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What Are LA’s Hottest Startups of 2022? See Who VCs Picked in dot.LA’s Annual Survey
Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
In Los Angeles—like the startup environment at large—venture funding and valuations skyrocketed in 2021, even as the coronavirus pandemic continued to surge and supply chain issues rattled the economy. The result was a startup ecosystem that continued to build on its momentum, with no shortage of companies raising private capital at billion-dollar-plus unicorn valuations.
In order to gauge the local startup scene and who’s leading the proverbial pack, we asked more than 30 leading L.A.-based investors for their take on the hottest firms in the region. They responded with more than two dozen venture-backed companies; three startups, in particular, rose above the rest as repeat nominees, while we've organized the rest by their amount of capital raised as of January, according to data from PitchBook. (We also asked VCs not to pick any of their own portfolio companies, and vetted the list to ensure they stuck to that rule.)
Without further ado, here are the 26 L.A. startups that VCs have their eyes on in 2022.
1. Whatnot ($225.4 million raised)
Whatnot was the name most often on the minds of L.A. venture investors—understandably, given its prolific fundraising year. Whatnot raised some $220 million across three separate funding rounds in 2021, on the way to a $1.5 billion valuation.
The Marina del Rey-based livestream shopping platform was founded by former GOAT product manager Logan Head and ex-Googler Grant LaFontaine. The startup made its name by providing a live auction platform for buying and selling collectables like rare Pokémon cards, and has since expanded into sports memorabilia, sneakers and apparel.
2. Boulevard ($40.3 million raised)
Boulevard’s backers include Santa Monica-based early-stage VC firm Bonfire Ventures, which focuses on B2B software startups. The Downtown-based company fits nicely within that thesis; Boulevard builds booking and payment software for salons and spas. The firm has worked with prominent brands such as Toni & Guy and HeyDay.
3. GOAT ($492.7 million)
GOAT launched in 2015 as a marketplace to help sneakerheads authenticate used Air Jordans and other collectible shoes. It has since grown at a prolific rate, expanding into apparel and accessories and exceeding $2 billion in merchandise sales in 2020. The startup sealed a $195 million funding round last summer that more than doubled its valuation, to $3.7 billion.
The Best of the Rest
VideoAmp ($578.6 raised)
Nielsen competitor VideoAmp gathers data on who's watching what across streaming services, traditional TV and social apps like YouTube. The company positions itself as an alternative to so-called "legacy" systems like Nielsen, which it says are "fragmented, riddled with complexity and inaccurate." In addition to venture funding, its total funding figure includes more than $165 million in debt financing.
Mythical Games ($269.4 million raised)
Seizing on the NFT craze, Mythical Games is building a platform that powers the growing realm of “play-to-earn games.” Backed by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Andreessen Horowitz, the Sherman Oaks-based startup’s partners include game publishers Abstraction, Creative Mobile and CCG Lab.
FloQast ($202 million raised)
FloQast founder Michael Whitmire says he got a “no” from more than 100 investors in the process of raising a seed round. Today, the accounting software company is considered a unicorn.
Nacelle ($70.8 million raised)
Nacelle produces docuseries, books, comedy albums and podcasts. The media company’s efforts include the Netflix travel series “Down To Earth with Zac Efron.”
Wave ($66 million raised)
A platform for virtual concerts, Wave has hosted performances by artists including Justin Bieber, Tinashe and The Weeknd. The company says it has raised $66 million to date from the likes of Warner Music and Tencent.
Papaya ($65.2 million raised)
Sherman Oaks-based Papaya looks to make it easier to pay “any” bill—from hospital bills to parking tickets—via its mobile app.
LeaseLock ($63.2 million raised)
Based in Marina del Rey, LeaseLock says it’s on a mission to eliminate security deposits for apartment renters.
Emotive ($58.1 million raised)
Emotive sells text message-focused marketing tools to ecommerce firms like underwear brand Parade and men's grooming company Beardbrand.
Dray Alliance ($55 million raised)
Based in Long Beach, Dray says its mission is to “modernize the logistics and trucking industry.” Its partners include Danish shipping company Maersk and toy maker Mattel.
Coco ($43 million raised)
Coco makes small pink robots on wheels (you may have seen them around town) that deliver food via a remote pilot. Its investors include Y Combinator and Silicon Valley Bank.
HiveWatch ($25 million raised)
HiveWatch develops physical security software. Its investors include former Twitter executive Dick Costollo and NBA star Steph Curry’s Penny Jar Capital.
Popshop ($24.5 million raised)
Whatnot competitor Popshop is betting that live-shopping is the future of ecommerce. The West Hollywood-based firm focuses on collectables such as trading cards and anime merchandise.
