This LA Startup Just Raised $49M for the Chaos Behind High-Stakes Lawsuits

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday, Los Angeles.

In a startup market obsessed with AI copilots and productivity promises, Steno just raised $49M for something far less glamorous and probably far more durable: the machinery behind depositions, transcripts, and high-stakes litigation. It is the kind of business that sounds boring right up until you realize how much money, urgency, and operational chaos moves through it every day.

The LA legal tech company, which positions itself as both a court reporting service and a software platform, said the Series C was led by Savano Capital Partners, with continued backing from First Round Capital, The Legal Tech Fund, and other strategic investors. Steno plans to use the funding to expand geographically, deepen its reach into the AmLaw 200, and roll out the next evolution of its AI-powered Transcript Genius product.

Steno’s bet is not that lawyers want another standalone AI tool dropped into an already messy workflow. It is betting that the real opportunity is owning more of the process itself, from court reporting and remote depositions to transcript analysis and financing, then using software to make the whole machine run faster.

That is what makes this story interesting: Steno is building around legal work that is already happening, already expensive, and already painful. In a market full of companies trying to invent new behavior, there is something compelling about one focused on making an old, high-friction system work better.

Now, onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

SIGMAS raised a $1M seed round co-led by Mucker Capital and HongShan Capital as the performancewear brand expands from marketplace incubation into a broader direct-to-consumer push. The company, which was incubated through SHEIN’s Supply Chain as a Service program, said it has already launched more than 600 men’s activewear SKUs and plans to use SHOPLINE to support its owned-channel and international growth. - learn more

Solace received an initial $50,000 investment from Audos as part of the launch of the Audos Publishing House, a new platform aimed at helping everyday entrepreneurs build AI-native businesses. The Santa Monica startup, created by founder Sarah Gwilliam after losing her father, is building an AI-powered grief coaching platform focused on active coaching, guided journaling, and memory preservation, with Audos also offering up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding through a 15% revenue-share model. - learn more

Triangle Health emerged with $4M in pre-seed funding after cofounder Arun Verma turned his own brain cancer diagnosis into the inspiration for the company’s AI-powered health navigation platform. The Pasadena startup says its product helps patients gather complete medical records, surface treatment options and clinical trials, and review findings with a licensed physician, with backing from investors including Kevin Mahaffey, Hannah Grey, Antler Criticality Fund, John Hering, Marty Tenenbaum, and Kestrin Pantera. - learn more

Primestor secured a $10M equity investment from New Jersey Community Capital for The Walk, its mixed-use development in Norwalk, marking NJCC’s expansion into Southern California. The 8.2-acre project is planned to include 374 homes, 56 of them affordable, along with about 94,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space as Primestor advances a broader community-focused development effort in the region. - learn more

Sift raised a $42M Series B led by StepStone Group, with GV as its largest investor, bringing total funding to $67M as it builds what it calls an observability layer for hardware engineering. The El Segundo company said the funding will help scale its platform for turning fragmented telemetry from spacecraft, defense systems, autonomous vehicles, and factories into real-time, AI-ready data. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Emmeline Ventures participated in Prickly Pear Health’s follow-on pre-seed round, helping bring the company’s total funding to more than $600,000 alongside existing backers Bayless Ventures and AZ Venture Capital Inc. Prickly Pear said it will use the new capital to accelerate user growth and expand deployments of its AI-powered women’s brain health platform with mental health practices, beginning in Arizona, after surpassing 2,000 active users since launching in 2024. - learn more

Riot Ventures participated in Shield AI’s new financing round, which values the defense tech company at $12.7B and accompanies its planned acquisition of software simulation company Aechelon. Shield AI said the capital will support growth across its autonomy software and broader defense platform, while the Aechelon deal is meant to strengthen its simulation and training capabilities as it scales AI-powered systems for military customers. - learn more

Starshot Capital participated in Rumin8’s latest funding round, which added a new $3M commitment from AgriZeroNZ as the company pushes toward commercializing its methane-reducing livestock feed additives in New Zealand. Rumin8 said the new backing will help support pivotal trials and move it toward final registration, with first commercial sales in New Zealand targeted for 2027. - learn more

