LA Tech Week 2025: Thursday’s Event Lineup

LA Tech Week 2025: Thursday’s Event Lineup

Here's the Thursday, October 16th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

ARTS DISTRICT

7:30 AM

  • The Crossover | Presented by Crosscourt + Silicon Valley Bank: *Invite Only*
    Crosscourt, Silicon Valley Bank

10:00 AM

  • The Experience Economy: Tech-Enabled Engagement + Consumer Connection: See Details Here
    FUZE Technology

BEVERLY HILLS

1:00 PM

  • Power of Partnership: Building Breakthrough Brands: See Details Here
    NINICO Communications

2:00 PM

  • AI in Animation Films & Verticals Workshop: See Details Here
    Stars Collective, Leyline Pro AI

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

  • Inside Hutton: Curated by The Agency Art House: See Details Here
    The Agency Art House

6:00 PM - 10:00 PM

  • Elevate Fall Soirée | Caviar Tasting & Champagne: See Details Here
    Elevate Collective, LLC

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Manhattan Institute: Therapy or Indoctrination? The Battle Over Childhood Mental Health: See Details Here
    Manhattan Institute

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

6:30 PM

  • LightDAO in Action: Bridging Technology & Humanity: See Details Here
    Light Dao, EVOLVING POTENTIAL

BRENTWOOD

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

6:15 PM

BURBANK

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM

CENTURY CITY

9:00 AM - 8:00 PM

  • A4LI Longevity Investors Summit: See Details Here
    The Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, Zuber Lawler LLP

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • From Startup to Exit: Navigating M&A with Confidence: See Details Here
    Fox Rothschild

1:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • The Future of Creator Finance: Instant Payments, Enterprise Scale
    Splitz App

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

6:30 PM

CULVER CITY

8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

9:00 AM

  • Resilience and Reinvention: Capital Strategies for a Shifting Landscape: See Details Here
    Cap Table Coalition, Sisters With Ventures, Emmeline Ventures

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

  • Elevated Game: The Rise of the Athlete - Investor: See Details Here
    Elevated Sports Group, Improve Your Game

11:00 AM

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

2:00 PM

  • Coeus Collective Pitch Competition
    Coeus Collective

6:00 PM

  • Prompt & Presence: The AI Marketing Salon: *Invite Only*
    Share Ventures

DTLA

5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

8:00 PM

EL SEGUNDO

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Software for Hardware Panel & Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Space Happy Hour, Perkins Coie

5:00 PM

  • Navigating DC: How LA Defense Tech Startups Can Shape the Future of National Security: See Details Here
    APCO

6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

HAWTHORNE

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

HOLLYWOOD

8:30 PM - 2:30 PM

  • Hollywood 3.0 - Phygital Convergence @TCL Chinese Theatre: See Details Here
    Hollywood Broadcast Studios @ TCL Chinese Theatres, Caltech Center for Technology & Management Educations world-renowned AI/ML and executive education programs

11:30 PM

  • Anti-Age Science: Precision, Unlimited: See Details Here
    Monach Athletic Club, The Reason Longevity, AI Intelligence

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

1:30 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Family Offices Investors Summit-Dinner-Tour: See Details Here
    Family Offices Investors Summit, QE Media, Lux Angeles Studios, BlackRock

KOREATOWN

5:00 PM

  • ¡Salud!: *Invite Only*
    Zócalo Health

LONG BEACH

9:00 AM

9:00 AM

  • Cars, Coffee & Vertical Software - Long Beach: See Details Here
    V1, Vacant.com, Grid

5:00 PM

MALIBU

3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Female Investors + Founders Mixer: See Details Here
    Reitler, Mercer Advisors, EisnerAmper

MAR VISTA

6:00 PM

6:15 PM

  • Smoov x Stars Align Founder Investor Matches: See Details Here
    Smoov, Stars Align

MARINA DEL REY

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

  • Defense & Startup Innovation, DoD/ARL Collaboration: Unleashing American Drone Dominance: See Details Here
    Rhoman Aerospace, Army Research Laboratory, USC Information Sciences Institute

