Livestream Concerts Boomed During Lockdown. Are They Music's Future or Just a Pandemic Fad?

Sam Blake

Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake

Livestream Concerts Boomed During Lockdown. Are They Music's Future or Just a Pandemic Fad?

Takeaways

  • The music industry has increasingly turned to livestreamed concerts to try to make up for the massive losses sustained from the cancellation and postponement of in-person events due to the pandemic.
  • An ongoing experiment is underway to find and develop the best technology and techniques for engaging fans and convincing them to pay for digital shows.
  • Some themes are emerging in what works, what doesn't, and what's coming next.

Post Malone and his bandmates donned women's dresses while livestreaming a Nirvana tribute. British artist Yungblud livestreamed a performance reminiscent of a variety talk show. And Linkin Park's lead singer Mike Shinoda created a series of albums developed entirely in collaboration with his digital followers on Twitch.

Welcome to the new era of live concert-streaming.


With the pandemic effectively vaporizing the in-person concerts business, hamstrung artists and venues seeking alternative ways to engage fans have turned to livestreaming.

Although a livestreamed show cannot completely replicate an in-person concert, the medium also presents artists an untapped creative outlet – and a new challenge: to convince their fans that ticketed shows are worth the price of admission.

"These platforms have no filter. You're not hiding behind a stage full of pyrotechnics and a carefully crafted public messaging or marketing veneer; it's just you," Tim Westergren, founder of Bay Area-based streaming platform Sessions Live and former co-founder of Pandora, told dot.LA.

It's a high-stakes challenge, as many artists have grown to rely on live performances for the majority of their income.

And as the pandemic runs its indefinite course, many companies are jockeying to provide artists, their teams and a music industry at large striving to stay afloat with the next generation of livestreaming infrastructure.

What has emerged is a vast, ongoing experiment to find the best way to engage fans and convince them to pay.

Rapper, singer and songwriter Swae Lee performs on LiveXLive.Courtesy of LiveXLive

Born of Necessity

Livestreaming didn't receive serious attention or investment before the pandemic, not least because the in-person concert business was booming. It wasn't until Q3 of this year that concert trade magazine Pollstar even began tracking livestreaming data.

But COVID-19 dealt the concerts business a serious sucker punch. Pollstar forecast in April that artists, concert venues and labels were set to lose nearly $9 billion in revenue if live concerts didn't resume in 2020.

By August, Beverly Hills-based concert promoter Live Nation had reported a 95% decline in year-over-year concert revenues.

Following a frantic period of shutdowns, reopenings and weighing options, the music industry has realized that live concerts won't be back anytime soon. It is now scrambling to figure out how to make livestreaming work.

"There was some shellshock early on," said Prajit Gopal, founder of L.A.- and NYC-based LoopedLive, a streaming platform specialized in combining its 'digital venue' with a patented form of one-on-one digital meet-and-greets. "Over the last month or so, everybody is diving into it."

LiveXLive, for instance, a sprawling NASDAQ-listed music company based in West Hollywood, has amped up its livestreaming shows by 289% over the last six months compared to the same period in 2019.

Greg Patterson, who'd previously been head of music at Eventbrite, told dot.LA that he saw L.A.-based Veeps is "one of two or three companies that changed really quickly" in response to the pandemic, spinning up its first livestreamed show in March. Patterson joined Veeps in May to help the company develop its livestreaming business to complement its pre-existing suite of tools for 'long-tail artists,' such as direct-to-fan ticketing.

"Since then, there's been what feels like another company every 30 seconds," Patterson said, noting that the field remains very fluid. "It feels like the early 2000s startup period, where there were no rules."

"It's absolutely the wild West," said music industry veteran Stephen Prendergast. "To make it work we need people coming up with ideas and tech to make it more compelling; it can't be a flat, one-screen dimension."

In other words, artists sitting in their bedrooms and broadcasting on Instagram and Facebook won't cut it.

Image courtesy of Veeps

More Than a Concert

New solutions have sprung up to do what concerts do best: put fans in the same space as the bands they love. But because a digital show has its limitations, there are also ongoing efforts to provide fans with online experiences that they wouldn't find at a traditional concert.

"I always say, 'do things in digital that you can't do in the real world'," LiveXLive President Dermot McCormack told dot.LA.

