🔦 Spotlight
Hello Los Angeles
The most underrated part of the space boom isn’t what gets launched, it’s what happens after. A satellite can be flawless in orbit and still be functionally useless if you can’t talk to it fast, often, and reliably, especially when something breaks.
Torrance is proving the next space race is won on the ground
Northwood Space, operating out of a 35,000-square-foot facility in Torrance, just landed a rare one-two punch: a $100M Series B and a roughly $49.8M U.S. Space Force contract tied to upgrades for the Satellite Control Network, the system that supports launches, early operations, tracking and control, and emergency support when satellites go sideways. The Series B was led by Washington Harbour Partners, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, and included participation from Alpine Space Ventures, Founders Fund, StepStone, Balerion, Fulcrum, Pax, 137 Ventures, and others.
Image Source: Northwood Space
What’s intriguing here isn’t just the dollars, it’s the thesis. Northwood is arguing that the next wave of space companies won’t be constrained by rockets, but by operations and connectivity, meaning the ground layer becomes the strategic choke point. Their approach combines vertically integrated ground infrastructure with phased-array systems (“Portal”) that can steer multiple beams electronically and support missions across LEO, MEO, and GEO, aiming to make ground access feel less like bespoke aerospace procurement and more like scalable infrastructure.
Why this matters right now
In a market where “space” headlines often center on what’s above the atmosphere, this week’s signal is that the decisive advantage may live down here. If Northwood can make satellite communications more frequent, more flexible, and easier to scale, it doesn’t just help one mission, it changes the economics of operating entire fleets.
Scroll on for the latest LA venture rounds, fund news and acquisitions.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Origin, a pelvic floor physical therapy and women’s musculoskeletal care provider, raised a Series B led by SJF Ventures with participation from Blue Venture Fund and Gratitude Railroad, plus financing from California’s IBank and several angel investors. The company says it will use the funding to expand access to its hybrid model of in-person clinics and nationwide virtual care, and to invest in AI-enabled clinical tools, clinician training through Origin University, and additional clinical research. - learn more
- OpenDrives announced new funding led by IAG Capital Partners to support growth of its software platform for video data management used by media, sports, and enterprise teams. Alongside the investment, the company named longtime COO Trevor Morgan as CEO as it continues shifting from a hardware-first business to a software-focused platform. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- MANTIS Venture Capital participated in Rogo’s $75M Series C, a round led by Sequoia that values the AI “agent” platform at about $750M. The company says it will use the new funding to scale its AI system for investment-banking workflows and accelerate its European expansion, including opening its first international office in London. - learn more
- B Capital led PaleBlueDot AI’s $150M Series B, pushing the AI compute platform’s valuation to over $1B. The company says it will use the funding to deepen its core tech and platform engineering, expand go-to-market, and scale across North America and Asia to meet rising enterprise demand for cost-efficient AI infrastructure. - learn more
- Rebel Fund participated in Modelence’s seed round, which raised $3M and was led by Y Combinator alongside other investors. Modelence is building an all-in-one TypeScript toolkit that bundles essentials like auth, databases, hosting, and LLM observability to reduce the “stitching things together” headaches that come with vibe-coding and modern app infrastructure. - learn more
- Alexandria Venture Investments participated in TRexBio’s oversubscribed $50M financing alongside several new investors and existing backers. The company says it will use the funds to advance TRB-061, its TNFR2 agonist designed to selectively activate regulatory T cells, in an ongoing Phase 1a/b study for atopic dermatitis, and to move preclinical programs TRB-071 and TRB-081 toward the clinic. - learn more
- Bonfire Ventures led Risotto’s $10M seed round to help the startup bring AI into help desk workflows and make ticketing systems easier to use. Risotto aims to autonomously resolve support tickets by sitting between tools like Jira and a company’s internal systems, using an AI layer designed to keep model outputs reliable and controlled. - learn more
- Calibrate Ventures participated as a returning investor in Grid Aero’s $20M Series A, which was co-led by Bison Ventures and Geodesic Capital. The aerospace and defense startup says it will use the funding to move its Lifter Lite autonomous aircraft from testing into operational deployments, supporting major exercises and early customer use cases as it scales long-range, low-cost autonomous airlift for contested environments. - learn more
LA Exits
- Bridg is being acquired by PAR Technology (from Cardlytics) in a deal valued at $27.5M in PAR stock, with the price potentially adjusting up to $30M, and it’s expected to close in Q1 2026. PAR plans to integrate Bridg’s identity-resolution capabilities so restaurants and retailers can unify loyalty and non-loyalty purchase data, recognize previously anonymous customers, and run and measure marketing more effectively. - learn more
- Assembly, an employee recognition and rewards platform founded in 2018 and used by 500+ organizations, is being acquired by talent-management provider Quantum Workplace. The deal adds built-in rewards to Quantum Workplace’s suite and is intended to connect recognition data with engagement, performance, development, and retention insights so leaders can better spot impact, reinforce values, and invest in keeping top talent. - learn more
Image Source: Apex
Image Source: Observable Space