You Might Not Have Noticed the Next Generation of Adtech Is Already Here — and That's Just How the Industry Wants It.

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

Ryff

If you watched this year's NCAA basketball tournament, you may have unknowingly witnessed an early milestone from a company aiming to upend video advertising.

Ryff, a stealthy L.A.-based startup founded in 2018, helped Coca-Cola insert images of Coke bottles and banners into classic footage from past tournaments, like UCLA's 2006 finals run and North Carolina State's improbable championship in 1983.


Ryff's ambitions are much grander than clever, nostalgic ads: chief executive and co-founder Roy Taylor wants to introduce on-demand digitized product placement across the entire entertainment industry.

Traditional product placement often requires complex upfront negotiations between brands and content producers, or using post-production techniques that can be costly and clunky. Ryff uses technology common in video games, where on-screen items can be swapped in and out at the push of a button, to quickly insert branded images into completed scenes. This approach distinguishes the L.A.-based startup, but could raise questions from creators who never set out to be brand ambassadors and viewers who will be unwittingly exposed to ads.

Taylor himself is reluctant to seek out too much publicity for fear of a backlash.

"We're in a slightly unusual position because we want all the publicity we can get, but only B2B," he said, meaning he wants brands and content-owners to hear about Ryff, but not necessarily viewers.

"We believe the general public, if they have a preference, veer towards being less comfortable with digital anything right now," Taylor said. He is adamant, however, that Ryff does not create "deep fakes."

"We do not change an original truth; I think that's wrong," he said. "I would never allow our technology to be used in a way which is nefarious."

In addition to its Coke campaign, Ryff has done a test campaign with Diageo, for which it inserted Baileys bottles into three Lifetime movies, as well as a handful of other brands and firms including Intel, Perfectamundo tequila and Dutch production company Endemol Shine. The startup has raised $8.6 million.

As linear TV viewership has declined, advertising dollars on the medium have stagnated. They have "proven relatively resilient, despite cord cutting," said media analyst Tony Lenoir of Kagan, because advertisers like being able to reach the customers that have stuck with cable, who tend to be relatively wealthy.

But TV ads have been in steady decline as a share of overall advertising spend. From 2015 to 2020 the share of TV ad-spend in the U.S. fell from 42% to 33%, with a further decline to 20% expected by 2025, according to MoffettNathanson, an independent research company focused on media and communications. Online advertising, which includes streaming, has picked up the slack, growing from a 27% share in 2015 to 52% in 2020, with an expected rise to 73% by 2025. Relatedly, eMarketer predicts that by 2024, there will be more households without a traditional pay-TV service than with it.

Taylor's investors think he and his 30-person team, split between L.A. and Cambridge in his native U.K., are well positioned to ride these trends.

"I think streaming platforms, because there's so many of them now, will need to identify new ways of generating revenue outside of growing the subscriber base," said Marlon Nichols, whose MaC Ventures participated in Ryff's $5 million fundraise in 2019, its most recent.

Ryff's biggest competitor is London-based Mirriad, which Taylor says uses technology that is less scalable. That could change, however.

"There is no such thing today as a product which cannot be replicated," he said.

Like any multi-sided platform — think Uber, Airbnb, etc. — Ryff will need to onboard users on both the supply and demand sides of the ad market. In other words, to achieve its ambitions of ushering in a new paradigm of advertising, Taylor needs to lure in more brands on the one side, and streaming platforms, studios and UGC video services on the other.

Ryff LifetimeRyff has done a test campaign with Diageo, for which it inserted Baileys bottles into three Lifetime movies.

How Ryff Works

To demonstrate his technology, Taylor pulls up a scene from a film he cannot disclose, of two men sitting on stools outside a restaurant, at a small table holding two empty glasses.

Using a combination of computer visioning and artificial intelligence, Ryff's "Placer" technology has scanned the entire film to identify opportunities like this for product placement. The tool, Taylor said, is trained to recommend product types that fit scenes contextually, culturally and creatively.