Many streaming services have started to provide coaching services to help artists exploit the unique opportunities a digital platform affords, and increasingly so as data comes in showing what works and what doesn't.

"If you do the same thing over and over again, people won't want to tune in," Gopal, LoopedLive's CEO, told dot.LA. When his company hosted a livestreamed show for the cast of "Hamilton," the performers used LoopedLive's private meet-and-greet feature for more than 'Hi, how are you.' Lin Manuel-Miranda, for instance, regaled fans with freestyle raps about a topic of their choice, and some cast members gave quick dance lessons.

During Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile's Veeps stream in early October, she and her band paused the show for a 30-minute fan Q&A that spanned topics from whether the band ever gets on each other's nerves to how life has been during the quarantine and the status of Carlile's forthcoming book. The band then obliged a fan's request to sing happy birthday to her daughter.

McCormack pointed to a 20-minute Q&A one artist hosted in the middle of a LiveXLive-hosted performance. "The fans lapped it up," he said. "We had to switch off the comments, they were moving so quickly."

Fans also seem to like when artists lean in to the sort of unmediated intimacy that accompanies livestreaming. "Artists'll play a song and go 'fuck, let me start again' – fans love that; in comes a basket of tips when that happens. It's about relatability and connection," said Westergren.

For K-Pop artist James Lee, "there's definitely a rush" that comes with livestreaming. Lee, who has performed on Sessions, told dot.LA that, "I have not been on stage in over a year. [Streaming] feels very intimate. There is more of a burden because nobody is in the room with you and everything depends on me."

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda took that intimacy to another level with his three-volume album, "Dropped Frames." Shinoda's fans on Twitch suggested themes and lyrics that he transposed into songs, some of which even included fan-submitted vocals.

More such experimentation is likely to come. DICE general manager of North American operations Shanna Jade Vélez told dot.LA she is "expecting to see a lot more innovation when it comes to interactivity." The company began operating before the pandemic as a live-ticketing discovery platform, available in seven countries. It has since streamed over 4,000 shows and sold tickets in 145 countries.

K-Pop megastars MonstaX perform on LiveXLive's platform. Courtesy of LiveXLive

Putting on a Show

Live chat has become a regular feature of livestreamed concerts, enabling concertgoers to message one another. Mandolin offers private chat rooms for groups of fans to congregate; the Indianapolis-based company launched in response to the pandemic and recently raised $5 million in seed funding.

Other startups are working to translate fan input – like clicking 'like' buttons – into a crowd roar that gets transmitted to musicians on the other side of the screen. FanTracks is one such service. It's also providing concertgoers a "director's chair" that gives them the option to toggle camera views. And it is one of many platforms experimenting with augmented reality to "transport" the performers to different locations.

Peter Shapiro, owner of several venues including the Brooklyn Bowl, is founder of Fans, a concert-streaming platform that transports audience members themselves, by allowing them to beam their video-feeds onto screens at venues where livestreamed performances are held. The technique is similar to how the NBA has allowed its fans to project their video-feeds onto screens in the stands.

Taking virtual transportation a step further, L.A.-based Wave renders musicians into digital avatars who interact with and perform for fans in otherworldly settings where the laws of physics are optional. The company raised $30 million in June and has hosted concerts by John Legend and The Weeknd. Produced in partnership with TikTok, the Weeknd's show reportedly attracted 2 million unique viewers.

Similar to Travis Scott's virtual concert series in April – where a giant, digital rendering of the hip-hop artist performed for over 27 million viewers across five shows hosted on Epic Games' Fortnite – Wave concerts are created with gaming engines and can be accessed by viewers via PC, gaming consoles or VR headsets. Unlike the Scott concert, however, which was pre-recorded and then rendered into Fortnite's virtual venue, Wave's avatars perform in real-time.

The TikTok live event featuring the Weeknd and Wave's technology brought aspects of gaming to live concerts.

Whether artists perform as an avatar or their unvarnished selves, Veeps has found that fans seem to prefer some degree of predictability on what they will see in a livestream. Similarly, Vélez said DICE is finding that fans want "a reason" to purchase a ticket. Some artists are turning to filming shows at big, deserted, "hauntingly beautiful" sets like churches and palaces, she said.

