut-healthy drinks. The deal marks Generous Brands’ push into the fast-growing functional beverage market and adds a high-profile name to its portfolio. Health-Ade will continue operating with its existing team while benefiting from expanded resources and distribution capabilities. - learn more
          • Launch Potato has acquired OnlyInYourState, a travel discovery platform known for spotlighting hidden gems across the U.S. The acquisition expands Launch Potato’s portfolio of digital brands and supports its goal of using AI to personalize trip planning experiences. OnlyInYourState will continue to operate while integrating with Launch Potato’s performance marketing and content strategy capabilities. -learn more
          • Vilore Foods has acquired Tia Lupita Foods, a better-for-you Mexican food brand known for its hot sauces, chips, and tortillas made with simple, sustainable ingredients. The acquisition expands Vilore’s portfolio into the health-conscious and culturally authentic food space. Tia Lupita will continue to operate under its brand while gaining access to Vilore’s distribution network and resources. - learn more

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              The $260M Robot Revolution Happening in Torrance

              🔦 Spotlight

              Hello Los Angeles,

              Forget rockets. This week, the loudest move in the defense tech scene came from a factory floor in Torrance, where Hadrian secured $260 million to fuel its robot-run revolution.

              The company, which builds AI-powered, robot-run factories for America’s aerospace and defense industries, announced the massive Series C raise, led by existing investors like Lux Capital and Founders Fund, along with a factory expansion loan facility arranged by Morgan Stanley. The funding will power Hadrian’s third factory (in Arizona), unlock full product manufacturing, and accelerate its mission to bring American manufacturing roaring back faster, smarter, and more automated than ever.

              And here’s what makes them fascinating: Hadrian isn’t just churning out parts. They’re reinventing what a factory is. Their facilities look more like giant humming circuit boards than the smokestacks of old, packed with robots, AI, and ambition to move at the speed of software.

              It’s the kind of vision you’d expect from a founder who speaks about reshoring U.S. manufacturing as if it were a moral obligation and then backs it up with billion-dollar contracts and steel-and-silicon proof.

              We’ll be watching closely to see what Hadrian assembles next. One thing’s certain: the robots are already working overtime, and if you’re smart (or a robot whisperer), you might want to join them.

              🤝 Venture Deals

              LA Companies

              • Boulevard, a SaaS startup that helps salons and self-care businesses manage scheduling and operations, has raised an $80M Series D led by JMI Equity at a valuation near $800M. The funding will fuel enhancements to its AI-powered scheduling tools and support continued product innovation and market expansion. - learn more
              • Rwazi has raised $12M in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered decision-making platform, which helps businesses replace gut-based decisions with real-time insights and simulations based on consumer behavior. The round was led by Bonfire Ventures and will support the growth of Rwazi’s simulation engine and data infrastructure to help companies make more precise, data-driven decisions across marketing, product, and operations. - learn more
              • Lexington Bakes, an artisan bakery known for its gluten-free, organic oat bars and luxury brownies, has raised $1M in a seed round. The investment was led by Rainfall Ventures. The funding will help the company transition to co-manufacturing, expand its retail reach from about 100 to a projected 1,000 doors in the next year, and scale up its team and operations. - learn more

              LA Venture Funds

              • TCG (The Chernin Group) participated in Substack’s latest $100M funding round, joining Andreessen Horowitz, and other investors. Their investment underscores confidence in Substack’s vision to grow its subscription publishing platform and expand its tools for independent writers and creators. - learn more
              • Acre Venture Partners participated in Zucca’s $5M funding round to help the Seattle startup scale its platform, which uses AI to design and develop plant-based food products faster and more efficiently. Their investment will support Zucca’s mission to create sustainable, health-focused foods and expand its operations. - learn more
              • Sound Ventures joined XMTP’s $80M Series B to back its vision of redefining how people communicate in the web3 world. With this funding, XMTP plans to scale its decentralized, privacy-focused messaging protocol, enabling secure, wallet-to-wallet conversations across the blockchain ecosystem. - learn more
              • Morpheus Ventures and Sage Venture Partners participated in Datavations’ $17M Series A funding round, with Morpheus joining as a new investor and Sage returning as an existing backer. Datavations, an AI-driven analytics platform for the building materials and home improvement industries, uses machine learning to deliver actionable insights on pricing, inventory, assortment, and supply chains. The funds will be used to grow the team, accelerate development of its Commerce Alert Hub, and expand its presence across North America. - learn more
              • Mucker Capital led the $3.3M seed round for Bidbus, an AI-powered consumer-to-dealer used car marketplace in the U.S. The platform enables car owners to auction their vehicles online and receive competing offers from dealers, while dealers gain access to high-quality inventory more efficiently. The funding will help Bidbus enhance its AI capabilities and expand into new markets. - learn more
              • Creative Artists Agency (CAA) participated as a strategic investor in Moonvalley’s $84M funding round, signaling strong industry confidence in the company’s development of a fully licensed, AI-powered video generation platform tailored for professional filmmakers and studios. CAA’s investment reinforces Moonvalley’s commitment to ethical AI practices and provides it with a direct pipeline to top-tier creative talent and entertainment partners. - learn more
              • MANTIS Venture Capital joined Zip Security’s $13.5M Series A funding round, backing the company's mission to deliver automated, AI-driven cybersecurity and compliance solutions. Their participation supports Zip’s efforts to expand its engineering team, build deeper platform integrations, and scale into regulated industry verticals like defense, finance, and healthcare. - learn more
              • Rebel Fund participated in Apolink’s oversubscribed $4.3M seed round, joining other notable backers such as Y Combinator and 468 Capital. By investing in this 19‑year‑old–led space tech startup, Rebel Fund is supporting Apolink’s mission to deliver continuous LEO satellite connectivity and facilitate its planned demo missions and constellation build‑out. - learn more

                LA Exits
                • Retina AI is to be acquired by Onar in a deal that will enhance Onar’s AI-powered customer analytics and personalization offerings. By integrating Retina’s predictive customer lifetime value technology, Onar aims to provide businesses with deeper insights into customer behavior and more precise targeting. The acquisition highlights Onar’s commitment to delivering data-driven solutions for optimizing customer relationships. - learn more
                • Nearsure, a U.S.-based tech services company with over 600 professionals across 18 Latin American countries, has been acquired by Nortal to bolster its AI and enterprise solutions in the Americas. Known for its AI-driven transformation, custom software, and partnerships with major platforms, Nearsure will merge into Nortal’s U.S. operations and rebrand later this year. The acquisition allows Nearsure to expand into U.S. and European markets while enhancing its AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise offerings. - learn more
                • InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the event production company behind high‑profile sports events like The Pickleball Slam, Pro Padel League, and Major League Pickleball, has been acquired by GSE Worldwide, marking GSE’s first foray into live event production. Founded by tennis legend Jim Courier and Jon Venison, who will now serve as EVP and head of the new GSE Productions division, InsideOut’s team will integrate into GSE to help scale its live-event operations into new markets. - learn more

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