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

  • Inside the Minds Building the Robots: See Details Here
    USC Information Sciences Institute, Newmark

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

  • Silicon Beach Mixer: See Details Here
    USC Information Sciences Institute, Newmark

6:00 PM

  • NBA Foundation: *Invite Only*
    NBA Foundation

6:30 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

PASADENA

6:00 PM

  • Pasadena Tech Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Innovate Pasadena, Google Developers Group, City of Pasadena

PLAYA DEL REY

5:00 PM

PLAYA VISTA

9:00 AM

  • Tech Detox! "Meet & Greet in the Wetlands Hike": *Invite Only*
    Loyola Marymount University

SANTA MONICA

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

  • AI for Acquisition: Real Talk Between Military and Tech: See Details Here
    Authorium

8:00 AM

  • The LA Grind and Polsinelli's Curated Coffee & Tech Mixer: See Details Here
    Polsinelli LLP, The LA Grind

8:00 AM

  • WebCongress LA: Future Ready: *Invite Only*
    WebCongress Inc.

9:30 AM

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM

  • VC & Founders Breakfast Mixer w/ Qapita, Remofirst: See Details Here
    Qapita, Remofirst

10:00 AM

10:00 AM

10:00 AM

11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

  • Female Founders & Funders: Official Treasure Hunt: See Details Here
    Sponstar, Jadeva, Arbitrum, Fabric VC, Moonwalker Capital

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

  • Building, Scaling & Funding HardTech - Lunch&Panel: See Details Here
    Conduit Venture Labs, Intent Software Development, Duro Labs, Second Order Effects

12:30 PM – 3:30 PM

2:00 PM

2:00 PM

2:30 PM

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Building Faster: AI for Architecture & Construction: See Details Here
    Blueprints AI

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

  • Citizens x Orrick x Deel - Pickleball: See Details Here
    Deel, Citizens Private Bank

3:00 PM

  • Branding In Public: See a Unicorn Rise And Leave With the Blueprint to Build Your Own: See Details Here
    Expert Dojo, Camino5

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Investing in the Future: A Conversation with Women Founders: See Details Here
    a16z speedrun, The 98

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

  • Top Gun: Defense Tech x Beach Volleyball: See Details Here
    Stell Engineering, Fulcrum Venture Group

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Hard Tech - Happy Hour: See Details Here
    Conduit Venture Labs, intent software development, duro labs, Second Order Effects

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • Indra AI: Consumer Data, Reimagined - Understand What Matters. Act on it. See it Work.: See Details Here
    Indra Intelligence

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Exclusive Beach Club Party for Top Founders & Operators – Tinder x Wonder Ventures: See Details Here
    Tinder, Wonder Ventures

4:00 PM

4:30 PM

  • Building the Creator Economy: from capital to code: See Details Here
    Wells Fargo TMT Investment Banking, Pioneer Square Labs, Yamaha Music Innovations Fund, DLA Piper

4:45 PM

5:00 PM

  • Preccelerator Demo Day
    Stubbs Alderton & Markiles Preccelerator

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • Fintech Founders & Investors: See Details Here
    Rivonia Road Capital, Everywhere Ventures

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

5:00 PM

5:00 PM – 7:45 PM

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • AI Founders and Funders Happy Hour: *Invite Only*
    Databricks

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Reed Smith LLP® presents The Investor Dating Game™ by TCVN™ hosted at OneDigital®: *Invite Only*
    TCVN

5:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • Unplug + Align: A Serene Sound Bath by the Sea: See Details Here
    What to Where, Velvet Tones

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

  • Soundromeda presents the Future of Music: See Details Here
    Soundromeda, Crypto Fridays, New Friendship Tech

5:30 PM

5:30 PM

5:30 PM

  • LA CISO Dinner: *Invite Only*
    a16z

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Kara Nortman Fireside Chat presented by Mofo, host Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs SoCal: See Details Here
    Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs of Socal

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

  • How to Influence Brand Visibility in the AI Era: See Details Here
    SUSO Digital, Moxie Communications Group