In the restaurant scene, that means the technology should know not only that a beverage bottle could fit, but also that it must be a brand that could be found in whichever country the scene is taking place. The product also must fit with the story's narrative; if both characters are teetotalers, the technology could suggest a soda brand, but not a beer.

"I took the notion that you could treat a frame of film or TV as a backdrop, like in a traditional theater," Taylor said. "You could take a 3D model and render it — that is, apply light and shade to it — and make it look as though it appeared in the backdrop; you could get them to match."

Ryff's automated suggestions are uploaded into a searchable database that brands can screen for myriad factors, including the time of day the scene takes place, specific actors in it and whether it contains certain activities like sports.

Taylor drew on his background at NVIDIA to create Ryff. The Silicon Valley company makes chips and graphic processing units. In the 1990s, he helped launch its European offices.

Will Advertisers and Content-Creators Riff on Ryff?

Analysts at PQ Media have pegged the brand-placement market at $20 billion worldwide, and forecast it to climb 9.8% per year through 2024, with the fastest growth occurring on digital platforms.

"It's a concept that was not possible in years past, just because the technology was not there to do this kind of scene analysis and to place in everyday objects in a realistic way," said Paul Erickson of market research firm Parks Associates.

Consumers today are less tolerant of ads than they once were, he points out. "People's tastes have changed."

As cable continues its decline and streaming picks up the slack, Taylor thinks that aversion will only grow.

"I don't believe in AVOD," he said, referring to streaming's ad-based monetization model.

But plenty of streaming companies are betting that traditional, interruptive advertising still has a place. HBO Max has announced plans to launch a lower-priced, ad-based tier later this year. ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal have both embraced multi-pronged streaming strategies that include monetization models ranging from free and ad-based to premium subscription-based.

As to whether pure-play subscription-based services might entertain Ryff's "placement-based" revenue opportunity, media analyst Dan Rayburn is skeptical.

"Based on the projections they've given Wall Street, these services think they can be profitable without ads," he said, adding that companies like Netflix have shunned advertising revenues, presumably based on their analysis that the benefits would be outweighed by the cost of turning off customers.

RyffRyff has done a test campaign with Diageo, for which it inserted Baileys bottles into three Lifetime movies

Rayburn also said that based on his research, streaming companies may bridle at serving viewers product placements that could feel inauthentic and thus devalue their content.

"Disney's not saying, 'Hey, we'll stick a Pepsi behind Disney content'," he said. "That's not a business model they want or a trend they want to start."

Taylor said content rights holders may yet be won over because they have the final say as to what goes in their scenes.

"They always have control–always," he said.

Even if customers and content creators are okay with what Ryff provides, it will still need to bring on more brands to grow. For its business model, the company charges brands a fee or takes a percentage of their payments to the content owners. Ryff would not disclose its revenue figures.

"Advertisers don't throw a lot of money around ideas where they don't know how to measure the ROI," said Rayburn, noting this may make it challenging for Ryff to bring on brands.

A report commissioned by Ryff about its Baileys campaign, done by third-party research firm Radicle, indicated that, from start to finish, the placement took three weeks, and that Diageo was pleased with the results.

Taylor thinks brands will warm to Ryff once they better understand its customer-targeting capabilities, saying he can help to ensure "we no longer promote meat products to vegetarians."

Ryff helped Coca-Cola insert images of Coke bottles and banners into classic footage from past NCAA tournaments.

Ryff's Vision of the Future

In addition to tapping streamers and studios to feed its content database, Taylor is also intrigued by Ryff's opportunities in the vast and growing world of user-generated content that ends up on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. He points to renowned investor Marc Andreessen's thesis of a "third wave" of the internet, monetized by direct-to-creator spend rather than through third-party ads. The success of platforms like Cameo, Substack and Only Fans are early signs of this evolution.

"This is where I think this is going," Taylor said. "Real-time ingestion, real-time placement and real-time auctions."