Patterson added that shorter shows, around 45 minutes, also seem to perform well, and noted that the user interface must be premium.

"It has to be on the level of watching a movie on Netflix or Disney Plus," the Veeps executive said. "If you mess it up, with so many other options, no one's going to want to come back."

Anyone who's shelled out $100 for a concert wouldn't necessarily point to the auxiliary pieces surrounding a show – the lighting, the refreshments, the bathrooms – as key to the experience. It's the performance that matters. But in the digital world, the areas ancillary to the performance are opportunities for virtual venues to distinguish themselves. So says L.A.-based streaming platform Moment House.

"If you make fans feel that they're part of this very elegant, premium and special place of a moment, we can make this a cultural phenomenon," Moment House co-founder Arjun Mehta told dot.LA. "We saw that thesis in our beta stage play out really nicely."

Moment House debuts this month, with a focus on user experience. Mehta developed the idea as a student in the inaugural class of USC's Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, a program that focuses on the intersection of design, engineering, management and communication. The company has raised a $1.5 million seed round led by Forerunner Ventures with investors including Scooter Braun, Troy Carter and actor Jared Leto.

DICE began operating before the pandemic as a global live-ticketing discovery platform. It has since streamed over 4,000 shows and sold tickets in 145 countries.Image courtesy of DICE

What's Next?

As this experiment continues and the culture and technology of virtual performances grows, we could be entering a new paradigm for musicians and their audiences.

"The early-90s internet is unrecognizable compared to what we have today and I think visual content and music will become unrecognizable to what we have now," Patterson of Veeps said.

One example of new technology that could open a world of possibilities is Aloha by Elk, which launches in beta this month and will allow musicians to play together in real time from hundreds of miles away.

"Playing together over the internet is something that musicians have been dreaming about since Skype: 'We can talk, but why can't we play?'" Michele Benincaso, founder of the Stockholm-based Elk Audio, the company behind Aloha, told dot.LA. The answer: latency.

The delay between someone speaking over Zoom or Skype and someone else hearing it is usually between 500 milliseconds and 1 second. The delay itself often fluctuates, a process known as "jitter." These issues make playing together on beat effectively impossible.

Solving these problems, as Aloha aims to do, would clear the way to a whole new path for livestreamed concerts.

"I could think of hundreds of examples for things that haven't been done today," said Sharooz Raoofi, a musician and tech entrepreneur who splits his time between L.A. and London. He is one of a few artists who's worked with Aloha prior to its upcoming beta launch.

"If you think about legendary festival performances, like when a guest vocalist jumps on stage and sings a track – that can't be done in digital unless it's latency free," Raoofi told dot.LA. "Even in the best of times, trying to get musicians together is tricky – more so if it's multiple bands. Doing that remotely without any latency could be a game changer."

For now, the maximum distance Aloha can manage is about 1,000 miles, enough to allow musicians in different countries to play together. As this technology develops and the distance grows, however, the possibilities may become virtually endless.

A Band-Aid or a Bridge to the Future?

Whether livestreaming becomes an enduring pillar of the music industry or fades into a fad once the pandemic dies down will depend on whether it can bring in enough money and deliver a new kind of experience.

"I was really struck that someone made $10,000 in a show with 300 people attending – and I can guarantee you there's not a room anywhere in the world that that artist could sell out," Westergren said of a performer who streamed on Sessions. "Historically there are only two ways for an artist to get paid like that. One is to spend years on a stage, grinding and touring. The other is to get plucked out of obscurity by the powers that be."

"Livestreaming can solve that, but only if you have monetization," he said.

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Sam Blake primarily covers entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA

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This Week in LA: Robotaxis, Reels & a $100K Challenge

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday, LA,

It’s Coachella Weekend 2, which means fewer cars on the road, easier restaurant reservations, and just enough quiet to hear the next wave of innovation humming through the city. This week, we’re watching more driverless cars roll in, Instagram remix your Reels feed, and a $100K climate challenge call for startups. Let’s get into it.

🚕 Zoox Is Bringing Its Robotaxis to LA

Image Source: Zoox

Amazon-owned Zoox just announced that its futuristic, steering wheel–less robotaxis are heading to Los Angeles. The company has begun mapping the city as it gears up to launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service. These aren’t retrofitted Teslas; they’re bidirectional vehicles built specifically for autonomy, with no front, no back, and no driver seat.