6:00 PM

  • AI Workflow Automation Happy Hour: *Invite Only*
    Aparavi

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • Stripe x Favorited Present: From 0 to 1 - Insights on Scaling in LA and the Future of AI: See Details Here
    Stripe

6:00 PM

  • Building NextGen Healthcare 🏥: See Details Here
    HEALTHCARE *by design*, Axle Health

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

6:00 PM

6:00 PM

  • ParadoxUniverse.com: IMMERSIVE, LIVE EXPERIENCE: See Details Here
    ParadoxUniverse.com

6:15 PM

6:30 PM

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

  • Tech Meets Culture: Connect & Innovate with MaC Ventures: See Details Here
    MaC Venture Capital, Perkins Coie

6:30 PM

  • TBPN x Ramp: Founder & Finance Table: *Invite Only*
    Ramp, TBPN

6:30 PM

  • Influence & inspiration : Lessons From The World's Most Competitive Stage: See Details Here
    Expert Dojo, Camino5

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

  • Burnout Reset: A Nervous System Recharge + Connection Experience: See Details Here
    Tania Hansraj Hypnotherapy and Healing

7:00 PM

  • The Winning Stack: Cloud, Chips, and AI Agents: *Invite Only*
    Lola Vision Systems, Nvidia, Sherpa Clouds

7:00 PM

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

7:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • Evoke Muse Round Table Series: *Invite Only*
    Evoke Muse

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

  • LABEL IQ AI - THE NASDAQ FOR AI MUSIC - LIVE DEMO + AI ARTIST MEETUP: See Details Here
    LABEL IQ AI

8:00 PM

  • The Next Wave
    Wollen Labs

VENICE

9:00 AM

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

9:30 AM

  • Next Stop Europe – International Tech Breakfast: See Details Here
    NRW.Global Business, CMS

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

  • Business of Wellness, Building Brands for Longevity: See Details Here
    J.P. Morgan

4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

  • AI x Games: Playing with Inference Mixer: See Details Here
    Jam & Tea Studios, Clementine

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

5:00 PM

  • From Prompt to Protection: Creating & Securing AI Enhanced Works: See Details Here
    The Law Firm of Shivani Honwad LLC, Doniger Burroughs

6:00 PM

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

6:00 PM

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

6:30 PM

  • Expanding the Boundaries of Storytelling with GenAI: See Details Here
    Promise, Curious Refuge

VENICE BEACH

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

6:00 PM

VIRTUAL (LA)

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

12:00 PM

  • Democratizing Startup IP: Free Patents for Founders: See Details Here
    Idea Cleark (powered by Paximal)

1:00 PM

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

WEST HOLLYWOOD

3:00 PM

  • Ecos Group: *Invite Only*
    Ecos Group

5:00 PM

  • US-APAC Capital Bridges: Funding AI & Biotech in 2025–26: *Invite Only*
    Reynold Lemkins Group

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

  • Queer Tech IRL Launch Party hosted by JP Morgan and Build Momentum: See Details Here
    Build Momentum

6:00 PM

  • Game Changers: Sports, Tech and Entertainment Dinner: *Invite Only*
    Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

  • $10K Elevator Pitch Competition: See Details Here
    Hands On Angel LLC, KOO Capital

8:00 PM

  • The Frontier: VIP Reception: *Invite Only*
    Cerebral Valley, UBS

9:00 PM

10:00 PM

WESTSIDE

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

  • ScentHaus: A Sensory Salon Experience Powered by Gallery AI: See Details Here
    GalleryAI

WESTWOOD

4:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Face to Face with Investors: See Details Here
TCA Venture Group, Bruin Angels, UCLA Anderson School of Management


For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

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Valar Atomics Wants to Power AI, Literally

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, Los Angeles.

This week’s spotlight belongs to a startup chasing one of the biggest and messiest questions in tech right now: where all the power for AI is actually supposed to come from. El Segundo-based Valar Atomics, founded by Isaiah Taylor, is reportedly raising $450 million at a $2 billion valuation to build clusters of small nuclear reactors aimed at powering data centers and other energy-hungry industrial sites.