Even as the means by which viewers access content evolves, and the monetization models change apace, Taylor is sure at least one thing will endure.

"Ultimately, great content needs budgets," he said, hopeful that such a need can be fulfilled by Ryff, even if it is, like much of advertising, a necessary evil.

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The $260M Robot Revolution Happening in Torrance

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

Forget rockets. This week, the loudest move in the defense tech scene came from a factory floor in Torrance, where Hadrian secured $260 million to fuel its robot-run revolution.

The company, which builds AI-powered, robot-run factories for America’s aerospace and defense industries, announced the massive Series C raise, led by existing investors like Lux Capital and Founders Fund, along with a factory expansion loan facility arranged by Morgan Stanley. The funding will power Hadrian’s third factory (in Arizona), unlock full product manufacturing, and accelerate its mission to bring American manufacturing roaring back faster, smarter, and more automated than ever.

And here’s what makes them fascinating: Hadrian isn’t just churning out parts. They’re reinventing what a factory is. Their facilities look more like giant humming circuit boards than the smokestacks of old, packed with robots, AI, and ambition to move at the speed of software.

It’s the kind of vision you’d expect from a founder who speaks about reshoring U.S. manufacturing as if it were a moral obligation and then backs it up with billion-dollar contracts and steel-and-silicon proof.

We’ll be watching closely to see what Hadrian assembles next. One thing’s certain: the robots are already working overtime, and if you’re smart (or a robot whisperer), you might want to join them.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • Boulevard, a SaaS startup that helps salons and self-care businesses manage scheduling and operations, has raised an $80M Series D led by JMI Equity at a valuation near $800M. The funding will fuel enhancements to its AI-powered scheduling tools and support continued product innovation and market expansion. - learn more
  • Rwazi has raised $12M in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered decision-making platform, which helps businesses replace gut-based decisions with real-time insights and simulations based on consumer behavior. The round was led by Bonfire Ventures and will support the growth of Rwazi’s simulation engine and data infrastructure to help companies make more precise, data-driven decisions across marketing, product, and operations. - learn more
  • Lexington Bakes, an artisan bakery known for its gluten-free, organic oat bars and luxury brownies, has raised $1M in a seed round. The investment was led by Rainfall Ventures. The funding will help the company transition to co-manufacturing, expand its retail reach from about 100 to a projected 1,000 doors in the next year, and scale up its team and operations. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

  • TCG (The Chernin Group) participated in Substack’s latest $100M funding round, joining Andreessen Horowitz, and other investors. Their investment underscores confidence in Substack’s vision to grow its subscription publishing platform and expand its tools for independent writers and creators. - learn more
  • Acre Venture Partners participated in Zucca’s $5M funding round to help the Seattle startup scale its platform, which uses AI to design and develop plant-based food products faster and more efficiently. Their investment will support Zucca’s mission to create sustainable, health-focused foods and expand its operations. - learn more
  • Sound Ventures joined XMTP’s $80M Series B to back its vision of redefining how people communicate in the web3 world. With this funding, XMTP plans to scale its decentralized, privacy-focused messaging protocol, enabling secure, wallet-to-wallet conversations across the blockchain ecosystem. - learn more
  • Morpheus Ventures and Sage Venture Partners participated in Datavations’ $17M Series A funding round, with Morpheus joining as a new investor and Sage returning as an existing backer. Datavations, an AI-driven analytics platform for the building materials and home improvement industries, uses machine learning to deliver actionable insights on pricing, inventory, assortment, and supply chains. The funds will be used to grow the team, accelerate development of its Commerce Alert Hub, and expand its presence across North America. - learn more
  • Mucker Capital led the $3.3M seed round for Bidbus, an AI-powered consumer-to-dealer used car marketplace in the U.S. The platform enables car owners to auction their vehicles online and receive competing offers from dealers, while dealers gain access to high-quality inventory more efficiently. The funding will help Bidbus enhance its AI capabilities and expand into new markets. - learn more
  • Creative Artists Agency (CAA) participated as a strategic investor in Moonvalley’s $84M funding round, signaling strong industry confidence in the company’s development of a fully licensed, AI-powered video generation platform tailored for professional filmmakers and studios. CAA’s investment reinforces Moonvalley’s commitment to ethical AI practices and provides it with a direct pipeline to top-tier creative talent and entertainment partners. - learn more
  • MANTIS Venture Capital joined Zip Security’s $13.5M Series A funding round, backing the company's mission to deliver automated, AI-driven cybersecurity and compliance solutions. Their participation supports Zip’s efforts to expand its engineering team, build deeper platform integrations, and scale into regulated industry verticals like defense, finance, and healthcare. - learn more
  • Rebel Fund participated in Apolink’s oversubscribed $4.3M seed round, joining other notable backers such as Y Combinator and 468 Capital. By investing in this 19‑year‑old–led space tech startup, Rebel Fund is supporting Apolink’s mission to deliver continuous LEO satellite connectivity and facilitate its planned demo missions and constellation build‑out. - learn more