Compa Capital participated in Kairos Labs’ $2.4M seed round, which was led by 6th Man Ventures and also included Lattice and Advancit Capital. The company said the funding follows a beta that generated more than $300M in notional swap volume and will help support the launch of its permissionless, non-custodial interest rate swap protocol on Ethereum mainnet and Base in the coming weeks. - learn more

Morpheus Ventures co-led Applied Atomics’ oversubscribed $8.3M seed round, backing the company alongside Transition as it works to deploy full-stack nuclear power plants for industrial infrastructure customers. Applied Atomics said the funding will help bring test and integration stands online, strengthen its supply chain, and move toward deployment, with plans over the next 12 months to secure first host sites and customer agreements, advance NRC Part 50 licensing engagement, and push toward first commercial construction. - learn more

Upfront Ventures participated in Neon’s financing round, which brought in more than $25M in combined equity and credit from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Upper90, and other investors. The company said the new capital brings total funding to nearly $27M following a $1.5M pre-seed led by Upfront, as Neon scales its platform for paying users for anonymized conversation data and supplying that audio and video data to AI labs. - learn more

Helios&Partners participated in WhatIsMyAEO.com’s strategic investment round, backing the platform as it builds free AI-driven brand visibility diagnostics for answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The company said the funding will help scale its open-source efforts and expand access to tools that measure brand citations, sentiment, trust signals, and technical AI-readiness as zero-click search becomes more common. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Moda’s $7.5M seed round, which was led by General Catalyst and also included Pear VC, as the company publicly launched its AI design platform. Moda said its product gives professionals a brand-aware design agent that can generate fully editable presentations, social posts, and other visual assets, and that thousands of beta users are already using it for materials like investor decks and marketing collateral. - learn more

Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Bliss’s R$ 57 million, or about $11M USD, Series A round, which was co-led by Kfund and Grupo Bradesco and also included Actyus. Bliss said the funding will help expand its AI-powered platform for health insurance brokers beyond São Paulo into cities including Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, while adding to its product and technology teams as it works to modernize health-plan sales for SMEs in Brazil. - learn more

MAGIC Fund participated in Guangzhou Weixiao Technology’s new strategic financing round, joining IDG Capital, 37 Interactive Entertainment, and miHoYo in the investment. The company said the new capital will be used to accelerate product development and market expansion, though it did not disclose the size of the round. - learn more

Mantis Venture Capital participated in Doctronic’s $40M Series B, which was co-led by Abstract and Lightspeed Venture Partners and also included Union Square Ventures, Seven Stars, and Tusk Ventures. The company said the new funding follows rapid growth to more than 300,000 weekly users and eight-figure annualized revenue, and will help it expand its AI-powered care platform after becoming the first AI-native system authorized to autonomously renew prescriptions under Utah’s AI Learning Lab. - learn more

LA Exits

RezyFi is being acquired by ECGI Holdings in a $25M transaction that would bring a 29-state licensed mortgage origination platform and about $140M in annual mortgage funding onto ECGI’s platform. ECGI said the deal is meant to pair RezyFi’s lending infrastructure with its mortgage tokenization strategy, following a pilot program to tokenize up to $10M of residential mortgage loans and as it prepares to launch an investor portal. - learn more

Salt & Stone is being acquired by Advent, which signed a deal to buy a majority stake in the Los Angeles premium body care brand. The company said the partnership will help fuel its next phase of global growth after surpassing $165M in revenue in 2025, with founder and CEO Nima Jalali staying on as an equity holder and remaining in leadership alongside President Meagan Rosson and CMO Abby Tellam. - learn more

Victory Holdings signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dunn & Groux Beverage Holdings, marking its move into the functional beverage market. The company said the deal will make DGBH a wholly owned subsidiary and give it a platform to build and scale multiple beverage products around patented fulvic acid formulations and a distribution-first model, with initial expansion focused on California, Arizona, and Texas. - learn more

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Not Every Robot Wants Your Job

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles,

When people talk about the robotics boom, the conversation usually turns to warehouses, defense, humanoids or automation.

But one Los Angeles company is building a very different kind of robot.