That is not a subtle ambition. On its website, Valar says it wants to build “hundreds of nuclear reactors” on what it calls gigasites, focusing on grid-independent products including data center power, hydrogen, heavy industrial power, and clean hydrocarbon fuels. Its reactor approach is based on high-temperature gas reactor design principles using TRISO fuel, and the company is explicitly pitching its model as a way to meet the surge in power demand coming from AI.

Valar’s investor roster also helps explain why the company has drawn so much attention. The startup is backed by Palmer Luckey and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, and its earlier $130M round in November 2025 was led by Snowpoint Ventures.

What makes the story especially interesting is that this is not just another AI infrastructure company talking about faster chips or more efficient software. It is a bet that the next bottleneck is electricity itself, and that the winning response might look a lot more like hard infrastructure than cloud optimization. In a market full of startups promising to power the future metaphorically, Valar is making a much stranger and bolder claim: it wants to do it literally.

The company is also moving with unusual speed. Valar says it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to achieve criticality on American soil by July 4, 2026 under the administration’s accelerated nuclear program, and related company materials tie its Project NOVA work to the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Whether that timeline proves realistic or not, it tells you something important about the kind of company this wants to be: not a distant science project, but a startup trying to force nuclear power onto AI’s timetable.

And maybe that is the bigger LA angle here. For all the conversation around software, content, and consumer apps, Southern California keeps producing founders who are drawn to the hard stuff: defense, aerospace, energy, logistics, real-world systems with real-world constraints. Valar may still have plenty to prove, but it is hard to accuse this one of thinking small.

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

🤝 Venture Deals

                  LA Venture Funds

                  • Matter Venture Partners participated in Anvil Robotics’ $5.5M seed round, which it led and which also included Humba Ventures, DNX Ventures, Vivek Sodera, Spacecadet Ventures, and Position Ventures. Anvil said it is building a kind of “Legos for robots” platform for physical AI teams, with open-source custom robots that can ship in one to two days, and has already delivered more than 100 units globally while surpassing seven figures in revenue. - learn more
                  • WndrCo led daydream’s $15M Series A, backing the AI-native SEO agency alongside First Round Capital and Basis Set Ventures. daydream said the round brings total funding to $21M and will be used to accelerate hiring, product development, and go-to-market expansion as it combines SEO agents with human experts to help companies navigate both traditional search and AI search. - learn more
                  • Embark Ventures participated in Via Separations’ $36M funding round, which also brought in new strategic backing from Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Via said the capital will help deploy more commercial projects and expand its membrane-based industrial filtration platform into refining and chemicals, building on commercial traction in pulp and paper and a pilot completed at a major Gulf Coast refinery. - learn more
                  • Finality Capital Partners co-led Alien’s $7.1M round alongside Initialized, backing the company’s push to build identity infrastructure for both humans and AI agents. According to the X post announcing the raise, Alien plans to use the funding to develop unique identity systems at a time when proving whether an entity online is human or agentic is becoming increasingly important. - learn more
                  • M13 participated in OpenFX’s $94M Series A, as the company builds API infrastructure for global FX liquidity. OpenFX said it now moves more than $45B a year across borders, settles 98% of transactions in under 60 minutes, and plans to use the funding to expand its institutional-grade, API-first platform for cross-border payments and treasury operations. - learn more
                  • M13 led Jimini Health’s $17M seed round, backing the company alongside Town Hall Ventures, LionBird, Zetta Venture Partners, and OneMind as it builds a clinician-supervised AI platform for behavioral health. Jimini said the funding will help scale Sage into more care settings and deepen partnerships with major behavioral health providers across the U.S., positioning it as a safer alternative to unsupervised consumer AI tools for mental health support. - learn more
                  • MANTIS Venture Capital participated in depthfirst’s $80M Series B, which was led by Meritech Capital and also included Forerunner Ventures, The House Fund, Accel, Box Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Alt Capital. The company said the new funding will be used to train additional security models, grow its AI research team, and scale enterprise adoption as it builds an AI-native platform for software security and launches its first in-house security model. - learn more
                  • Freeflow Ventures participated in TippingPoint Biosciences’ $4.5M seed round, joining SOSV, LKS Fund, Sazze Partners, StoryHouse Ventures, Sontag Innovation Fund, BrightEdge, XEIA Venture Partners, West Coast Angel Network, and others. The company said the financing will help de-risk its epigenetic discovery platform as it works to translate chromatin biology into new therapeutics. - learn more

