edtech

Parents Say LAUSD's Virtual Learning Spending Spree Had Mixed Results

Sarah Favot

Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Parents Say LAUSD's Virtual Learning Spending Spree Had Mixed Results
Photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash

In the sprint to remake education during the pandemic, Los Angeles Unified School District armed half a million students with internet and devices to stay connected, but experts and parents said that its efforts to teach online sometimes fell short and left students behind.

Parents complained of edtech apps that were hard to hear in some cases or ones that were so cumbersome their children avoided them altogether. Some were age inappropriate, being used for elementary age students who had a hard time navigating them.

dot.LA spoke with a half a dozen parents and teachers about the district's effort to build thousands of virtual classrooms across the sprawling district.

Records obtained by dot.LA show the district spent $390 million in emergency funds for its COVID response from March 2020 to April 2021. More than half was spent on tech like laptops, tablets and hotspots and a lab to process COVID tests. Included in that is $23.4 million in spending on several licenses for edtech apps like Edgenuity, Discovery, Rosetta Stone, Blackboard and Edpuzzle.

While many of the edtech apps the district purchased helped students learn, some parents said others were boring and caused frustration.

Part 1: How LAUSD Spent Millions in EdTech During the Pandemic

One parent group gave its own training for parents to help their children connect to their online classes.

The district has not responded to inquiries from dot.LA about their process. But experts said in the speed in which the process took place what was often left unanswered was how the district chose educational apps.

"As an educational technologist, I am in favor of resources being spent on technology. However, there needs to be a transparent process in place," said Tim Green, a professor of educational technology at California State University Fullerton.

An LAUSD spokesperson said the district sought input from teachers and administrators, surveying more than 11,000 people to determine which apps were being used and preferred by educators. The apps were also evaluated to determine whether they met California's curriculum standards and student data privacy policies.

The spokesperson said professional development for the apps was offered to teachers. And resources were available for parents, including a hotline established to provide consultations with live agents. The agents helped families learn how to use tech and virtual apps.

There remain questions about how the district determined which apps to purchase, including whether teachers, parents and students were involved in the decision-making and whether the district provided professional development to help teachers navigate these apps.

But several parents said they were left on their own to help their kids with their assignments at home using these tools.

Parent advocacy organization SpeakUp stepped in and conducted training for parents on how to use Zoom and other tech. They did this because many low-income parents had never accessed the technology before and in many cases didn't speak English, causing huge barriers to navigating the technology, SpeakUP spokesperson Jenny Hontz said.

"We walked parents through that step by step, but the district did not put many resources toward tech proficiency training. And we were only able to help a limited number of parents with our resources," she said, adding that the group had no funding for this.

Hontz said the district spending on devices and hotspots was essential.

Sonia Sanchez, who has three children in LAUSD schools, said an app called Newsela, which helps students with reading comprehension using news articles, was particularly helpful and enjoyable for her kids.

But, she added, Edgenuity was just the opposite.

Sanchez said her son in high school would postpone anything that had to do with Edgenuity, an online curriculum software for K-12 students, because it was going to take him a long time to get through it.

"They dreaded it," she said of all of her kids.

She said the app is educational and has informative lessons, but for her younger children, it was dull. Moreover, she said teachers didn't follow up with their students about what they learned because the entire lesson and assignment was built into the program. Sanchez said she was lucky enough to be able to sit down with her children as they went through lessons to help because she works part-time from home.

Edgenuity is used by school districts across the nation. A BuzzFeed investigation found that during the first year of the pandemic, more than 500 public school districts purchased the Arizona-based company's software, signing contracts that totaled $145 million.

Deborah Rayow, Edgenuity's vice president for instructional design and learning science, told NBC News that its software wasn't designed for the pandemic and it's up to schools to give live instruction.

LAUSD has been using Edgenuity for years for students to make up courses they didn't pass, known as credit recovery. During the pandemic, teachers turned to it as an online teaching platform.

In August, Meghan Gohil enrolled his son in the district's online independent study program through a district school named City of Angels. It was the only way Gohil could keep his 11-year-old son, who can't get vaccinated, enrolled in the district and learning at home. State legislation prevented school districts from holding Zoom classes similar to what was offered when campuses were closed.

"As much complaining as everybody did about Zoom, it was far superior to what they're doing now," Gohil said.