Tombot, a local companion robotics startup, closed a $7 million Series A3 round with participation from Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living and Florida Community Health Network to scale production of Jennie, its robotic companion dog. The product is designed for older adults, people with dementia, children with autism and others who may benefit from the emotional comfort of a pet but cannot safely or practically care for a real animal.

It is a quieter kind of robotics story, but a revealing one.

The most common vision of the robotics future is built around productivity: robots that move boxes, patrol borders, assemble parts or perform repetitive tasks. Tombot is aiming at something more personal. Its bet is that robots will not only help people work faster, but also help them feel less alone.

That makes the company part of a broader shift in robotics, where the question is not just “What can a machine do?” but “What role can it play in someone’s daily life?”

The need is real. Aging populations, caregiver shortages and rising demand for dementia care are putting pressure on families and health systems. At the same time, many people who would benefit from animal companionship cannot manage feeding, walking, grooming, vet bills or the safety risks that come with a live pet.

Image Source: Tombot

Tombot’s answer is a robotic dog that behaves like a companion, not a gadget. Jennie is designed to respond to touch, voice and interaction, giving users some of the emotional benefits of pet ownership without the responsibilities of caring for a living animal.

Southern California’s robotics scene is often viewed through the lens of defense, drones, aerospace and manufacturing. Those categories are important. But LA also has deep advantages in design, storytelling, entertainment, consumer products and human-centered technology. A companion robot sits at the intersection of all of those things.

It has to work technically. But it also has to feel right. The movement, expression, texture and emotional cues matter. This is where robotics starts to look less like pure engineering and more like product design, character development and trust-building.

The broader robotics market is still difficult. Hardware is expensive. Manufacturing is hard. Consumer expectations are high. And companion robots have historically been a tricky category, with plenty of hype and uneven adoption.

But Tombot’s traction suggests there may be real demand for robots that solve emotional and caregiving problems, not just operational ones. The company says it has built a large waitlist as it moves toward commercialization, giving it a chance to test whether companion robotics can move from novelty to necessity.

The bigger takeaway is that LA’s robotics future may not fit into one box.

Some companies will build for the battlefield. Some will build for factories. Some will build for space. And some, like Tombot, will build for the living room, the care facility and the family trying to support someone they love.

The robotics boom is often framed as a story about replacing human labor.

This one is about supporting human care.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Cosm received a $100M strategic investment from Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Sony taking a minority stake as the lead investor in Cosm’s Series C financing round. Cosm operates immersive “Shared Reality” venues that use dome-shaped LED screens for live sports, concerts and entertainment experiences, and the funding will support venue expansion and new technology initiatives across sports and entertainment. Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja will join Cosm’s board as part of the deal. - learn more

Pasadena-based Sophia Space finalized a $7M SAFE financing round, bringing its total funding to $22M. The round included participation from EverGreen, The NVIDIA Alumni Investment Network, SparkLabs Group and other strategic investors, with the new capital going toward product development, engineering and commercial hiring, partnerships and deployment across government, commercial and international markets. Sophia Space is building AI-powered infrastructure and intelligent systems for the space economy, including autonomous computing capabilities for orbital and terrestrial environments. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Sound Ventures participated in Warp’s $60M Series B, which was led by Battery Ventures with additional backing from Peak XV and Y Combinator. Warp is building an AI-native employee management platform for payroll, benefits, compliance, onboarding, offboarding and workforce operations, with the new funding bringing its total raised to $85M. The company says the capital will support deeper AI agents, expanded tax and compliance infrastructure, a broader product suite and more customer support. - learn more

Mucker Capital participated in Zave’s ₹4.7 crore bridge round, which was led by Inflection Point Ventures. Zave is building an AI-native shopping assistant that helps consumers discover products, compare prices and make purchase decisions across Amazon, Flipkart and more than 5,000 brand websites. The company plans to use the funding to strengthen its AI product, improve platform reliability and scalability, and support continued user growth. - learn more

B Capital co-led Seltz’s $12.5M seed round alongside Speedinvest, with participation from Future Present, Italian Founders Fund, Arc Investors, United Ventures, Vento Ventures, Mango Capital, 2100 Ventures and Future Back Ventures. Seltz is building web search infrastructure for AI agents, designed for the way agents query the internet: running long, parallel searches, pulling full documents and accessing live web context. The company plans to use the funding to scale its index to tens of billions of documents and build out engineering, sales and marketing. - learn more

Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Caplight’s $16M Series A, which was led by BlackRock and Fin Capital, with strategic participation from UBS Investment Bank. San Francisco-based Caplight is building data, trading and workflow infrastructure for private markets, including secondary market pricing, institutional trading, company and investor intelligence, and AI-powered venture deal sourcing. The company says the new funding will help expand its role in rebuilding the rails for venture capital as private markets become larger, more liquid and more complex. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Coval’s $28M Series A, which was led by Norwest with backing from Base10 Partners, Twilio Ventures, Y Combinator and others. San Francisco-based Coval builds simulation, evaluation and monitoring infrastructure for voice and chat AI agents, helping enterprises test and improve autonomous agents before and after deployment. The company works with more than 60 organizations, including Zoom and Deepgram. - learn more

B Capital participated in Cadence’s $100M Series C, which was led by Spark Capital with additional backing from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Coatue, Corewell Health Ventures, Memorial Hermann and Duke Health. Cadence is a clinical AI company automating chronic care for older adults through supervised AI agents that monitor patient vitals, surface risks and coordinate care between visits. The company now works with more than 20 health systems, treats over 100,000 active patients and will use the funding to expand across new health systems, advance its AI agents and grow value-based care models. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Partly’s $50M Series B, which was led by DST Global Partners. Partly is building AI-powered infrastructure for the auto repair industry, helping repairers, insurers and parts suppliers identify and source the right vehicle parts as cars become more complex. The new funding will support Partly’s push to bring frontier AI into repair workflows and reduce friction across the global replacement parts market. - learn more

Döpfner Capital participated in Stark Defence’s €500M funding round, which was backed by major investors including Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund and valued the German drone company at roughly €3.2B to €3.5B. Stark develops unmanned defense systems, including loitering munitions, and plans to use the funding to expand R&D and manufacturing capacity across Europe. The raise comes as European defense tech continues attracting significant investor interest amid rising military spending and demand for autonomous systems. - learn more

Smash Capital led Redo’s $81M Series B, with participation from existing investors Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures, valuing the commerce technology company at a reported $1.25B. Draper, Utah-based Redo started in returns and exchanges but has expanded into a broader post-purchase and AI-powered commerce platform covering order tracking, package protection, fulfillment, customer service, marketing and shopper engagement. The funding will support product development, AI initiatives and international expansion. - learn more

Wavemaker 360 Health participated in ChemT Biotechnology’s $4M seed round, which was led by Wavemaker Ventures with participation from co-investment partner SEEDS. Singapore-based ChemT has raised $5M total in 18 months and is building AI infrastructure for biomanufacturing, including its CelMo virtual cell platform, which helps manufacturers model and guide cell behavior to improve biologics production, scalability and cost. The funding will support expansion of ChemT’s AI and experimental infrastructure, advancement of its molecular products toward GMP standards and broader commercial partnerships. - learn more

LA Exits

The New Bar, a Venice-born non-alcoholic beverage discovery platform, was acquired by The Zero Proof. The deal combines The New Bar’s hospitality, live events and cultural partnerships with The Zero Proof’s national e-commerce, owned brand portfolio and retail distribution platform. The New Bar’s leadership will join The Zero Proof, with founder Brianda Gonzalez becoming Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships. - learn more

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Snap May Have Finally Found AR’s Moment

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

Snap has spent years trying to make augmented reality feel less like a demo and more like a daily habit. This week, it introduced its latest attempt.

At Augmented World Expo, Santa Monica-based Snap unveiled SPECS, its new standalone augmented reality glasses. The device is designed to bring AI assistance, work tools, entertainment and shared experiences into the physical world without requiring a phone, puck or tether.

The pitch is not simply “screens on your face.” Snap is trying to position SPECS as a different kind of computer: one that can understand what you are looking at, respond to your surroundings and make AI useful in the moment. That could mean directions placed where you need them, a virtual workspace that travels with you or AI assistance that sees the same context you do.

The developer piece may be just as important as the hardware. Snap says developers have already built hundreds of Lenses for SPECS, and the company is rolling out new tools inside Lens Studio, including agentic development support through Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, a new Native Development Kit and a spatial benchmark for AR experiences.