    LA Exits
    • Retina AI is to be acquired by Onar in a deal that will enhance Onar’s AI-powered customer analytics and personalization offerings. By integrating Retina’s predictive customer lifetime value technology, Onar aims to provide businesses with deeper insights into customer behavior and more precise targeting. The acquisition highlights Onar’s commitment to delivering data-driven solutions for optimizing customer relationships. - learn more
    • Nearsure, a U.S.-based tech services company with over 600 professionals across 18 Latin American countries, has been acquired by Nortal to bolster its AI and enterprise solutions in the Americas. Known for its AI-driven transformation, custom software, and partnerships with major platforms, Nearsure will merge into Nortal’s U.S. operations and rebrand later this year. The acquisition allows Nearsure to expand into U.S. and European markets while enhancing its AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise offerings. - learn more
    • InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the event production company behind high‑profile sports events like The Pickleball Slam, Pro Padel League, and Major League Pickleball, has been acquired by GSE Worldwide, marking GSE’s first foray into live event production. Founded by tennis legend Jim Courier and Jon Venison, who will now serve as EVP and head of the new GSE Productions division, InsideOut’s team will integrate into GSE to help scale its live-event operations into new markets. - learn more

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      From Sunset Boulevard to Outer Space: LA’s Latest

      🔦 Spotlight

      Good Morning Beliebers and Los Angeles!

      While Justin Bieber’s new album dropped last night, here’s what else is making headlines in Los Angeles this week.

      Luma has opened its Dream Lab on Sunset Boulevard, boldly positioning itself at the forefront of AI-powered creativity. Known for transforming ordinary photos into cinematic 3D scenes, Luma is combining cutting-edge research with practical tools to build a playground for artists, engineers, and anyone ready to push the boundaries of visual storytelling. In their words: “From Hollywood blockbusters to the next generation of immersive media, this is where the magic happens.”

      Meanwhile, well beyond our skyline, SpaceX reportedly hit an eye-popping $400 billion valuation in a recent share sale, making it one of the most valuable private companies ever. The milestone reflects both investors’ fervor for the commercial space race and LA’s unrivaled role as the launchpad of aerospace innovation.

      LA continues to prove it can deliver on the ground, in the cloud, and far beyond the stars. See you next week.

      🤝 Venture Deals

      LA Companies

         
      • Varda Space Industries, the El Segundo–based company manufacturing pharmaceuticals in microgravity, has raised $187M in a Series C round led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, bringing its total funding to approximately $329M. The funds will support an increased launch cadence of robotic drug-production capsules, expansion of its El Segundo lab for biologic drug crystallization, and broader efforts to scale commercial microgravity-driven drug formulation and hypersonic reentry testing. - learn more

