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Creator Startup Jellysmack Buys YouTube Analytics Firm AMA Digital
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Creator economy startup Jellysmack has acquired AMA Digital, a Chicago-based YouTube analytics company, for an undisclosed amount.
Jellysmack said Tuesday that it will use AMA’s data analytics to boost its creator program, which helps roughly 500 content creators grow their audiences and revenues. The company, which has more than 120 employees in Los Angeles and partners with over 80 L.A.-based creators, uses A.I. technology, proprietary data and video editing tools to optimize and launch videos on YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms.
“We believe Jellysmack offers the best tech stack available in the creator economy, and the acquisition of AMA will further strengthen our core product to better serve our creator partners,” Michael Philippe, Jellysmack’s co-founder and co-CEO, said in a statement.
Founded in 2019 by Mateo Price, Chicago-based AMA claims to use proprietary data and technology to help YouTubers increase their revenue and viewership. The company says it has generated millions of dollars in incremental revenue for its creators—including popular YouTubers Jesser, Ali Abdaal and Dylan Lemay, among others—who collectively have 60 million subscribers. As part of the deal, Price will join Jellysmack as director of YouTube development.
In addition to enhancing its creator program, Jellysmack said AMA’s platform will help with its catalog licensing business, as well. In January, the company announced it would spend $500 million to license the monetization rights to YouTube creators’ back catalogs. The business of YouTube catalogs as lucrative assets has quickly gained ground, with L.A.-based Spotter also offering upfront payments to license YouTubers’ libraries.
Founded in 2016, New York-based Jellysmack’s most recent funding round, announced in May 2021, was led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank. While the startup did not disclose the size of the investment, PitchBook data indicates that Jellysmack raised $950 million at a $3 billion valuation. (A company spokesperson would only disclose the startup’s valuation as over $1 billion.) Jellysmack claims its managed content generates 10 billion global monthly video views and reaches 125 million unique U.S. users. Its roster of creators includes YouTubers like MrBeast, PewDiePie and Karina Garcia.
The AMA deal is Jellysmack’s second-ever acquisition, following the November purchase of A.I. video editing technology company Kamua.
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Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
How VR Company TRIPP Simulates Psychedelic Euphoria to Address Depression and Anxiety
08:00 AM | June 29, 2021
By the time Nanea Reeves was 16, she had seen the disastrous effects of substance abuse on her mother and sister, and had spent time recovering at a psychiatric hospital where a therapist introduced her to meditation and breathing techniques that helped her cope with the chaos that surrounded her.
"It was a tool that really gave me space to insert pauses when I was having these big feelings, and start to train my brain on the decisions I was making at any given moment," she said.
Since then, both Reeves' mother and sister passed away from drug abuse. A new tragedy, the loss of her husband to cancer, spurred her next venture, aimed at spreading the coping techniques she'd been taught.
In 2018, she co-launched TRIPP, a virtual-reality meditation experience that mimics aspects of psychedelics to help people cope with chaos or destruction in their lives. The company announced on Friday it raised $11 million led by Mayfield and life science VC firm Vine Ventures, bringing its total funding to $15 million.
Its technology guides users through a breathing meditation that lasts anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes while their eyeline is littered with neon-colored shapes, pulsating flowers, blurred, slow-motion movements and other abstract, kaleidoscopic visualizations. The experience is meant to mimic what one might see while hallucinating on psychedelics without having to actually take psychedelics. Users can customize their own visuals through a program called TRIPP Composer.
The company did research on soundscapes and gameplay mechanics to bring users a sense of euphoria and calm throughout the meditation.
"What could you experience in VR that you can't in real life? A sense of feeling like you're floating in space, and moving through environments while you're sitting still in reality," Reeves said. "We wanted to trigger states of awe and wonder."
The psychedelic visual leans into what longtime Johns Hopkins psychedelics researcher Matthew Johnson called "the mystical experience" - the part of consuming psychedelics that isn't rooted in secular sciences, but rather in individual feelings.
TRIPP is one of many VR apps available on Playstation VR and Oculus (she was an early investor of Oculus herself) that facilitates meditation. Subscriptions go for $4.99 a month; the company has streamed more than 2 million wellness sessions to date.
But it's not the only one using gaming technology to trigger a biological response. Last year, Boston-based video game company Akili Interactive developed the first Food and Drug Administration-approved video game to treat ADHD, an executive function disorder, in children. Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is using VR for physical therapy, since it has the ability to connect the brain with its ambulatory functions. L.A.-based AppliedVR recently teamed up with the Department of Veterans Affairs to combat chronic pain among veterans.
TRIPP, like Santa Monica-based Headspace, another wellness app, is also undergoing clinical trials to test its efficacy as a therapeutic device. And, as the larger industry of psychedelic therapies grows, TRIPP plans on leveraging its platform to integrate with therapy trips.
"We're not trying to replicate or simulate, but there are certain inherent properties that can trigger awe or self-connection. It's not aggressive or taking you over completely like a psychedelic," Reeves said.
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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
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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