First Resonance ($19.4 million raised)
Founded by former SpaceX engineer Karan Talati, First Resonance runs a software platform for makers of electric cars and aerospace technology. Its clients include Santa Cruz-based air taxi company Joby Aviation and Alameda-based rocket company Astra.
Open Raven ($19 million raised)
Founded by Crowdstrike and Microsoft alums, Open Raven aims to protect user data. The cybersecurity firm’s investors include Kleiner Perkins and Upfront Ventures.
Fourthwall ($17 million raised)
When an actor faces the camera and speaks directly to the audience, it’s known as “breaking the fourth wall.” Named after the trope, Venice-based Fourthwall offers a website builder that’s designed for content creators.
The Non Fungible Token Company ($15 million raised)
The Non Fungible Token Company creates NFTs for musicians under the name Unblocked. Its investors include Jay Z’s Marcy Venture Partners and Shawn Mendez.
Safe Health Systems ($15 million raised)
Backed by Mayo Clinic Ventures, Safe Health develops telehealth software and offers tools for enterprises to launch their own health care apps.
Intro ($11.6 million raised)
Intro’s app lets you book video calls with experts—from celebrity stylists, to astrologists, to investors.
DASH Systems ($8.5 million raised)
With the tagline “Land the package, not the plane,” DASH Systems is a Hawthorne-based shipping company that builds hardware and software for automated airdrops.
Ettitude ($3.5 million raised)
With a focus on sustainability, Ettitude is a direct-to-consumer brand that sells bedding, bathroom textiles and sleepwear.
Afterparty ($3 million raised)
Along similar lines as Unblocked, Afterparty creates NFTs for artists and content creators such as Clay Perry and Tropix.
Heart to Heart ($0.75 million raised)
Heart to Heart is an audio-focused dating app that “lets you listen to the story behind the pictures in a profile.” Precursor Ventures led the pre-seed funding round.
Frigg (undisclosed)
Frigg makes hair and beauty products that contain cannabinoids such as CBD. The Valley Village-based company raised an undisclosed seed round in August.
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Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA's senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to harrison@dot.la.
Column: How Music Tech is Making it Easier — and Harder Than Ever — for Artists
02:45 PM | August 20, 2020
For many musicians, the democratization of music production and distribution carried the promise of reaching multitudes of eager fans at the touch of an upload button.
Yet with over 40,000 new tracks being uploaded each day, creating a virtually infinite selection of music available on most streaming platforms, breaking through as an artist has in some ways become more difficult than ever, especially on the global stage.
It is certainly possible today for artists to create and self-distribute their music, gain a following and begin building a career. But there's a big difference between having access to the tools of music creation, distribution, and building a sustainable career and the potential to become a global superstar. And that's where modern record labels are best positioned to help.
So What Does a Music Label Do These Days?
Revenues from recorded music in the United States grew 13% in 2019 to $11.1 billion at estimated retail value.
Image from The Recording Industry Association of America's report on year end revenues for 2019.
Fact is, what record labels do has not changed much since the industry's digital transformation. Now, as ever, labels discover and develop artists, connect them with creative collaborators to make great records, promote and position them in the media and wherever fans go to get music and reward successful outcomes. Over the last decade or so, the digital transition has fundamentally changed how and when virtually every functional area of a record label is done.
One difference that touches every facet of a label's operation is the massive amounts of real-time discovery and consumption data. Label teams analyze thousands of global inputs: Facebook fans, Twitter followers, YouTube views, Instagram activity, Shazam queries and Wikipedia look-ups. That's on top of analyzing the daily tsunami of music service plays around the world. The end goal: to develop an agile, highly customized response plan for every track of an artist's release.
Corollary to all this data is how today's music fans discover and consume music. Many fans now listen to music via premium subscription services that give them access to tens of millions of tracks for less than the price of one CD per month, or in a "feels free" option of ad-supported delivery. Fans also access music by watching label-created visual content on a myriad of screens, large and small, over video channels and via social media. At the same time they may still buy CDs or vinyl records and listen to the radio. To properly synthesize and optimize all these inputs and extract actionable insights requires hands-on experience that is both broad and deep, relationships, investment and instant access to a global marketing and distribution network; that is, it requires boots on the ground. Lots of them.
Revenues from recorded music in the United States grew 13% in 2019 to $11.1 billion at estimated retail value, the fourth year in a row of double digit growth reflecting continued increases — primarily from paid subscription streaming services, which reached more than 60 million subscriptions in the United States and accounted for 80% of recorded music revenue.
