Image Source: Epirus
At the heart of Epirus’s arsenal is Leonidas, a solid-state, directed energy system named after the fierce Spartan king. As formidable as its namesake suggests, Leonidas stands out by neutralizing unmanned systems and other electronic threats with unmatched precision—a vital capability in today’s digital battlefield where drones are increasingly common. Offering a high-tech shield against potential threats, Leonidas has established Epirus as a key player in modern warfare technology, underscored by significant contracts such as a notable $66 million deal with the U.S. Army in 2023.
Founded in 2018 by a visionary team including Joe Lonsdale, Bo Marr, Max Mednik, Nathan Mintz, Grant Verstandig, and John Tenet, Epirus combines expertise across technology, strategy, and security to push the boundaries of defense innovation. The collective experience and strategic foresight of its founders have propelled the company's rapid growth and technological advancements.
Looking to the future, Epirus plans to utilize this influx of capital to broaden its reach into international and commercial markets, enhance its team, fortify its supply chain, and establish a new training center in Oklahoma to further military preparedness.
This latest round of funding was led by 8VC and Washington Harbour Partners LP, accompanied by a diverse group of new and returning investors, including strategic defense partner General Dynamics Land Systems and seasoned investors like StepStone Group and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc. New stakeholders such as Oppenheimer's Private Market Opportunities Vista VI Fund, NightDragon, Manhattan Venture Partners, Centaurus Capital LP, and Center15 Capital also joined, reflecting robust market confidence in Epirus’s innovative approach and future potential.
Keep an eye on Epirus as it navigates this exciting phase of growth and innovation. With its advanced technologies and strategic expansions, Epirus is not just responding to the challenges of today’s digital battlefield but is also setting the pace for tomorrow’s defense landscape.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Zeitview, a Los Angeles-based leader in AI-powered infrastructure inspections, has raised a $60M funding round led by Climate Investment, with participation from Upfront Ventures and others. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of its Visual AI technology and enhance its Insights software platform, supporting infrastructure sectors such as solar, wind, utilities, properties, and telecom throughout the asset lifecycle. - learn more
- Nervonik, a medical device company specializing in peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic pain relief, has raised a $13M Series A funding round led by U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). The funds will be used to advance the development of its next-generation nerve stimulation technology, aiming to provide effective, non-opioid pain management solutions. - learn more
- Mote, a company specializing in carbon-negative energy production, has secured $7M in the initial close of its Series A funding round. The investment was co-led by Nella Next and Preston-Werner Ventures. Mote converts agricultural and forestry waste into clean hydrogen through its Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) technology, which also sequesters carbon dioxide. The funds will be used to advance its first commercial-scale facility, expand engineering capabilities, and accelerate strategic partnerships in the hydrogen and energy sectors. - learn more
- FastLane Labs, a developer of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) infrastructure, has raised a $6M funding round led by Figment Capital and DBA. The funds will be used to develop a comprehensive liquid staking token on the Monad blockchain, aiming to build a sustainable MEV ecosystem that benefits users, decentralized applications (dApps), and stakers. - learn more
- Supergut, a company specializing in gut health products like powders, bars, and shakes containing resistant starches and prebiotic fibers, has secured a significant growth equity investment led by Full Frame Growth Partners, with participation from Alpha Edison, Rocana Venture Partners, Strand Equity Partners, and others. The funds will support new product innovation, retail expansion, and new hires. Additionally, Supergut has appointed Tracey Warner Halama, former CEO of Vital Proteins, as its new CEO to lead this next phase of growth. The company has experienced a 172% sales increase in 2024, driven by its 'GLP-1 booster' product. - learn more
- FairPlay, a Fairness-as-a-Service company, has raised a $10M funding round from Infinity Ventures, JPMorgan Chase, and Nyca Partners. FairPlay specializes in developing tools that help organizations identify and correct biases in their AI-driven decision-making processes, aiming to promote fairness and compliance in sectors like financial services and insurance. The company plans to use the funds to expand its operations and enhance its product offerings, furthering its mission to build fairness infrastructure for the internet and ensure safer AI adoption. - learn more
- ACID Labs, a leader in instant social gaming on messaging platforms, has raised $8M in funding led by a16z GAMES Speedrun and NFX, with participation from Fusion. The funds will be used to accelerate its mission of building viral instant games where people already connect, focusing on creating seamless, social-first gaming experiences. - learn more
