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XRelativity Space Raises $650M for Its Recyclable Rocket
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him

Aerospace upstart Relativity Space and its CEO Tim Ellis are trying to take on SpaceX in the recyclable rocket race. The company has landed a new funding round to produce a fully reusable rocket that could launch within three years.
Long Beach-based Relativity raised a $650 Series E round June 8 to fund the development and production of its Terran R rocket, a reusable craft that will be 95% 3D-printed — including its engines — and launch by 2024, according to CEO Tim Ellis.
The new round was led by existing investors Fidelity Management & Research. WIth this round, Relativity Space has raised roughly $1.9 billion since its 2015 launch.
Ellis told dot.LA that the funding round is pivotal in helping Relativity reach its lofty goals.
"Ever since Relativity's early days in Y Combinator, we've planned to manufacture a large reusable rocket along with Terran 1 and now we're one step closer to fulfilling that vision," he said in an email.
Ellis added that the company has already sold the first multiple launch contract for Terran R, even though the rocket isn't finished yet and said "our team is excited by the progress this new funding will enable in its development."
"Over the last year, we found ourselves being asked by the market to accelerate development of our larger launch vehicle, so we knew it was time to double down on our existing plans and scale the Terran R program even faster and build production capabilities at scale sooner," said in an earlier statement.
SpaceX has been reusing rockets -- or parts of them -- since 2010. The company's Falcon 9 rocket is recyclable and has been in use since 2012, and SpaceX first successfully re-lit used rocket boosters during a test the year after. The Falcon Heavy and Starship crafts developed by SpaceX also use reusable components.
Relativity's renderings of the Terran R show a craft that is 216 feet tall and looks like something straight out of "Star Trek." The sleek, aerodynamic craft is 16 feet in diameter and capable of sending over 44,000 pounds into low Earth orbit.
The craft has a lot of firepower -- seven identical 3D-printed engines that will give the rocket over 300,000 pounds of upward thrust each.
The Terran R is the reusable counterpart to Relativity's Terran 1 rocket, which has already secured Department of Defense contracts to launch satellites by June of next year. Six private companies have signed on to launch on the rocket so far, including Iridium, Telesat, Spaceflight, mu Space, Momentus, and TriSept.
"We're focusing our energy towards the first launch of Terran 1, the world's first completely 3D printed rocket, which is the most pre-sold rocket in history and building Terran R," Ellis told dot.LA.
Relativity said that over 85% of the Terran 1 rocket is printed and is on track for a test launch this year from the company's site at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Terran R rocket will eventually launch from the same complex.
Besides being recyclable, the biggest difference between the Terran R and the Terran 1 is that the R is capable of holding a payload 20 times bigger.
If the Terran R craft lands successfully and all parts are reusable, it could be a game-changer not only for launch contractors such as the DoD, but also other rocket manufacturing companies.
Ellis claims the company has "radically simplified" its supply chain and can build a rocket in less than two months with "over 100 times fewer parts" than a conventional rocket build.
Automated 3D printing rockets cost a fraction of what a typical rocket production line would, and SpaceX has already proven that reusable rocket parts are both feasible and cheap. With a successful model for reusable spaceflight, Relativity could gear itself up for a flurry of interested launch partners looking to reach orbit for a nominal price.
Other existing investors returned to back Relativity again, including U.K.-based asset manager Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global Capital, K5 Global, Tribe Capital, hedge fund XN, actor Jared Leto and "Shark Tank" star and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
Spencer Rascoff, a co-founder and investor in dot.LA, contributed to Relativity Space's Series E through his L.A.-based investment firm 75 and Sunny, as well as in prior funding rounds.
New investors including Brad Buss, private equity firm Centricus and New York City-based hedge fund Coatue also joined the round.
Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with comments from Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis.