That matters because AR has always had a chicken-and-egg problem: impressive demos, but not enough everyday reasons to wear the device. Snap is trying to solve that by building not only the glasses, but the software, developer tools, operating system, computer vision stack and creative ecosystem around them.

Specs

SPECS are available for pre-order at $2,195, with a $200 refundable deposit, and are expected to ship this fall in the U.S., U.K. and France.

For Snap, the bigger question is whether augmented reality can finally move from developer demos and futuristic keynote moments into something people actually want to use. SPECS are its latest answer, but the real test will be whether developers can build experiences useful enough to make the glasses feel less like a gadget and more like a habit.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Critical Energy raised $19M in seed funding co-led by Upfront Ventures and Susa Ventures, and also secured $3M in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing its total early capital to $22M. Founded by SpaceX alum Spencer Jackson, the company is adapting rocket-engine-style turbomachinery for modular geothermal power plants and plans to use the funding to build its first 2.5 MW project. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Group 11 co-led Dream’s $260M funding round alongside Bicycle Capital, with participation from Antler, Bain Capital Ventures, Tru Arrow Partners and other investors. Dream builds sovereign AI and cyber defense technology for governments and critical infrastructure operators, with the new funding valuing the company at $3B and bringing total funding to $412M. The company plans to use the capital to expand its national cyber defense and AI platforms across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. - learn more

Undeterred Ventures participated in Portal Biotechnologies’ oversubscribed $9M financing round, which was led by NFX with backing from existing investors including IA Ventures, Pear VC, IKJ Capital and TechU Ventures. Watertown-based Portal is building cell engineering infrastructure for drug discovery, AI data generation and cell therapy manufacturing, using its mechanoporation platform to deliver RNA, gene editors and other molecules into hard-to-transfect cells. The company also expanded its DARPA work through an Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative contract tied to point-of-care cell therapy manufacturing and says its platform has been adopted by more than 100 customer sites. - learn more

Clocktower Ventures participated in Trace Finance’s $32M Series A, which was led by CoinFund with backing from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Crypto, Valor Capital, Paxos, HOF Capital and others. Trace Finance is building regulated banking and stablecoin infrastructure for cross-border payments across Brazil, the U.S. and emerging markets, combining local payment rails, FX, compliance operations and stablecoin settlement. The company has processed more than $10B in institutional cross-border volume and will use the funding to expand product capabilities and grow across LatAm, APAC and other priority markets. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Vedana Therapeutics’ $46M Series A, which was co-led by Westlake BioPartners and Canaan Partners, with additional participation from Dawn Biopharma. Seattle-based Vedana is developing next-generation preventive migraine therapies, including antibody-based treatments targeting PACAP and CGRP pathways, with the funding going toward advancing its internally discovered portfolio of subcutaneously delivered antibodies. - learn more

Fulcrum Capital participated in HighGround’s $6.5M seed round, which was led by Next Frontier Capital with additional backing from Tandem Ventures and Context Ventures. HighGround is building an intelligence platform for defense and aerospace capital markets, helping investors, operators and advisors analyze government spending, procurement signals, deal risks and market demand. The funding will support expanded data coverage and deeper analytical models for defense-focused investment and business development workflows. - learn more

Bonfire Ventures participated in Vali Health’s $6M funding round, alongside Supernode, Comma Capital and healthcare industry veteran Jacquelyn Kung. San Francisco-based Vali Health is building responsible AI infrastructure for healthcare, helping providers and health systems evaluate, monitor and safely deploy AI tools across clinical and administrative workflows. - learn more

Clocktower Ventures participated in Karta’s $15M Series A, which was led by Galaxy Ventures, with additional backing from Canary and Illuminate Financial. Miami-based Karta is building a WhatsApp-first premium U.S. credit card for non-U.S. clients, helping global travelers with U.S. bank or brokerage accounts access dollar-denominated spending power without needing a traditional U.S. credit history. The company also secured a $125M credit facility from Community Investment Management, bringing its total new financing to $140M. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in Triveni Bio’s $65M Series C, which was co-led by Ascenta Capital and Janus Henderson Investors, with significant participation from Deep Track Capital. Watertown-based Triveni is developing antibody treatments for immunological and inflammatory disorders, with the funding going toward expanding clinical development of TRIV-573, its bispecific antibody targeting atopic dermatitis, including a larger Phase 2 proof-of-concept study expected to begin later this year. - learn more