Edgenuity is the program used by City of Angels to facilitate online learning. Gohil and his son came up with a list of problems they've encountered with the software from poor sound quality on some videos to its focus on the amount of time a student has spent on a lesson rather than comprehension.

When asked whether he's going to re-enroll his student at his regular school in Sherman Oaks after his son is vaccinated, Gohil said, "Hell yeah."

He said it looks like his son, normally a straight A student, is going to get a B this semester.

Students across the nation ended the pandemic school year behind. A study by McKinsey & Co. found that elementary students ended the 2020-21 school year four to five months academically behind. And the findings were more dire for Black and Latino students.

In a statement, Edgenuity said it experienced challenges as it quickly scaled to accommodate many more students than it initially expected.

"But in every case, we recognize our role as education and curriculum partners for our school customers comes with great responsibility, and that's why we have worked with our stakeholders to learn from the last academic year and distill those valuable lessons and insights to inform how we have worked with schools as we entered this third interrupted school year," the company said.

It also said it directly worked with LAUSD to provide tools, resources and support.

Gayle Bigyan said her daughters who are in 5th and 6th grades have had positive experiences with edtech apps, including Newsela, Nearpod, Amplify and XtraMath.

"Both of my daughters' reading comprehension, analytical thinking have gotten a lot better because of those platforms, because they used them every day," she said.

She said her fifth grade daughter is now at the top of her class and Bigyan credits the apps in part for getting her there.

She wants teachers to continue using technology even as classes are now in-person.

Teachers also said they also found apps like Newsela and Nearpod beneficial.

Parent Rebecca Cunningham said she wasn't surprised the district spent millions on tech, but she wants the district to be thoughtful on what it will spend going forward.

"Sometimes you throw everything against the wall and see what sticks," she said. "But we need to make sure that we don't just renew those contracts just because. But, instead, we really need to evaluate and find out from the teachers what they are actually using, and what they know how to use."

IXL Learning announced last week LAUSD has renewed its contract with the edtech company, which is used to supplement math and English lessons. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The LAUSD spokesperson said it will evaluate which apps it will continue to use.

"We will continue to monitor the needs of our communities and leverage renewal options accordingly," they said. " Regular meetings are held with each digital tool vendor to discuss usage, professional development, and needed implementation support."
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Your Bank Wants to Cancel Your Subscriptions

Grace Lee
Your Bank Wants to Cancel Your Subscriptions

🔦 Spotlight

Hello, LA.

Somewhere between the streaming service you still use and the free trial you forgot to cancel, recurring payments have become a surprisingly complicated part of modern financial life.

Los Angeles-based ScribeUp believes your bank should help manage them.

The fintech company raised a $13M Series A led by Curql, with participation from Mucker Capital and Service Ventures. The financing includes $10M in equity and a $3M venture debt facility, bringing ScribeUp new capital to expand its team, accelerate sales and further develop its AI-powered bill-management technology.

The product is designed to live directly within the apps of banks, credit unions, fintechs and neobanks. Instead of simply showing customers that a recurring charge occurred, ScribeUp gives them tools to do something about it.

That could mean canceling a forgotten subscription, changing a payment method, accessing an advance or exploring refinancing options for an outside loan, all without leaving the financial institution’s app.

It sounds like a useful feature. It is also part of a much larger contest over who gets to manage the consumer’s financial life.

For years, banks have held customers’ money while third-party apps have increasingly helped them understand and manage it. Budgeting platforms organize spending. Subscription services identify recurring charges. Fintech apps recommend ways to save, borrow or invest.

Now AI assistants are beginning to combine those functions into a single interface capable of not only analyzing financial information, but acting on it.

That creates a risk for traditional financial institutions. If consumers begin turning to an outside app whenever they need to cancel a service, manage a bill or make a financial decision, their bank could become little more than the infrastructure beneath someone else’s customer experience.

ScribeUp offers banks a way to compete without building that technology themselves.

Its platform combines recurring-payment information with the financial context a bank already has, including balances, cash flow and payment timing. That allows a financial institution to do more than flag an upcoming charge. It can potentially recommend and execute an action based on the customer’s broader financial position.

ScribeUp says its technology is already used by more than 60 banks, credit unions, fintechs and neobanks. It can be added through an API, software development kit or embedded interface, allowing institutions to introduce bill-management features without creating the underlying infrastructure from scratch.

The new funding will support more advanced AI capabilities that can take action across different billers. That distinction matters. The first generation of personal finance software helped people see where their money was going. The next generation wants permission to do something about it.