It’s Zoox’s first major push beyond Northern California and Las Vegas, and it's a signal that LA is being positioned as a proving ground for next-gen transportation. As the city preps for the 2028 Olympics, Zoox is hoping to help LA reimagine what mobility looks like without a human behind the wheel.

👀 More on that here:Zoox’s LA Expansion

💬 Instagram’s New “Blend” Feature

Image Source: Instagram

Instagram just announced “Blend,” a new feature that creates a private Reels feed curated for you and a friend based on your shared interests. It’s like a personalized explore page, but just for two. Think Spotify Blend, but with more memes and fewer breakup ballads.

It’s currently in testing, but if rolled out broadly, Blend could change how creators build community and how content spreads in smaller, more intimate algorithmic circles.

🔥 LACI Launches the LA Resilient Rebuilding Cup

100 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires swept through parts of LA, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is launching a new initiative: the LA Resilient Rebuilding Cup. It’s a pitch competition aimed at finding startup solutions to help LA rebuild stronger and greener.

Up to $100,000 in prizes and piloting funds are up for grabs. Finalists will pitch live on July 10 in Downtown LA, and selected winners will get the opportunity to bring their technologies to fire-affected communities. Focus areas include fire detection, renewable energy, air quality, mental health tools, resilient construction, and more.

Startups have until May 30 to apply.
📍 Apply here


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • Parallel Systems, a Los Angeles-based company developing autonomous battery-electric railcars, has raised $38M in a Series B funding round led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Riot Ventures and others. The funding will support the commercialization of its technology, including the launch of its first commercial pilot in Georgia. This pilot, approved by the Federal Railroad Administration, will test self-propelled intermodal flatcars over a 160-mile stretch, aiming to offer a more efficient and sustainable alternative to short-haul trucking. Parallel Systems plans to use the funds to scale production of its Generation 3 vehicles and expand operations in the U.S. and Australia. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

  • Bonfire Ventures led a $7.5M seed funding round for 1Fort, a New York-based startup that automates commercial insurance workflows for brokers using AI. Village Global and others participated in the round. 1Fort's platform streamlines the insurance process by automating tasks such as application completion, quote retrieval, and policy binding, helping brokers secure better coverage for clients more efficiently. The funds will be used to enhance the platform's AI capabilities, expand the team, and grow partnerships with carriers and brokers across the U.S. - learn more
  • Strong Ventures led an ₩800 million pre-Series A funding round for LunchLab, a Seoul-based B2B startup offering corporate lunch subscription services. LunchLab provides daily lunchbox deliveries and post-meal dish collection for companies, streamlining office meal logistics. The funds will be used to expand production capacity, enhance delivery operations across Seoul, and improve their proprietary ordering app. - learn more
  • CIV participated in Crux's recent $50M Series B funding round, supporting the company's mission to streamline financing for clean energy and manufacturing projects. Crux, based in New York, operates a capital markets platform that facilitates transactions such as transferable tax credits and debt financing, aiming to enhance liquidity and efficiency in the clean economy sector. The newly acquired funds will be utilized to expand Crux's network of market participants, enhance its software infrastructure, and scale its operations to meet the growing demand for clean energy financing solutions. - learn more
  • Finality Capital Partners participated in the $11M seed funding round for Optimum, a startup incubated at MIT and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Optimum is developing a decentralized memory layer for Web3, utilizing Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) to enhance data storage and propagation across blockchain networks. The funds will be used to advance Optimum's technology and expand its team to address scalability challenges in decentralized systems. - learn more
  • TIME BioVentures participated in Phantom Neuro's recent $19M Series A funding round. Based in Austin, Texas, Phantom Neuro is developing a minimally invasive neural interface called Phantom X, designed to enable intuitive control of prosthetic limbs and robotic exoskeletons. The new funding will support the company's first human trials, preclinical testing, regulatory submissions, and expanded research and development for broader applications of its technology beyond prosthetic limbs. - learn more
  • Veridical Ventures participated in a $2M seed funding round for SlashExperts, a San Francisco-based B2B platform that connects prospective buyers with existing customers to facilitate authentic peer conversations. This approach aims to build trust and expedite sales processes. The funds will be used to enhance the platform's features, ensuring seamless and effective connections between buyers and users. - learn more
  • F4 Fund participated in Boby.ai's $1.25M seed funding round, supporting the Istanbul-based startup's mission to develop AI-powered mobile applications. Boby.ai, founded by Gökçe Nur Oğuz, Onur Olgun, and Berat Oğuz, focuses on creating user-friendly AI tools for end-users, such as their flagship app Mozart.ai, which enables users to generate personalized music using AI. The funding will be used to expand the team and develop new AI-based mobile products. - learn more
  • Riot Ventures and Impatient Ventures participated in Blue Water Autonomy's recent $14M seed funding round. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Blue Water Autonomy is developing fully autonomous, unmanned ships designed to operate on the open ocean for extended periods. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team, accelerate ship testing, and integrate various payloads onto its platform. - learn more
  • Aliavia Ventures led a $1M pre-seed funding round for InsightWise, an AI-powered platform based in Sydney, Australia, designed to streamline the consulting process by automating tasks such as proposal development and strategy creation. The funding will be used to enhance the platform's capabilities and support expansion into the U.S. market. - learn more