WndrCo participated in XDOF’s $70M funding round, alongside investors including Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z and Lux Capital. XDOF is building robotics data infrastructure for AI labs, handling the unglamorous but critical work of collecting, labeling and organizing real-world robot training data. The company says it already works with about 20 customers, including several frontier AI labs. - learn more

Fika Ventures participated in SubBase’s $7M Series A, which was led by FINTOP and brings the company’s total funding to more than $15M. Ft. Lauderdale-based SubBase is a construction materials procurement platform that helps specialty trade contractors and self-performing general contractors manage pricing requests, orders, supplier communication, delivery tracking and invoice reconciliation in one system. The company plans to use the funding to expand product and engineering, deepen supplier integrations and build more AI-driven workflow and intelligence features. - learn more

Upfront Ventures participated in Bland’s $50M Series C, which was led by Dell Technologies Capital with additional participation from HubSpot Ventures, Archerman Capital and Tribeca Venture Partners. San Francisco-based Bland builds voice AI agents for complex phone, SMS and chat conversations, with a focus on longer, high-stakes workflows in regulated industries like healthcare and financial services. The round brings Bland’s total funding to more than $100M. - learn more

Impatient Ventures participated in Traysar’s $25M seed round, which was led by Silent Ventures and included backing from Lux Capital, Ora Global, NeverLift VC, Mana, New Vista, Entree Capital and angel investors. Traysar emerged from stealth at the 2026 Reindustrialize Summit as a subterranean defense tech company building autonomous “subterra” platforms designed to detect, penetrate and secure underground environments. The company says its technology is aimed at addressing underground military facilities and other hard-to-reach subsurface domains. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Swsh’s $4M seed round, which was led by Game Changers Ventures with additional backing from Stellation Capital, SignalFire and angel investors including Scooter Braun and Guy Oseary. Swsh is building an AI-powered fan engagement platform for live events, helping artists, teams and brands organize fan-captured photos and videos while turning that content into audience insights and first-party engagement data. - learn more

B Capital led SolarSquare Energy’s $53M Series C, backing the Mumbai-based residential rooftop solar company as investor interest grows in India’s home solar market. The round valued SolarSquare at roughly $450M–$500M and included participation from existing investors including Lightspeed, Lowercarbon Capital, Rainmatter by Zerodha and Good Capital. SolarSquare plans to use the funding to expand into new cities, strengthen its technology platform and scale operations. - learn more

LA Exits

Mavida Health, a digital mental health company focused on women and families, was acquired by WPS Health Solutions. The deal expands WPS’ digital health capabilities with Mavida’s virtual therapy, medication management and specialized mental health support across fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, loss, parenting and menopause. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

Vica, an AI video startup focused on helping small businesses create cinematic-quality marketing content, was acquired by Addi. The acquisition brings Vica’s AI video capabilities into Addi’s growth platform for Main Street businesses, which combines financial intelligence with marketing tools to help small businesses attract and retain customers. - learn more

GateMaker, a female-founded influencer marketing agency, was added to Residence, the Los Angeles-based global network of independent creative companies. The deal brings GateMaker’s creator economy expertise across paid, earned and owned influencer relationships into Residence’s broader creative network, which also includes companies like BUCK, OK COOL, Giant Ant, Part & Sum and Wild. - learn more

Gavel, an AI-native legal tech company used by legal professionals to draft, review and automate legal work in Microsoft Word and on the web, was acquired by Relativity. The deal will bring Gavel’s drafting, redlining and document automation tools into Relativity’s legal data intelligence platform, allowing work product created in RelativityOne and Relativity aiR to be edited in Microsoft Word while syncing back to the underlying matter data. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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Evotrex Raises $30M to Electrify the RV

Grace Lee

Evotrex

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

The RV has not changed much in decades: tow it, park it, plug it in and hope the campground has enough power. Evotrex is betting the next version should act less like a trailer and more like a mobile energy system.