For banks, the opportunity is straightforward: become more useful before another app takes their place.

For consumers, the appeal may be even simpler. Most people do not want another financial dashboard. They want the unwanted charge to stop.

The next battle in banking may not be over who holds your money.

It may be over who gets to press cancel.

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

🤝 Venture Deals

    LA Companies

    • International Dance League raised a $15M Series A led by Elysian Park Ventures, with participation from Sony, KB Partners, APEX, Yamaha Music Innovations Fund and October Ventures. Following a debut season that sold out all six events and generated 2B views, IDL will use the funding to expand its tour, strengthen team and dancer operations, improve broadcast production and develop new fan experiences for 2027. - learn more
    • Santa Fe Springs-based DrizzleX raised a $6.8M Series A-2 led by Israel Investment Fund Group, with several of the water-management platform’s own customers also investing. The company will use the funding to expand sales, streamline hardware manufacturing, build partnerships and develop new products that help property owners detect leaks, reduce water use and lower operating costs. - learn more
    • POV Beauty raised an undisclosed Series A led by Silas Capital, with participation from RÉDO Capital and existing investor Imaginary Ventures. The skin-prep brand will use the funding to build on its nationwide Sephora launch, expand its team and TikTok Shop presence, and develop more skincare-makeup hybrid products. - learn more

    LA Venture Funds
    • Chapter One participated in Warp Sciences’ $215M Series A, which was led by Lightspeed and included a large group of venture firms and angel investors. The company is building AI-powered, increasingly automated laboratories that will manufacture and test molecules for drug developers, aiming to accelerate preclinical research while expanding scientific infrastructure in the U.S. - learn more
    • Capital Group participated in Legora’s $550M Series E, which was led by Atreides Management and valued the legal AI company at $8.8B. Legora will use the funding to expand across the U.S. and international markets while developing new capabilities for its agentic operating system, which is used by more than 140,000 legal professionals. - learn more
    • Group 11 participated in CapitalOS’ $21.9M Series A, which was led by LGVP and included WEX Venture Capital, Great North Ventures and Night Capital. CapitalOS will use the funding to scale its infrastructure, which enables B2B software platforms to quickly offer financial products while outsourcing functions such as compliance, risk management and underwriting. - learn more
    • Starshot Capital participated in IMIO’s $12M funding round, which was led by Sofinnova Partners and included Chipotle’s Cultivate Next, Grow Together Salinas, Earth Foundry and Serra Ventures. The agricultural biotechnology company will use the capital to build a Chicago headquarters, laboratory and manufacturing facility for its freeze-dried microbial products, which are designed to improve soil health and crop yields. - learn more
    • SUM Ventures participated in Vectorial’s $3M seed round, which was co-led by Smilegate and SenseAI Ventures and included several investors connected to UC Berkeley and Stanford. The startup will use the funding to scale its AI-powered consumer research platform, which lets companies test products, marketing campaigns and AI agents against simulated audiences before launching them publicly. - learn more
    • Wave Function Ventures participated in Stellios Technologies’ oversubscribed $5M pre-seed round alongside Sofreh Capital, Cubit Capital, Mana Ventures, Atoms & Bits and other investors. The Austin-based company will use the funding to deliver its first high-power microwave systems, establish domestic research and manufacturing facilities, grow its team and advance technologies spanning directed energy, compact fusion and next-generation propulsion. - learn more
    • Upfront Ventures participated in Daytona’s $60M Series B, marking the Santa Monica firm’s third investment round with the company. Led by FirstMark Growth, the financing valued Daytona at $1B and will help the startup expand sales and engineering for its cloud infrastructure, which provides secure virtual computers where AI agents can execute tasks. - learn more
    • Core Innovation Capital participated in Delegance Brokerage’s $3.1M pre-seed round, which was led by Grit Capital Partners and included Gilgamesh Ventures and Outside VC. The AI-powered commercial insurance brokerage will use the funding to hire licensed brokers and engineers and expand partnerships as it promotes a flat 5% fee model in place of traditional commissions. - learn more
    • Core Innovation Capital participated in Prism Data’s $20M Series A, which was led by Story Ventures and included FINTOP Capital, Obvious Ventures, 1st & Main Growth Partners and Mana Ventures. Prism will use the funding to expand its cash-flow underwriting technology, AI infrastructure and data science team while growing across the U.S. and Canada and preparing for international expansion. - learn more