                                    LA Exits

                                    • Warner Music Group agreed to acquire Revelator, a B2B music platform focused on digital distribution, rights management, royalty accounting, and real-time analytics for independent labels, artists, and distributors. WMG said the deal will strengthen its distribution and label services business, expand the tools available through its labels and ADA, and allow Revelator to keep serving its existing customers while scaling through WMG’s global infrastructure. - learn more
                                    • Omni Agent Solutions has been acquired by Fortress Investment Group, which said the deal will provide long-term capital and resources to expand Omni’s tech-forward platform for bankruptcy and restructuring case administration. Omni said the investment will support continued technology development and scale across services such as claims management, noticing, solicitation support, securities services, disbursements, and call center operations, while its executive and operational teams remain in place. - learn more
                                    • Apium Swarm Robotics is being acquired by Red Cat, adding its distributed control technology for autonomous swarming drones and uncrewed surface vessels to Red Cat’s broader defense platform. Red Cat said Apium will continue operating independently while its autonomy stack is integrated across the business to strengthen coordinated multi-agent operations in contested and communications-degraded environments. - learn more
                                    • HOPWTR is being fully acquired by Constellation Brands, which first invested in the non-alcoholic sparkling water brand through its venture arm in 2021. Constellation said the deal strengthens its no- and low-alcohol portfolio as consumer demand in the space grows, while HOPWTR is expected to keep operating as it does today in the near term with CEO Jordan Bass remaining involved. - learn more

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                                                              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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                                                                                                                              Arc’s $50M Push Into Commercial Maritime

                                                                                                                              🔦 Spotlight

                                                                                                                              Hey LA,

                                                                                                                              As the city pushes through a record-breaking March heat wave, one of the week’s most interesting LA startup stories came with a reminder that climate tech gets a lot more real when it leaves the pitch deck and hits the water. In Arc’s case, that means tugboats.

                                                                                                                              LA based Arc, founded in 2021 by a team of SpaceX alumni, announced a $50M Series C this week, led by Eclipse, a16z, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures, as it pushes deeper into commercial maritime. The raise follows Arc’s $160M contract with Curtin Maritime to deliver eight hybrid-electric tugboats beginning at the Port of Los Angeles, with the first expected to hit the water this year.

                                                                                                                              Imsage Source: Arc

                                                                                                                              That feels notable not just because of the funding, but because it marks a clear evolution in Arc’s business. What started as a premium electric boat company is now making a serious push into the industrial side of maritime transportation, with ambitions spanning tugboats, ferries, and defense vessels.

                                                                                                                              There is also something fitting about this story happening in Los Angeles. This is a city known for spectacle, but Arc is building in a category where performance actually has to perform. No amount of branding can fake a working tugboat, and that is exactly why this moment feels worth paying attention to.

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

                                                                                                                              🤝 Venture Deals

                                                                                                                                  LA Companies

                                                                                                                                  • Talino closed a $7.5M Series A led by Chemonics International, with participation from Mt Sinai Capital and Gulf Blvd, as it shifts from a venture studio into what it calls a global fintech foundry. The company said the new funding will help build an API-first cross-border payments infrastructure layer connecting the U.S. with emerging markets, starting with the Philippines, where it is targeting faster, more compliant financial product launches and modernizing legacy rails with stablecoin and real-time payment capabilities. - learn more
                                                                                                                                  • PADO AI raised a $6M seed round led by NovaWave Capital to expand its AI-powered orchestration software for mid-market colocation data centers. The company said the funding will support product delivery and global growth as it helps operators better manage power, compute, cooling, and distributed energy resources to increase GPU utilization and maximize “compute per megawatt” without requiring major new infrastructure buildouts. - learn more
                                                                                                                                  • Meadow Memorials raised a $9M Series A led by Lachy Groom and Haystack to expand its software-enabled funeral planning platform, which lets families arrange services online or by phone. Founded in 2024 by former Stripe executive Sam Gerstenzang and Emma Gilsanz, the company says it is using a real-estate-light model to offer lower-cost funerals as it expands beyond California into states including Texas, Washington, and Arizona. - learn more