Los Angeles-based Evotrex raised a $30M Series A, bringing its total funding to $46M, to accelerate production of its Evotrex-PG5 electric RV trailer. The round included participation from GSR United Capital, Forebright Concerto Capital, Unique Capital, Pegasus Capital, TTGG Ventures, ChunJia Capital, Thundersoft and other investors.

The PG5 is designed as both an RV and a mobile power platform, combining onboard power generation, energy storage and intelligent energy management in one off-grid trailer. In other words, Evotrex is not just selling a place to sleep outdoors. It is building a rolling power system for camping, remote work, events, mobile businesses and backup energy.

The timing lines up with a few bigger trends at once: EV adoption, off-grid travel, distributed energy and consumers treating vehicles as extensions of the home. That puts Evotrex at the intersection of several hard categories: vehicles, energy storage, consumer hardware and outdoor lifestyle.

The company plans to use the funding for final product development, automotive-standard testing and validation, and production preparation ahead of planned customer deliveries in 2027. Starting in Q4 2026, Evotrex expects to begin testing across towing, range, braking, lateral stability, structural durability, water exposure and regulatory compliance.

That testing phase matters. It is one thing to create a sleek prototype. It is another to build something that can be towed, powered, lived in and trusted far from a charging station or service center.

Evotrex says roughly 90% of its order book is for the fully loaded Premium trim, priced at $159,990, which it plans to prioritize for initial deliveries. That suggests early buyers are treating the PG5 less like a basic camper and more like a high-end mobile living product.

Now Evotrex has to prove the hardest thing in hardware: that the product works as well on the road as it does in the renderings.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Poetic raised a $50M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins to scale its enterprise AI automation platform. Formerly known as Forge, the company builds software that “learns like AI but runs like code,” helping automate complex, high-stakes business processes across areas like financial services, insurance, healthcare and other regulated industries. The funding will support product development, hiring and broader customer deployment. - learn more

Leaf Agriculture raised a $13M Series B led by Leaps by Bayer and a group of industry strategic investors. The agtech company helps agriculture businesses clean, structure and manage farm data from machinery, soil labs, weather stations, satellites and farm management systems so they can build AI tools and analytics on top of it. The funding will support Leaf’s push to become a core data infrastructure layer for agribusiness.. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

UP.Partners participated in Coram AI’s $35M Series B, which was co-led by Ansa Capital and Battery Ventures, with additional backing from 8VC and Mosaic Ventures. Sunnyvale-based Coram AI turns existing security infrastructure, including cameras, badge readers, visitor logs and emergency systems, into an AI-powered physical security platform that helps organizations detect incidents, investigate footage and respond faster. The company has now raised $66M total and is deployed across more than 1,500 sites in North America. - learn more

Smash Capital participated in Digital Asset’s $355M funding round, which was led by a16z crypto and included backing from major financial institutions and investors including ADIA, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, Coinbase Ventures, HSBC, Polychain, SoFi, Tradeweb and others. Digital Asset is the creator of Canton, a public layer-one blockchain built for regulated financial markets, and will use the funding to expand Canton’s ecosystem across tokenization, settlement, payments, collateral mobility and other institutional finance workflows. - learn more

Alexandria Venture Investments participated in SonoThera’s oversubscribed $125M Series B, which was led by Vida Ventures and included backing from ARK Invest, CureDuchenne Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, UCB Ventures, Vivo Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, RA Capital and others. SonoThera is developing ultrasound-mediated, nonviral genetic medicines designed to deliver DNA and RNA payloads without traditional viral vectors, with the funding going toward advancing its lead programs in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease into the clinic. - learn more

Wavemaker 360 participated in Lium’s $5.5M seed round, alongside SJF Ventures, Reach Capital and GC&H Investments. Formerly known as Astromind, Dallas-based Lium is building an “agentic harness” that helps large language models work with complex scientific and industrial datasets, including satellite imagery, seismic surveys and electromagnetic spectrum analysis. The platform is designed to make messy, non-text data easier for scientists, engineers and industrial teams to query and analyze with AI. - learn more