    LA Exits

    • Sanctuary has been acquired by WSG Brands, adding the contemporary women’s label to a portfolio that includes Von Dutch, Nasty Gal and Allbirds. The purchase price was not officially disclosed, though earlier documents placed it at $67M; WSG plans to expand Sanctuary internationally and into new categories, while founders Ken and Debra Polanco will remain involved. - learn more
    • SecureNet Solutions was acquired by CompassMSP, expanding the managed IT and cybersecurity provider’s presence on the West Coast. The deal gives SecureNet’s real estate, healthcare and professional services clients access to CompassMSP’s national cybersecurity, compliance and advisory resources while retaining their existing service team; financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more

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      Hello Sunshine Sold for More Than $900M. Now Reese Witherspoon Is Buying It Back.

      Grace Lee
      Hello Sunshine Sold for More Than $900M. Now Reese Witherspoon Is Buying It Back.
      Image Source: Hello Sunshine

      🔦 Spotlight

      Hey there, LA.

      In Hollywood, every successful story eventually gets a sequel. This one brings Reese Witherspoon back to the company she built.

      Five years after selling control of Hello Sunshine in a deal worth more than $900M, Witherspoon is partnering with French production group Mediawan to buy back the Los Angeles media company.

      The reported purchase price is in the low-to-mid eight figures, significantly below Hello Sunshine’s valuation when Candle Media acquired a controlling stake in 2021.

      That difference tells a larger story than any single Hollywood transaction.

      Hello Sunshine was one of the most prominent acquisitions made during the streaming boom, when platforms were spending aggressively and investors placed enormous value on production companies with recognizable founders, established audiences and libraries of intellectual property.

      Witherspoon had built all three.

      Founded in 2016, Hello Sunshine developed its business around stories centered on women, producing projects including “Big Little Lies,” “The Morning Show,” “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Daisy Jones & The Six.” It also turned Reese’s Book Club into an influential audience and discovery platform that now reaches 6.2 million readers and drives approximately $900M in annual U.S. book sales, according to the company.

      By 2021, that combination of talent, intellectual property and direct audience access looked like the foundation of a next-generation media empire.

      Candle Media, backed by capital from Blackstone, acquired Hello Sunshine as part of a broader effort to assemble a portfolio of entertainment brands. The company also purchased businesses including Moonbug Entertainment, ATTN: and Faraway Road Productions.

      Then the streaming market changed.

      Entertainment companies became more disciplined about content spending. The race to accumulate subscribers gave way to pressure for profitability. Production budgets tightened, consolidation slowed and some of the valuations assigned during the streaming boom became difficult to maintain.

      Hello Sunshine’s return to founder-led ownership reflects how dramatically the media landscape has changed since 2021. It also gives Witherspoon an opportunity to regain greater influence over the company at a moment when its core assets may matter more than its former valuation suggests.

      Under the new ownership structure, Hello Sunshine plans to refocus on premium film and television, Reese’s Book Club and new storytelling and distribution formats. Mediawan brings an international production network, while Witherspoon brings something harder to manufacture: a trusted personal brand and an audience willing to follow her recommendations from books to screens.

      That relationship with consumers is increasingly valuable in a fragmented media market. Studios can finance productions. Streaming services can distribute them. Far fewer companies can reliably convince millions of people to care before a project is even released.

      For Los Angeles, the deal reflects the increasingly fluid boundary between entertainment company, consumer brand and technology-enabled audience platform. The most resilient media businesses may not be those producing the greatest volume of content, but those that own a direct relationship with a specific community.

      The first Hello Sunshine deal captured the optimism of the streaming era.

      The second may offer a more focused model for what comes next, with the company once again guided by the founder who understood its audience from the beginning.

      Hollywood loves a comeback story.

      This time, the company is making one too.

      LA Tech Week’s Final Stretch

      Still making the most of LA Tech Week? We have organized the remaining events by location to make planning the weekend a little easier:

      Event schedules may change, so confirm the latest details with the organizer before heading out.