- MelodAI, a company specializing in AI-generated content (AIGC) and multimodal AI agent services, has secured a new round of funding led by LF Labs. The funds will be used to advance product development and expand market presence in the Web3 and AI entertainment sectors, enhancing MelodAI's competitiveness in the global AIGC and AI agent service industries. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Fika Ventures led a $4.7M Seed funding round for Outmarket AI, a San Francisco-based intelligence platform designed to transform commercial insurance through AI-powered insights and automation. The funds will be used to accelerate platform innovation, expand the team, and establish strategic partnerships with leading brokers and carriers. - learn more
- FirstLook Partners participated in a $25M equity funding round for Flex, a Miami-based fintech company that provides an all-in-one finance platform for business owners. Flex offers services such as business banking, expense management, credit cards, and accounts payable automation. The company plans to use the funds to enhance its AI-driven accounts payable automation and expand its personal finance management services for business owners. - learn more
- B Capital led a $96M equity investment in Odeko, a New York-based all-in-one operations and technology partner for local coffee shops, cafes, and other food and beverage businesses. Including a $30M credit facility from Banc of California, the total funding amounts to $126M. Odeko plans to use the funds to fuel growth through new services and cost savings for customers, acquire businesses to extend its market reach and product offerings, and build out its leadership team. - learn more
- Presight Capital participated in a $2.2M Seed funding round for Needle, an AI-powered search and agent development platform based in San Francisco and Berlin. Needle enables organizations to access and manage data across various internal systems, integrating with tools like Confluence, Slack, Gmail, and Dropbox. The funds will be used to expand the engineering team, enhance core technology, and accelerate go-to-market initiatives. - learn more
- Village Global participated in a $2.8M Pre-seed funding round for Orpheus Ocean, a New Bedford, Massachusetts-based company specializing in deep-sea robotics. Orpheus Ocean develops autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed to enhance deep ocean and seafloor data collection. The funds will be used to conduct the first commercial demonstrations of their AUV technology, expand their technical team, and grow their fleet to support increased deployments in the coming year. - learn more
The Rise of Influencer Marketing
Fundamentally, an influencer is someone with a level of knowledge, expertise or social following that enables them to, well, influence other people's decisions. That premise has existed for a long time, but the internet and social media gave rise to a new capability for companies to target specific audiences with more precision than a television or radio commercial. As a result, niche, direct-to-consumer businesses offering specific products, and online influencers to peddle those products, have bloomed.
Before the pandemic set in, Influencer Marketing Hub, a research firm, reported influencer marketing was expected to grow to a $9.7 billion business in 2020, nearly a 50% increase from 2019. More recent evidence suggests that companies are still piling in, even faster than predicted.
Influencer MarketingHub's 2020 report, based on a survey of 4,000 professionals, forecasted a massive rise in the growth of influencer marketing. Courtesy Influencer MarketingHub
In the quarter from June through August, for example, across a sample of 4,500 ecommerce retailers, sales and customers driven to brands' websites through YouTube influencers are up 80% year over year, according to MagicLinks, an L.A.-based social media marketing company that helps firms track the performance of their influencer campaigns. Applications from influencers wishing to use MagicLinks' sales tools have grown nearly fivefold from the start of the pandemic. And across MagicLinks' retail customers, which include the likes of Walmart, Target, L'Oreal and Best Buy, influencer-driven sales are up 115%.
Several other marketing agencies also told dot.LA they've seen increased spending on influencer content, and an expansion of the types of companies that use influencer marketing, compared to pre-COVID.
Part of that is out of necessity. With film production shut down due to the pandemic, traditional commercial advertising was hampered. And with marketing budgets crimped, potentially cheaper advertising routes, such as a well-targeted influencer campaign, grew more attractive.
Influence in the Wake of Ecommerce
The pandemic has also caused ecommerce to skyrocket and led people to spend more time on social media, both of which have increased the supply of potential customers for brands to target with influencers.
"Consumers crave real-life stories and authenticity, and influencers are able to highlight brands in a way that feels real and accessible. We are seeing that during the pandemic, this need is further heightened as more consumers are spending more time on social platforms," Grubhub's director of content and social Mandy Cudahy told dot.LA.
The growing sophistication of data and analytics on the effectiveness of influencer marketing has also helped companies create more targeted ad campaigns likely to reach spenders. For example, tools are improving to help brands find the right influencer, track their ability to drive purchases, and even predict how well an influencer campaign will do.
"There's been a much bigger push around nailing down the attribution and ROI," said Kevin Gould, co-founder of three L.A.-based ecommerce brands that rely heavily on influencer marketing and collectively earn over $60 million in annual revenue.