                                                                                                                                                  LA Venture Funds

                                                                                                                                                  • Anthos Capital participated in Bluesky’s $100M Series B, which was led by Bain Capital Crypto and also included Alumni Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Knight Foundation, and True Ventures. The company said the round gave it the resources to scale both the Bluesky app and the broader AT Protocol ecosystem, which it says has grown to more than 43 million users and now supports a fast-expanding network of third-party apps and developers. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • Navigate Ventures participated in VerbaFlo’s oversubscribed $7M seed round, which was led by Pi Labs and also included Haatch and Old College Capital. VerbaFlo said it plans to use the funding to scale its conversational AI platform for real estate operators, building on traction across more than 200,000 units and expanding further into markets including the U.S., Middle East, and Australia. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • March Capital participated in Xage Security’s $15M equity financing round, which was led by Piva Capital as the company posted 81% year-over-year revenue growth and expanded its Zero Trust platform for AI and critical infrastructure. Xage said the funding, which closed in December 2025, will support go-to-market expansion and continued product innovation, including new AI security capabilities, as demand grows across sectors such as energy, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and defense. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • B Capital led Knox Systems’ $25M Series A, backing the company’s push to scale what it says is the largest AI-managed federal cloud and dramatically shorten the FedRAMP authorization process for software vendors. Knox said the new funding will help accelerate growth after its June 2025 seed round, with the goal of helping customers achieve FedRAMP authorization in as little as 90 days at roughly 90% lower first-year cost, while expanding adoption across both government and commercial environments. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • WndrCo participated in Tenkara’s $7M round, which was led by True Ventures as the company builds AI-powered operations agents for American manufacturers. Tenkara said it is creating tooling to help factories handle sourcing and operational work more efficiently at a time of rising supply-chain pressure, with backing from a broader investor group that also included Articulate Capital, Night Capital, HF0, SF1, and Transpose Platform. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • Aurora Capital participated in Niv-AI’s $12M seed round, backing the startup alongside Glilot Capital, Grove Ventures, Arc VC, Encoded VC, and Leap Forward as it emerged from stealth. Niv-AI is building sensors and software to measure millisecond-scale GPU power surges and help data centers use electricity more efficiently, with plans to deploy its system in a handful of U.S. facilities within the next six to eight months. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Fuse’s $25M Series A, which TechCrunch reported was led by Footwork, Primary Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, and Commerce Ventures, with Fuse also naming Clocktower Ventures among its backers. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand its AI-native loan origination and account opening platform for credit unions, building on traction with more than 100 customers and a $5M “rescue fund” aimed at helping institutions switch off legacy systems. - learn more
                                                                                                                                                  • Kairos Ventures participated in Alomana’s €4M seed round, which was led by CDP Venture Capital and also included Founders Factory, Italian Angels for Growth, Club degli Investitori, and others. Alomana said it will use the funding to strengthen its enterprise AI platform, add more capabilities for autonomous workflow automation, and support larger deployments across Europe as demand grows in sectors like finance, manufacturing, and pharma. - learn more

                                                                                                                                                                    LA Exits

                                                                                                                                                                    • Optimal’s Entertainment Media division is being acquired by Capstone Point Holdings, with the business set to operate under its legacy name, Optimad Media, following the deal. The transaction keeps founder Kevin Weisberg in place to lead the company from Los Angeles, while giving Optimad more backing to expand its entertainment media planning, buying, and prints-and-advertising investment capabilities across theatrical, streaming, and broadcast campaigns. - learn more

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