LA Exits

  • Pex, a leading provider of digital rights technology, has been acquired by Vobile, a global leader in digital content protection and transaction services. This acquisition enhances Vobile's services for the music industry and strengthens its position as a global solution provider for digital audio content. - learn more

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Rain's Latest Funding Fuels the Future of Financial Wellness

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday,

This week, the LA tech scene buzzed with news that Rain, a leader in financial wellness, hassecured $75 million in Series B equity funding, spearheaded by Prosus. This isn't just another funding round; it's a pivotal chapter in Rain's mission to transform how American workers interact with their earnings.

Since its inception, Rain has been at the forefront of innovation in financial technology, particularly with its earned wage access solutions. The concept was simple yet revolutionary: allow workers to access their earned wages instantly, mitigating financial stress and dependency on high-interest payday loans. This vision quickly gained traction, propelling Rain from a promising startup to a key player in the fintech space.

What makes this Series B funding particularly noteworthy is what it represents on a larger scale. It's not just an influx of capital but a strong endorsement of Rain's potential to expand even further. With previous rounds fueling their initial growth and strategic partnerships, such as their notablecollaboration with Marqeta to enhance payment technologies, Rain has steadily built a foundation not just for success but for significant impact.

As Rain secures this significant new funding, their initiative to reshape financial wellness is set to expand dramatically, showcasing the profound impact tech can have on everyday financial challenges.