To put these numbers in a global perspective, as recently as 2018 and with streaming growth surging in developed markets, the worldwide recorded music business generated not quite half the peak revenues achieved in 1999 on an inflation-adjusted basis. CD sales crashed after 1999 with the launch of Napster and other illegal peer-to-peer file trading services, all of which were eventually litigated out of existence. The growth of iTunes downloads beginning in 2003 mitigated the decline of CD sales; Spotify didn't enter the U.S. market until 2011, the same year global revenues returned to growth after over a decade of painful decline. Midia Research pegged the 2019 global music industry at $76.2 billion including recorded music, publishing, live music, merchandising and sponsorships.
And just as the mode of consumer listening has shifted from mostly physical products and permanent downloads to on-demand streams, every aspect of label operations has reoriented toward a streaming-first consumption model and an always-on consumer mindset. The business of minting hits is no longer narrowly based on the 20th century model of maximizing short-term campaign outcomes for scarce broadcast radio slots or displays in retail stores. Every label function is now organized around fighting for a share of the attention economy, where consumers have unlimited access and choice, but not unlimited time.
Welcome to the Age of the Artist
The Age of the Artist
Photo by @plqml // felipe pelaquim on UnsplashToday, an artist's decision to partner with a label is a choice, not a requirement. The expanding galaxy of startups designed to help the DIY artist record, distribute, and market digital music has given artists more options to stay independent longer, and enables some artists to make a sustainable living while building a fan base. Every musician starts out as an independent, DIY project. When they attract the attention of a record label, whether indie or major, they may be in a very different negotiating position than a decade or so ago. In this way, the point at which labels interact with artists has largely shifted to a point that's further along an artist's development.
Although labels continued to invest in developing and breaking new artists during the industry's downturn following an explosion of file sharing led to the collapse of the CD earlier this century, the improvement in industry revenue, driven by the growth of subscriptions to streaming services, is being re-invested in A&R.
Two years ago, 12% more artists signed to major label rosters for the first time as compared with the end of 2014. I'll be doing research to update this data later this year, but all signs point to further growth in artist signings. At the same time, independent artists are the fastest-growing segment in the music economy, so much so that industry analyst Mark Mulligan has dubbed the 2020s The Age of the Artist, a fundamental departure from previous decades/eras defined by a mode of distribution or packaged media format.
Major labels understand it is in their interest to maintain a front-row seat to the edge of innovation through various approaches. For example, Warner Music's WMG Boost invests directly in early stage companies; Universal's Accelerator Engagement Network invests through top accelerators located in innovation hubs around the world. But as the world's largest music-based entertainment companies and guardians of a century of the world's most popular music, their attention is focused elsewhere.
Where Is the Investment in New Music Technology Going?
Where Is the Investment in New Music Technology Going?
Photo by James Owen on UnsplashSo where exactly is the innovation occurring? The current cohort of international startup competitions like MidemLab and those receiving support from top accelerators like L.A.'s Techstars Music or Abbey Road Red fit into an emerging post-pandemic investment pattern.
- Creator tools. There is a mind-numbing array of unbundled offerings for artists to support collaboration, production and mastering, funding and financial management, distribution, marketing and promotion. A generation of data insight and analytics startups were acquired by the majors along with Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora. HiFi, a new entrant in financial management and transparency, was launched with $53 million in backing 'to financially empower the creative class.'
- Live streaming and virtual events. The live concert business came to a screeching halt to mid-March. Touring represents 70 – 80% of revenue for many artists. Virtually no one expects a meaningful restart of this segment until 2021. And although live streaming and virtual events are not a substitute for the live concert experience, this trend is likely to stay with us even after the pandemic recedes.
- The New Merch – In China, Tencent Music has done a spectacular job proving music fans will pay for virtual goods, gifts and currencies – at scale. This is especially noteworthy in a market not known for generating revenue directly from the sale of recorded music. Now, the West is paying attention. Opportunities abound in limited edition merchandise, premium chat services, virtual merchandise and much more.
Over the last two decades, the music industry has faced extreme disruption as digital services were born and entered the mainstream. Independent and unsigned artists have a myriad of options to self-release their music. While some musicians have found sustainable success without a label's backing, there are certain things that only a label can do, particularly for artists with global ambition. Opportunities for innovation and value creation are distributed across the music industry value chain, especially in the areas of creator tools, live streaming and monetizing fandom. It's no secret that many of the most exciting startups envisioning the way music will be created and experienced are in L.A. today.
Larry Miller is a professor at NYU where he directs the undergraduate and graduate Music Business programs. He produces and hosts the Musonomics podcast.
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Larry Miller
Larry Miller is a professor at NYU where he directs the undergraduate and graduate Music Business programs. He produces and hosts the Musonomics podcast.
AI Dominates the Headlines, but Defense Tech Is Gaining Speed
11:56 AM | January 31, 2025
🔦 Spotlight
Hello, Los Angeles!