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

      🤝 Venture Deals

        LA Companies

        • Goodweek raised a $12M seed round led by Adara Ventures to expand its AI management platform for small and midsize businesses. The company brings tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral into one governed workspace and will use the capital to accelerate sales and expand into Latin America and Asia. - learn more

        LA Venture Funds
        • Fika Ventures co-led Otter Health’s $8M seed round alongside Evidenced Capital, with participation from Slow Ventures, Metrodora, CoFound Partners, Patient Capital, SemperVirens and Layout Ventures. The startup will use the funding to scale its AI-powered platform, which helps healthcare payers and providers reduce unnecessary care and manage quality without relying as heavily on traditional prior authorization. - learn more
        • Nant Capital co-led Prolific Machines’ $50M Series B2 alongside Atoms & Bits, bringing the biotechnology company’s total funding to more than $100M. Prolific will use the capital to scale its light-controlled biomanufacturing platform, expand pharmaceutical and biotech programs and begin early work on tissue and organ fabrication. - learn more
        • Family Fund participated in Allara’s $30M funding round alongside new investors Camino Partners and Foreground Capital, while existing backers including Index Ventures and GV increased their commitments. The women’s healthcare company will use the capital to expand AI-enabled care, grow its provider and enterprise partnerships and advance research into hormonal, metabolic and reproductive conditions. - learn more
        • Vida Ventures participated in Soufflé Therapeutics’ oversubscribed $135M Series B, which was led by Juvia Group. The biotech will use the funding to move three lead programs into clinical trials for muscular dystrophy, heart failure and muscle and metabolic disorders while advancing its broader pipeline of targeted RNA therapies. - learn more
        • FJOR participated in LightSprint’s $6.1M seed round, which was led by 645 Ventures. The AI software platform will use the funding to expand its enterprise product and grow its engineering and go-to-market teams as it helps employees across departments make changes to company codebases while keeping engineers in control. - learn more
        • Muse Capital participated in Collective X Health’s oversubscribed $3.2M pre-seed round, which was co-led by Council Capital and Anthemis Female Innovators Lab Fund. The women’s health intelligence startup will use the funding to expand its female-focused research and data platform, meet growing enterprise demand and support new research aimed at closing the women’s health data gap. - learn more
        • Act One Ventures participated in Intake AI’s $2.5M pre-seed round, which was led by Kapor Capital. The startup is building AI agents that automate clinical-trial setup and operations, helping research teams turn protocols into documents, search study materials and transfer approved forms into existing systems. - learn more
        • M13 participated in Ultra’s $62M financing, which included a $50M Series A led by Framework Ventures. The Brooklyn-based robotics startup will use the capital to expand deployment of its AI-powered warehouse robots, which handle packing, sorting and other fulfillment tasks and have already processed more than 500,000 orders. - learn more

        LA Exits

        • Farcaster is being acquired by Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School from Neynar, marking the decentralized social network’s second change in ownership this year. The deal includes Farcaster’s app, protocol repositories and related products, with its new owner planning to introduce a rules-based “social smart contract” governing full participation on the platform; financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
        • Creator Authority has been acquired by Billion Dollar Boy Group, bringing the agency’s B2B influencer marketing expertise and LinkedIn specialization into BDB’s global creator business. The deal will help Creator Authority scale its work with enterprise brands while strengthening BDB’s presence on the U.S. West Coast and expanding its B2B creator marketing capabilities; financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
        • Burbank-based CareerArc was acquired by AI hiring platform Humanly, with financial terms undisclosed. The deal combines CareerArc’s recruitment marketing and social recruiting tools with Humanly’s AI-powered candidate engagement, screening and interviewing platform, creating a more connected system for employers managing high-volume hiring. - learn more
        • Ethiqly was acquired by Carnegie Learning from Owl Ventures and the company’s management, with financial terms undisclosed. Carnegie Learning plans to integrate Ethiqly’s AI-powered writing platform into its literacy offerings, helping students improve their writing while giving teachers greater visibility into the drafting, revision and learning process. - learn more

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          How to Navigate LA Tech Week 2026

          Grace Lee
          How to Navigate LA Tech Week 2026

          🔦 Spotlight

          Happy Friday, Los Angeles.

          Next week, hundreds of tech events will take over the city, bringing founders, investors, engineers and creators together from October 12 through 18.

          Calling LA Tech Week a conference does not quite capture the experience.

          Presented by Andreessen Horowitz, Tech Week is a decentralized collection of panels, workshops, demonstrations and gatherings hosted independently by startups, venture firms and technology companies. There is no convention center or central stage. The programming stretches from Santa Monica and Venice to Culver City, Downtown, El Segundo and beyond.

          In other words, the city is the venue.