Looking forward to seeing how their innovations will drive change in the financial landscape.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • Dosen, a Los Angeles-based HRtech startup founded by Ronan Wall, Victor Burke, and Cian McCarthy, has secured $2.3M in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round led by Affinity Ventures. The company offers an AI-powered platform that aligns employee-led learning with business goals through personalized, gamified development programs. The funds will be used to scale the platform, enhance AI-driven personalized learning, and improve employee engagement and productivity. - learn more
  • Plug, a Santa Monica-based company operating an EV-exclusive wholesale online auction platform, has secured $6.7M in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by Floodgate, Autotech Ventures, and A*. The company has also launched Plug Trade Desk™, the first EV-focused service designed to help dealers confidently price, move, and monetize trade-ins. The newly acquired funds will be used to enhance Plug's technology and expand its services, aiming to support dealers in navigating the growing used EV market. - learn more
  • Gallatin AI, a defense tech startup, has raised $15M in seed funding led by 8VC to scale its AI-powered logistics platform, Navigator. The tool helps military logisticians predict, plan, and execute operations more efficiently in contested environments. Funds will be used to expand the team and deploy the platform across military services. - learn more
  • BLNG AI, a generative AI platform based in Los Angeles and Paris, raised $3M in seed funding led by Speedinvest to streamline jewelry design by turning sketches into photorealistic renderings and animations. The funding will support commercialization, team expansion in Europe and the U.S., and the launch of a subscription-based app for luxury brands and independent jewelers. - learn more
  • Amca, a newly launched aerospace company focused on modernizing the industrial supply chain, has raised $76M in funding from investors including Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others. The company plans to acquire specialized suppliers and develop new aerospace products, aiming to strengthen and future-proof the sector’s manufacturing and innovation capabilities. - learn more
  • Turbine Finance Corp., a Santa Monica, California-based data science-driven liquidity platform, has raised a total of $21.75M in equity funding, comprising a $13M Series A round co-led by Alpha Edison and TTV Capital, and a previously unannounced $8.75M seed round with participation from Fin Capital, B Capital, and Sozo Ventures. Additionally, the company secured up to a $100M warehouse facility from Silicon Valley Bank to provide credit facilities to venture investors. The combined funding of $121.75M will be used to deploy the warehouse line and expand Turbine's data science team. Turbine's platform enables private equity and venture firms to offer limited partners access to the value of their portfolio investments without reducing exposure, leveraging machine learning to expedite underwriting processes. - learn more
  • Gente Beauty, an innovative Brazilian body care brand, has received a lead investment from Webster Capital, a private equity firm specializing in consumer and healthcare sectors. This partnership aims to support Gente Beauty's growth and expansion in the beauty industry. - learn more
            LA Venture Funds
            • Alexandria Investment Partners participated in a $41M Series A round for Solu Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech company developing targeted protein degradation therapies. The funding will advance its lead candidate, STX-0712, which recently entered a Phase 1 clinical trial for CMML and other advanced blood cancers. - learn more
            • Calibrate Ventures participated in SigIQ.ai's $9.5M seed funding round. SigIQ.ai, based in Berkeley, California, is an AI tutoring startup focused on providing personalized education through advanced AI models. The funds will be used to hire top talent, enhance their AI models, and scale their platforms to educational systems worldwide. - learn more
            • Rusheen Capital Management participated in Zero Industrial's $10M Series A funding round, aiming to accelerate the development of thermal energy storage solutions in North America. Zero Industrial focuses on deploying large-scale thermal energy storage projects to enhance energy efficiency and support decarbonization efforts. The funding will be used to expand their project pipeline and advance the commercialization of their technology. - learn more

            LA Exits

            • Bread Beauty Supply has been acquired by Cost of Doing Business (CODB), a holding company founded in 2024 by Topicals founder and CEO Olamide Olowe and president Sochi Mbadugha. The acquisition aims to expand Bread's retail presence in the U.S., starting with an increased footprint in Sephora stores. Founder Maeva Heim will continue as Chief Creative Officer, focusing on the brand's creative direction, while CODB will manage strategic operations. This move reflects CODB's commitment to supporting Black-owned businesses and fostering diversity in the beauty industry. - learn more

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                          El Segundo Startup Turns Tax Credits into Big Business

                          🔦 Spotlight

                          Hello LA,

                          Step into the world of Incentify, the El Segundo-based innovator turning the headache of managing tax credits and incentives into a walk in the park. Founded in 2019, this trailblazing company is reshaping how businesses approach what was once a daunting bureaucratic challenge.

                          Incentify’s platform is revolutionizing the industry by helping businesses discover and effectively manage a share of the estimated $1.2 trillion in tax credits and incentives that often go unclaimed each year. This critical service not only simplifies the process but also ensures that companies can more easily access and leverage these financial opportunities to fuel their growth and sustainability initiatives.

                          Recently, Incentify reached a new milestone by securing $9.5 million Series A funding led by Innovent Capital Group. This significant investment underscores the market’s confidence in their innovative approach and supports their mission to expand their technological capabilities and market reach.

                          As Incentify gears up for this expansion, their efforts are set to make tax incentives more accessible to a broader spectrum of businesses. This is especially vital in today’s economy, where optimizing financial strategies is crucial for business resilience and growth.

                          Incentify's success story from El Segundo is not just about financial gains but also about empowering companies with the tools to turn complex financial engagements into strategic advantages.

                          Stay tuned for more from LA’s vibrant tech scene. Let’s continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

                          Enjoy your weekend, and keep innovating, LA!