This week, DeepSeekAI has been dominating the tech conversation. The Chinese AI startup’s chatbot app surged to the No. 1 spot on the App Store, drawing both excitement and scrutiny. Supporters see its open-weight model as a potential game-changer, offering developers more flexibility compared to closed AI systems like OpenAI’s. But the rapid rise has also raised questions about security, data governance, and global AI competition. Whether DeepSeek will be a long-term disruptor or just a momentary sensation remains to be seen, but one thing is clear—AI remains the tech industry’s driving force.
But while AI continues to dominate headlines, another sector is quietly making waves—defense technology. And one LA-based startup just secured a major endorsement from investors and the U.S. government.
Castelion’s Hypersonic Bet—Can It Outrun the Defense Industry’s Red Tape?
Image Source: Castelion
El Segundo-based Castelionjust raised$100 million to accelerate its mission to build hypersonic weapons faster, cheaper, and at scale. The financing—$70 million in equity (led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from a16z, Lavrock Ventures, Cantos, First In, BlueYard Capital, and Interlagos) and $30 million in venture debt (from Silicon Valley Bank)—is the latest sign that venture capital sees national security startups as a high-growth opportunity.
Unlike traditional defense contractors, Castelion is operating like a fast-moving startup, not a slow-moving government supplier. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, the company is applying an iterative, test-heavy approach to building long-range hypersonic strike weapons—which travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5 (3,800+ mph) and are designed to evade modern missile defenses.
Not Just VC-Backed—The U.S. Military is Betting on Castelion Too
While the $100 million raise is a major milestone, Castelion already has funded contracts with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Army. These contracts are focused on hypersonic technology development and scaled manufacturing, areas where the military has struggled to move quickly due to bureaucratic delays and reliance on traditional defense giants.
To prove it can execute, Castelion recently successfully launched a low-cost ballistic missile from a self-built launcher in Mojave. Now, with both government contracts and venture capital behind it, the company is pushing forward on more flight tests and building out its scaled production capabilities.
Image Source: Castelion - Castelion launches a missile prototype in Mojave, CA
With rising geopolitical tensions and an increasing focus on faster, cost-effective deterrence, Castelion is positioning itself as a new kind of defense player—one that moves at startup speed. Whether it can sustain that pace while navigating the complexities of government procurement remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the future of defense tech isn’t just about who can build the best weapons—it’s about who can build them fast enough.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Omnitron Sensors, a Los Angeles-based pioneer in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technology, has secured over $13M in a Series A funding round led by Corriente Advisors, LLC, with participation from L'ATTITUDE Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering and operations teams and accelerate the mass production of its first product, a reliable and affordable MEMS step-scanning mirror designed for various applications, including AI data centers, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), drones, extended reality (XR) headsets, and toxic gas-detection systems. - learn more
- Camouflet, a Los Angeles-based technology company specializing in AI-driven dynamic pricing solutions, has secured a $12M Series A funding round led by QVM. The company plans to utilize the proceeds to scale its platform across various industries, expand into international markets, and enhance its technology and team to better serve its clients. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Clocktower Ventures participated in a $6.2M Seed funding round for Foyer, a New York-based fintech startup that assists individuals in saving for home purchases. The funds will be used to enhance Foyer's platform and expand its user base. - learn more
- Smash Capital participated in ElevenLabs' $180M Series C funding round, bringing the company's valuation to $3.3 billion. Based in New York, ElevenLabs specializes in AI-powered text-to-speech and voice cloning technology. The newly secured funds will be used to enhance its AI audio platform and expand its global presence. - learn more
- March Capital participated in a $25M Series C funding round for SuperOps to support the company's efforts in advancing AI research and development, expanding offerings for mid-market and enterprise managed service providers (MSPs), and scaling its global presence. Additionally, SuperOps is launching an AI-powered Endpoint Management tool to enhance IT team productivity. - learn more
- Cedars-Sinai participated in a $2M funding round for Neu Health to support its AI-driven neurology care platform for conditions like Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Originating from the University of Oxford, Neu Health will use the funds to enter the U.S. market, beginning with a six-month pilot program at Cedars-Sinai focused on improving neurology patient care. - learn more
- Chapter One Ventures participated in a $2.8M seed funding round for Mevvy, a blockchain startup aiming to democratize Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) trading by simplifying access and reducing technical complexities. The funds will be used to further develop Mevvy's platform, expand its user base, and enhance its offerings. - learn more
LA Exits
- Kona, an AI-powered assistant and coach for remote managers, has been acquired by 15Five, a performance management platform. Founded in 2019, Kona integrates with virtual meeting platforms like Zoom and Google Meet to provide tailored coaching and enablement for remote managers. The acquisition aims to enhance 15Five's offerings by incorporating Kona's capabilities to improve manager effectiveness within existing workflows. - learn more
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