          AI remains the dominant theme for 2026, appearing across enterprise software, healthcare, finance, media and the creator economy. The schedule also reflects industries where Los Angeles has built a particular advantage, including aerospace, defense, robotics, advanced manufacturing, entertainment and consumer technology.

          That range is what makes LA Tech Week distinct. It brings together the software companies shaping what comes next with the industries that already define Southern California.

          The challenge is deciding where to show up.

          Our advice: apply early and organize your schedule by neighborhood. Crossing from Santa Monica to Downtown may look manageable on a calendar created by someone who has never driven in Los Angeles.

          To help you spend more time meeting people and less time crossing the city, we have organized each day’s events by location:

          You can also browse the complete official LA Tech Week calendar.

          Plan carefully, but do not fill every minute. The best conversation of the week may be the one that was never on your calendar.

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

          🤝 Venture Deals

            LA Companies

            • El Segundo-based Gallatin AI raised a $50M Series A from new and existing investors including 8VC and Silent Ventures, bringing its total funding to $70M. The defense technology startup will expand its engineering team and advance Navigator, an AI platform that helps U.S. military units coordinate vehicle readiness, supplies, medical logistics and other mission-support operations. - learn more
            • Pasadena-based quantum computing startup Oratomic raised a $475M Series B at a $5.4B valuation, just three months after its Series A. ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and Bezos Expeditions co-led the round, bringing Oratomic’s total funding to $775M as it works toward a commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2030. - learn more
            • Torrance-based Fortastra raised a $30M Series A led by First In, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Space Capital, Rsquared, Side Door Ventures, ATX Ventures and existing investors. The company will use the capital to develop its next-generation maneuverable spacecraft, expand its engineering and operations teams and scale production of systems designed to protect critical assets in orbit. - learn more
            • Parallel Systems raised a $100M Series C led by AVP, with participation from Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and Collaborative Fund. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, the company will use the funding to scale production and commercial deployment of its autonomous, battery-electric Panther rail vehicles, which are designed to make short-haul freight more competitive with trucking. - learn more
            • Gaming studio Gardens Interactive secured more than $35M in a Series B led by Lightspeed, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Accel, Innovation Endeavors, Zenith Capital and other investors. The company will use the funding to launch and operate its debut social role-playing “strandbox” game, an evolving multiplayer world shaped by players’ actions and interactions. - learn more
            • Outer Spaces raised an $8M pre-seed round led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Unlock Venture Partners, Mucker Capital and Genius Ventures. The startup is developing outdoor furnishings with integrated solar panels and batteries, turning backyards into sources of clean energy and backup power. - learn more
            • Furientis raised a $25M seed round led by Benchmark at a reported $125M valuation, following a $5M pre-seed announced in May. The defense startup will use the capital to scale production of lower-cost missile interceptors designed to be assembled quickly with readily available components, with a long-term goal of producing 1,000 systems annually at each factory. - learn more
            • Hiyo raised a $20.8M Series B led by Constellation Brands, with returning investor Live Nation also participating. The nonalcoholic beverage company will use the funding to expand its adaptogen- and nootropic-infused social tonics across more than 13,000 retail locations while growing its presence at hospitality venues and live events. - learn more
            LA Venture Funds
            • Navitas Capital participated in Vesta’s $30M Series B, which was led by Conversion Capital and included backing from several major mortgage lenders and financial institutions. The company will use the funding to scale its AI agents across mortgage origination, automating tasks such as application reviews, underwriting decisions and closing-document checks. - learn more
            • MTech Capital led Nettle’s oversubscribed $4.8M seed round, with participation from Project A Ventures, Sure Valley Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and Ventures Together. The insurtech startup will use the funding to expand across the U.S. and Europe while growing its AI platform, which helps commercial insurers identify property risks, accelerate inspections and generate reports. - learn more
            • Bonfire Ventures doubled down on Santé by participating in the company’s $15M Series A, which was led by FINTOP and included other returning investors. The New York startup will use the funding to expand its AI-powered operating system for independent wine and liquor stores, which combines point-of-sale, e-commerce, payments, inventory and marketing tools in one platform. - learn more

            LA Exits

            • Winnow Solutions was acquired by Marina del Rey-based Spring Labs, with financial terms undisclosed. Winnow’s attorney-built library of more than 100,000 state and federal regulatory requirements will become a core part of SpringGRC, helping financial institutions connect changing laws directly to their compliance policies, controls and workflows. - learn more

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