                          🤝 Venture Deals

                          LA Companies

                          • TOGETHXR, a pioneering women's sports media and commerce brand co-founded by athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel, and Sue Bird, has achieved profitability and significant growth, including tripling its year-over-year revenue and increasing its social media following by 17% year-to-date. The company has secured additional growth capital in a funding round led by Alex Morgan's Trybe Ventures. The funds will be used to expand TOGETHXR's presence in the women's sports marketplace. Additionally, media executive Nancy Dubuc has joined the company as Executive Chair, bringing her extensive experience to support TOGETHXR's mission of elevating women's sports and culture. - learn more
                          • Airvet, a Los Angeles-based pet telehealth platform, has secured $11M in an oversubscribed Series B-2 funding round led by HighlandX. This investment follows a year of significant growth, including a 4x increase in year-over-year revenue and a tripling of its client base. Airvet partners with leading employers across various industries, such as PepsiCo, Adobe, and Lyft, to provide employees with 24/7 access to veterinary care via video or chat. The platform's services include online pharmacy, e-prescriptions, discounted pet insurance, wellness programs, and specialty care, with recent expansions into Spanish and French language support. The funds will be used to further enhance Airvet's platform and expand its reach, aiming to make veterinary care more accessible and affordable for pet families globally. - learn more
                                  LA Venture Funds
                                  • Interlagos co-led a $50M Series A funding round for Aetherflux, a San Carlos, California-based startup developing satellites to collect and transmit solar energy from space to Earth. The funds will be used to expand Aetherflux's engineering team and advance the technology for its planned low Earth orbit demonstration mission in 2026. - learn more
                                  • Bungalow Capital Management co-led a $2M seed funding round for Juno, a Denver-based startup specializing in corporate guest travel management. Juno offers an integrated platform that streamlines booking, logistics, payments, reimbursements, and support for non-employee travelers such as job candidates, contractors, and customers. The funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand partnerships, including a collaboration with ALTOUR as their first travel management company partner. - learn more
                                  • Veridical Ventures co-led a $3.75M seed funding round for Flagship, a Sydney, Australia-based retail technology company specializing in visual merchandising solutions. Flagship's platform creates digital twins of retail stores, enabling data-driven optimization of product placement and store layouts to enhance sales performance. The funds will be used to expand Flagship's presence in the U.S. market and further develop its product offerings. - learn more
                                  • Miroma Ventures participated in a £6.5M Series A funding round for Limitless Travel, a Birmingham, UK-based company specializing in accessible holidays for individuals with disabilities. Founded in 2015 by Angus Drummond, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at 22, Limitless Travel offers curated group holidays with trained carers, ensuring accommodations and excursions meet specific accessibility needs. The investment will enable the company to enhance its technology, expand its range of destinations, and lay the groundwork for international growth, aiming to transform the lives of disabled individuals through travel. - learn more
                                  • B Capital participated in a $20M Series A funding round for Gable, a Seattle-based company specializing in data management solutions. Gable's platform focuses on "shifting left" in data management by enabling software and data developers to collaboratively build and manage high-quality data assets through API-based data contracts. The funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand Gable's team to meet the growing demand for data collaboration tools. - learn more
                                  • Rebel Fund participated in a $3.8M funding round for Sohar Health, a health technology company. Sohar Health is developing an AI-powered platform designed to streamline patient intake and triage, aiming to enhance access to healthcare services. The funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand the company's reach within the healthcare industry. - learn more

                                      LA Exits

                                      • Tixologi, a next-generation ticketing platform, has been acquired by Punchup Live, a New York-based comedy platform. This strategic move integrates Tixologi's advanced ticketing technology into Punchup Live's ecosystem, enabling seamless, direct-to-fan ticket sales for comedians and venues. The acquisition aims to enhance the ticket purchasing experience by providing features such as fast checkout, unified outreach tools, and advanced anti-scalping solutions, thereby empowering comedians to connect more effectively with their audiences. - learn more
                                      • InVisit, a Calabasas, California-based provider of cloud-based visitor management solutions, has been acquired by Motorola Solutions. InVisit's platform streamlines visitor registration, access, and host notifications across sectors such as commercial offices, education, and healthcare, enhancing security through features like blocklist screening and real-time guest activity insights. This acquisition aims to integrate InVisit's capabilities into Motorola Solutions' Avigilon Alta security suite, offering enterprise customers a unified, cloud-native approach to managing security threats and improving operational efficiency. - learn more

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