That push, in turn, is helping to nudge brands that have historically shied away from influencer marketing. Part of what has held them back is the fact that the data from traditional channels like television and radio advertising is far more robust than what's available in the influencer space, if only because it is relatively new.
"You're going up against hard sets of data since like the birth of Macy's, so it didn't become a priority," said Jennifer Piña, MagicLinks' director of brand partnerships. "Now it's being forced to become a priority."
As a result, bigger, more traditional brands are moving into what has until now been a channel primarily used by smaller, direct-to-consumer brands. Tito's Vodka, for instance, ran its first influencer campaign in August with Brooklyn-based First Tube Media. Prior to the campaign, "Tito's had never spent a dollar in influencer marketing," First Tube CEO Andrew Beranbom told dot.LA. Superdry, a publicly-traded British clothing company founded in 1985, is partnering with MagicLinks to launch its first large influencer campaign in advance of the holiday season.
How Influencers Change What We Buy, and What They Make
KFC Crocs, an unholy creation of influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has also given rise to new partnerships between brands that arguably have nothing to do with each other, with influencers as the linchpin linking them together. Examples include a KFC line of Crocs, e.l.f. Cosmetics' Chipotle burrito-inspired handbag and makeup kit, and Forever 21's Cheetos apparel line.
"It's this idea of like, a brand is a brand," said Piña. "What they actually sell or what people purchase from them is oftentimes irrelevant. It's more about the packaging and the moment and the feel and that's what social media does: it creates excitement for something that is not necessarily exciting. Like Crocs: Crocs is like your dad's brand. But it can immediately become cool, at the drop of a pin, once you get the right influencers involved."
Even as data attribution improves and consumers spend more time online in the land of influencers, one key downside to influencer marketing remains: limited control. A company can manage every element of a commercial shoot or Facebook ad, but using an unscripted TikTok or Instagram influencer requires letting go.
"Brands in some categories historically have been super fearful of letting influencers tell their story because it is so important to the sanctity of the brand to keep the messaging really succinct and in line with the brand guidelines," Piña said.
Yet that informality is part of the appeal of influencer marketing.
"Brands get stuck on needing to be perfect or scripted, whereas influencers talk to you like they're your next-door neighbor," said Brian Meert, chief executive of L.A.-based AdvertiseMint, a digital advertising agency. "It's very organic; it doesn't feel like a pushy ask. I think those kinds of elements have enabled us to grow sales for our clients using more of these influencer- and consumer-generated type videos."
Piña noted that while Ralph Lauren, a premium fashion retailer, has been wary of using influencers because of "brand safety," the company recently approached MagicLinks to build out a year-long TikTok strategy. Even as the social video giant's fight with the White House threatened to upend the living of its influencers, TikTok's hold on the traditionally elusive younger demographic – along with other user-generated video platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and Snap – has become increasingly hard for companies to ignore.
"Any brand that wants to connect with Gen Z, and sell whatever product or service they have, has to engage (with these platforms)," said Glenn Ginsburg, SVP of global partnerships at influencer marketing agency The QYOU. "Moving forward I think we'll see brands start to build deeper relationships with influencers."
Not every brand is poised to get the same value from an influencer campaign, however. An influencer is unlikely to save the day for a travel and tourism company ravaged by the pandemic, for instance. And it remains a challenge to reliably execute an influencer campaign, notwithstanding the emergence of new tools to do so.
"A lot still depends on relationships, conversations and trial and error," said Darren Litt, chairman and co-founder of L.A.-based talent marketplace MarketerHire. "A successful influencer campaign requires a detailed understanding of an influencer's brand, and that's hard to do with tech and AI alone."
Achieving the cost-efficiency of a well-targeted campaign also remains most viable for companies that are best positioned to drive online purchases. Using Kim Kardashian to sell clothing that flatters one's figure, for example, is more likely to drive trackable sales than, say, pushing Pepsi.
"For mass-market products looking to reach a broad audience, TV advertising remains effective because you get the upside of wide reach with the downside of limited targeting," said Litt. That's especially true for products that people don't typically purchase online.
But much like a song that goes viral on TikTok can drive a listening bump on streaming platforms like Spotify, so, too, it appears, can an influencer campaign drive offline purchases.
After all, Dunkin' Donuts saw sales surge following its D'Amelio partnership, even though the girl with over 100 million TikTok followers has reportedly never ordered "The Charli" herself.
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Sam Blake primarily covers media and entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA.
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