Riot Ventures participated in Endurance Energy’s $54M Series A, which was led by Founders Fund with additional backing from Ascend, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Point72 Ventures and Voyager Ventures. Founded by former SpaceX engineer Andrew Redd, Endurance is developing subsea geothermal power plants designed to tap volcanic heat deep in the ocean and provide 24/7 clean energy for rising demand from AI data centers, EVs and heavy industry. The funding will support development of its power plant plans as the company grows its team. - learn more

Wavemaker 360 participated in 01Health’s $15M Series A, which was led by Gresham House Ventures, with follow-on backing from Balderton Capital and Eka Ventures. 01Health is building a healthtech platform that brings specialist care into local clinics through clinical protocols, specialist oversight, AI tools, patient communication and monitoring systems, with the funding supporting its UK rollout and U.S. market expansion. - learn more

Calibrate Ventures led Flux’s $5M funding round, with participation from existing investors True Ventures and Glasswing Ventures. Boston-based Flux is building a code-first engineering intelligence platform that analyzes code changes to give engineering leaders visibility into quality, security, technical debt and team dynamics as AI reshapes software development. The funding will support product development and go-to-market growth. - learn more

Village Global led MNX’s $6.4M pre-seed round, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Cambrian, North Island Ventures, Relay Digital and angel investors. MNX is building a MegaETH-based decentralized futures exchange for the AI economy, with planned markets tied to AI company valuations, GPU compute prices, electricity costs, AI benchmarks and prediction markets. The company was valued at $40M in the round and plans to launch mainnet this summer. - learn more

Mantis Venture Capital participated in Sandstone’s $30M Series A, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with additional backing from SV Angel, Operator Partners, Kearny Jackson, Daybreak Ventures and Litquidity Ventures. Sandstone is building AI-powered workflow automation for in-house legal teams, helping companies manage legal requests from tools like Slack, email and Jira while automating intake, triage, drafting, review and analysis. The round brings Sandstone’s total funding to $40M. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Idilio’s $5.5M seed round, alongside a16z Speedrun, Goodwater Capital, Precursor Ventures and other investors. Idilio is building an AI-powered microdrama platform for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audiences, producing short-form drama series at the intersection of telenovelas and vertical mobile video. The funding will support platform development, expanded content offerings and the launch of its Idilio Creators program. - learn more

Mantis Venture Capital and Village Global participated in Pogo’s $32M in funding to date, alongside investors including Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures, 20VC, Lenny Rachitsky and the founders of Honey. Pogo is launching an AI-powered consumer research platform built around purchase-verified buyers, helping brands run surveys, AI-moderated interviews and behavioral research using verified transaction, receipt, app usage and location data from its opted-in consumer network. The company says its app has more than 3M users and visibility into more than $470B in transaction value. - learn more

Mantis Venture Capital participated in EDGE Markets’ $29.2M Series A, which was led by CoinFund with backing from Indicator Ventures, Stepstone Group and Bullpen Capital. EDGE Markets builds financial infrastructure for gaming, crypto and prediction markets, and will use the funding to launch EDGE Pro, a banking platform for market makers, and EDGE Connect, a purpose-built payment rail for regulated gaming and prediction market operators. - learn more

MTech Capital participated in Finovox’s €8.2M Series A, which was led by TX Ventures and included backing from Auriga Cyber Ventures II, Start Ventures, Force Over Mass and FDJ UNITED Ventures. Paris-based Finovox builds AI-powered document fraud detection software for financial services, insurance and other regulated industries, and will use the funding to expand across Europe, strengthen its technology and grow its team. The company says it now serves more than 70 organizations across 15 countries. - learn more

LA Exits

RiskFront AI was acquired by K2 Integrity, bringing its agentic AI platform for financial crime compliance and risk operations into K2’s broader risk, compliance, investigations and monitoring business. RiskFront AI’s platform, Airos, automates research, transaction analysis and document processing to reduce manual work across financial crime and compliance workflows. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

LevPro was acquired by Octus, bringing its front-office software for CLO, broadly syndicated loan and private credit managers into Octus’ credit intelligence platform. LevPro will join Sky Road to help create an integrated AI-powered platform spanning market intelligence, investment analytics, trade workflows, portfolio management and monitoring. Financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

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