      LA Venture Funds

      • Rebel Fund participated in Vellum’s $20M Series A round, which was led by Leaders Fund. The company helps businesses build and optimize LLM-powered applications. Vellum plans to grow its team and speed up product development with the new funding. - learn more
      • Bold Capital participated in a $31M Series B funding round for Aqtual, a Hayward, California based precision medicine startup developing a cutting edge cell free DNA (cfDNA) multiomics platform. The capital will help commercialize Aqtual’s flagship rheumatoid arthritis diagnostic, currently being tested in a 1,300 patient trial, and support expansion into other chronic and autoimmune diseases. - learn more
      • Strong Ventures invested in VERAMORE, a skincare brand focused on addressing early signs of aging in women. Since launching in March 2022, VERAMORE has grown over 300% annually, expanded to more than 16 products, and entered markets including Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Europe, and Korea. The funding will support its D2C growth, product-driven marketing, and planned global expansion starting with Japan in 2025 and the U.S. and Europe in 2026. - learn more
      • Mucker Capital joined a $3.7M seed funding round for Velvet Capital aimed at launching its DeFAI operating system and $VELVET governance token. Velvet’s vertically integrated DeFi toolkit combines AI-powered trading, portfolio management, APIs, and a native token to streamline on-chain investment for funds, DAOs, and individual traders. The funding will accelerate platform development, the rollout of its tokenomics, and broader adoption of its intent-based DeFi suite. - learn more
      • Btech Consortium Fund participated in a $8.5M Series A funding round for Castellum.AI, a New York based financial crime compliance platform that uses in‑house risk data, AI, and screening tools to help financial institutions manage AML/KYC compliance. The funds will be used to expand their team, enhance integrations with financial institutions, and accelerate adoption of their AI‑powered compliance solutions. - learn more
      • Bold Capital Partners joined the oversubscribed $45M Series A round for Centivax, a South San Francisco biotech company dedicated to developing a universal flu vaccine using a proprietary mRNA-based immune-engineering platform. Led by Future Ventures, the funding will help Centivax advance its lead candidate into Phase I clinical trials and expand its broader universal immunity pipeline targeting pathogens like RSV, HIV, and malaria. - learn more
      • Alpha Edison participated in Honor Education’s $38M Series A funding round for the San Francisco–based learning platform. Honor uses AI‑enhanced, mobile-first courses and credentialed programs to improve engagement and leadership development. The funding will be used to scale AI capabilities, personalize learning experiences, and expand the company’s operations and customer‑success teams to meet rising demand. - learn more
      • Wasserman Ventures participated in a $7M seed round for Fantasy Life, the fantasy sports platform founded by Matthew Berry. The funding will support the launch of Fantasy Life’s revamped platform, featuring new “Guillotine Leagues,” a modernized app experience, and enhanced content and tools to scale its audience and technology offerings. - learn more

      LA Exits
      • El Segundo based Kaye Capital Management, a fee only RIA with approximately $700M in assets under management and $300M in assets under advisement, was acquired by Modern Wealth Management, marking its 17th acquisition and pushing its total AUM over $8.5B. The deal strengthens Modern Wealth’s presence in California and adds Kaye’s institutional retirement plan expertise to its suite of financial and retirement solutions for clients. - learn more
      • NIRx Medical Technologies was acquired by Gilde Healthcare’s private equity fund and combined with Artinis Medical Systems to form a world-leading neuroimaging group. Both companies will retain their brands and locations while collaborating on R&D, product development, and global expansion of their functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) tools to advance research in mental health, neurodegenerative diseases, and stroke rehabilitation. - learn more
      • Emotive, a conversational SMS marketing platform, has been acquired by Privy to create a unified solution for e-commerce brands that combines email, SMS, pop-ups, and real-time customer conversations. The integrated platform will help over 10,000 merchants simplify their marketing, personalize customer interactions, and strengthen relationships with dedicated strategists and transparent pricing. - learn more

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      Tinder, Starlink, and Apple’s New Studio: This Week in LA

      🔦 Spotlight

      Happy Independence Day, Los Angeles! 🇺🇸

      While you're celebrating freedom, here are some electrifying updates lighting up LA’s tech, satellite, and music scenes:

      🔥 Tinder mandates Face Recognition in California

        Image Source: Tinder

      Tinder is now requiring all new users in California to complete a biometric face check, a brief video selfie processed via FaceTec, to verify profiles are genuine. The video is deleted post-verification, though an encrypted face map remains while the account is active. This West Hollywood based move could redefine trust, safety, and privacy in mainstream consumer apps.