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
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This Week in ‘Raises’: Improvado Hauls $22M, Clearlake Launches $14B Fund
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
This week in “Raises”: A pair of Web3 platforms for gamers landed funding, as did a Manhattan Beach medical startup looking to bolster primary care via nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, a Santa Monica-based investment firm launched its seventh fund with more than $14 billion in dry powder.
Venture Capital
Improvado, a marketing data aggregation platform, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Updata Partners.
Web3 gaming platform FreshCut raised $15 million in funding led by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands and Republic Crypto.
Medical startup Greater Good Health raised $10 million in a funding round led by LRVHealth.
Joystick, a Web3 platform for gamers and creators, raised $8 million in seed funding.
Open source data protection company CipherMode Labs raised $6.7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors .
Mobile phone charging network ChargeFUZE raised $5 million in seed funding led by Beverly Pacific, TR Ventures, VA2, Jason Goldberg and Al Weiss.
Polygon, a startup aiming to better diagnose children with learning disabilities, raised $4.2 million in seed and pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital and Pear VC.
Pique, a virtual women's sexual health clinic, raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Maveron.
Psudo, a sneaker startup that utilizes recycled water bottles and 3D sublimation printing to create its shoes, raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by SternAegis Ventures.
Funds
Santa Monica-based investment firm Clearlake Capital Group raised $14.1 billion for its seventh flagship fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Kristin Snyder (kristinsnyder@dot.la).Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: New Head of Originals at Snap, New President at FaZe Clan
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
“Moves”, our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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FaZe Clan brought on Zach Katz as the gaming and media company’s new president and chief operating officer. Katz was previously the chief executive officer of the music tech investment fund Raised in Space Enterprises.
TikTok brand factory LINK Agency promoted Dustin Poteet to chief creative officer. Poteet was previously creative director at the firm.
Livestream shopping platform Talkshoplive hired Tradesy co-founder John Hall as its chief technology officer. Universal Music Group Nashville's former vice president of digital marketing, Tony Grotticelli, also joins the company as vice president of marketing.
Anjuli Millan will take over as head of original content at Snap after three years of overseeing production for the division.
Tech and media company Blavity hired Nikki Crump as general manager of agency. Crump joins the company from Burrell Communications Group.
O'Neil Digital Solutions, which provides customer communications and experience management for the health care industry, hired Eric Ramsey as national account sales executive. Ramsey joins from T/O Printing.
Investment firm Cresset Partners named Tammy Funasaki as managing director of business development. Funasaki previously served as head of investor relations for Breakwater Management.
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Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Snapchat is preparing to roll out enhanced parental controls that would allow parents to see who their teenagers are chatting with on the social media app, according to screenshots of the upcoming feature.
Snap’s parental controls.
Courtesy of Watchful.
Snapchat is planning to introduce Family Center, which would allow parents to see who their children are friends with on the app and who they’ve messaged within the last seven days, according to screenshots provided by Watchful, a product intelligence company. Parents would also be able help their kids report abuse or harassment.
The parental controls are still subject to change before finally launching publicly, as the Family Center screenshots—which were first reported by TechCrunch—reflect features that are still under development.
Santa Monica-based Snap and other social media giants have faced mounting criticism for not doing more to protect their younger users—some of whom have been bullied, sold deadly drugs and sexually exploited on their platforms. State attorneys general have urged Snap and Culver City-based TikTok to strengthen their parental controls, with both companies’ apps especially popular among teens.
A Snap spokesperson declined to comment on Friday. Previously, Snap representatives have told dot.LA that the company is developing tools that will provide parents with more insight into how their children are engaging on Snapchat and allow them to report troubling content.
Yet Snap’s approach to parental controls could still give teens some privacy, as parents wouldn’t be able to read the actual content of their kids’ conversations, according to TechCrunch. (The Family Center screenshots seen by dot.LA do not detail whether parents can see those conversations).
In addition, teenage users would first have to accept an invitation from their parents to join the in-app Family Center before those parents can begin monitoring their social media activity, TechCrunch reported.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.