      🌐 Starlink clears hurdle to launch in India

      Elon Musk’s SpaceX backed Starlink has cleared most regulatory and licensing hurdles with India’s Department of Telecommunications, marking a key step toward launching satellite broadband in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. Final approvals from the national space regulator are pending, and services, expected to deliver high speed connectivity to underserved regions, could launch in the coming months. This is a major milestone for Starlink’s global expansion.

      🎧 Apple Music opens Culver City creative hub

        Image Source: Apple

      Apple Music is celebrating its anniversary by launching a brand new 15,000 square foot, three story studio in Culver City. The facility, featuring a 4,000 square foot soundstage, spatial audio suites, podcast booths, and more, is designed by Eric Owen Moss and slated to open mid August. It solidifies LA’s reputation as a creative powerhouse and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to investing in and nurturing our city's cultural ecosystem.

      From dating apps to deep space to sound stages, LA isn’t just watching the future unfold, we’re building it.

      Here’s to independence, imagination, and everything this city dares to launch next. Happy Fourth, Los Angeles.

      🤝 Venture Deals

      LA Companies

      • Castelion has raised a $350M Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside Altimeter Capital to scale its hypersonic missile production capabilities. The El Segundo-based defense startup plans to use the funds to expand manufacturing, accelerate testing through its SpaceX-inspired rapid development model, and position itself as a cost-effective supplier of hypersonic weapons to the U.S. military and its allies. - learn more
      • Earth Sama, a Calabasas, California–based climate-tech platform that helps rural farming and Indigenous communities generate and manage carbon credits, secured investment from Omtse Ventures. The funding will support the rollout of Earth Sama’s blockchain-powered field app, climate-creator platform, and smart-contract tools to scale community-led carbon credit projects globally under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 framework. - learn more

                LA Venture Funds

                • Plassa Capital participated in Metafide’s $3.275M funding round. Miami based Metafide, the creator of SURGE, a gamified trading platform that combines AI neural networks and human insight, will use the funds to scale and launch SURGE into the market. - learn more
                • BOLD Capital Partners participated as a founding investor in Syntis Bio’s $33M Series A round, with an additional $5M in NIH grants. The Boston-based biotech is developing oral therapies for obesity and rare diseases, and the funding will help advance its SYNT platform, moving its lead obesity treatment, SYNT-101, into Phase 1 trials and supporting development of SYNT-202 for homocystinuria. - learn more
                • BAM Ventures participated in Cred’s $15M seed round for its predictive intelligence startup. San Francisco based Cred uses AI to unify company data with real time market signals and deliver actionable insights for sales and operations. The funding, led by defy.vc, will be used to scale Cred’s platform, expand its customer base, and grow team and product capabilities. - learn more
                • BOLD Capital Partners participated in Gallant’s $18M Series B round to advance its ready-to-use stem cell therapies for pets. The funding, led by Digitalis Ventures with additional support from NovaQuest Capital, will help Gallant bring its off-the-shelf regenerative treatments to market. - learn more
                • Rebel Fund joined the seed round for Rocketable, contributing to the $6.5M raised to build a portfolio of fully automated SaaS companies. San Francisco-based Rocketable, backed by True Ventures and others, uses AI agents to operate acquired software products, and Rebel’s support will help scale both the platform and acquisitions. - learn more 
                        LA Exits
                        • Leasepath, a cloud-first provider of equipment lease and loan management software, has been acquired by Solifi to enhance its mid-market offerings. The deal allows Solifi to expand Leasepath’s Microsoft Dynamics-based platform into new global markets while keeping Leasepath’s team and leadership in place. - learn more

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