los angeles tech news

Salt AI Secures $10M to Untangle Healthcare’s Toughest Workflows

Grace Lee
Salt AI Secures $10M to Untangle Healthcare’s Toughest Workflows

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

Not every startup raise deserves the spotlight, but this week’s news from Salt AI is worth paying attention to. The LA based company just closed a $10 million round led by Morpheus Ventures with participation from Struck Capital, Marbruck Investments and CoreWeave. The goal is to expand what it calls “contextual AI,” and if it works, it could quietly change how some of the most complex corners of healthcare get untangled.

Healthcare is notorious for slow, clunky systems. Even the smallest workflow, like drug trial data, clinical documentation, or compliance reviews, can drag on for weeks because the tools were never built for speed. Salt AI is betting that the fix is not flashy consumer apps or billion parameter models, but something more practical: AI that slots directly into the day to day grind of life sciences. Their platform lets non technical teams visually build and deploy workflows that would normally take months of coding. Drag, drop, done.

It sounds simple, but the implications are not. Imagine a biopharma team testing a new drug, able to cut through compliance hurdles in days instead of months. Or clinical researchers spinning up experiments and seeing usable results in real time. Salt AI’s pitch is not about replacing scientists, it is about giving them back time in an industry where time can literally mean lives.

The new capital will help scale engineering, grow its customer footprint, and push further into healthcare and biopharma. But more importantly, it gives Salt AI the chance to prove that “contextual AI” is more than a buzzword. If they succeed, the company will not just chip away at bottlenecks, it could reshape how innovation itself moves through one of the world’s most heavily regulated and mission critical industries.

🤝 Venture Deals

      LA Companies

      • Bonsai Health raised $7M in a seed round led by Bonfire Ventures and Wonder Ventures. The Santa Monica based company builds an agentic AI platform that automates front office healthcare workflows, things like patient outreach, scheduling and clinical follow-ups, working behind the scenes to keep patients connected to care and reduce administrative burden. It plans to use the funding to accelerate its specialty AI agents, expand into new medical specialties, and scale its commercialization nationwide. - learn more
      • Genstore raised a $10M Seed round led by Weimob, with participation from Lighthouse Founders’ Fund. The Los Angeles based startup is building an AI-native e-commerce platform that lets merchants launch and run online stores using conversational prompts, automating everything from product listings and copywriting to customer service. The funds will go toward accelerating product development, expanding into new markets, and refining features that simplify online commerce for small and midsized sellers. - learn more
      • TransAstra secured a $5M investment to scale its asteroid capture technology in partnership with NASA. The company aims to advance systems that can snag and repurpose small bodies in space, contributing to sustainable space infrastructure and debris mitigation. With this funding, TransAstra will expand development, deepen its relationship with NASA, and accelerate deployment of its capture hardware. - learn more

      LA Venture Funds

      • Fika Ventures led a seed round investing in MaxHome, joining BBG Ventures, Four Acres and 1Sharpe Ventures. MaxHome is building an AI-native platform focused on automating real estate transaction coordination, the messy, manual work that slows deals. Fika backed the team because it sees a huge opportunity in streamlining broker workflows, reducing errors, and improving the experience for agents and homebuyers alike. - learn more
      • MANTIS Ventures joined NEA, Sequoia, NVIDIA, J.P. Morgan and others in leading a $50M Series B for Factory, valuing the AI coding company at $300 million. Factory builds “droids,” AI agents that automate software development tasks across environments, and claims their platform now tops the Terminal Bench benchmark. With this capital, Factory aims to expand enterprise adoption, deepen integrations, and scale its engineering team globally. - learn more
      • SafeHill (formerly Tacticly) announced a $2.6M pre-seed round led by Mucker Capital, with participation from Chingona Ventures, Techstars, Chicago Early Growth Ventures, The Source Groups, and others. The Chicago-based cybersecurity startup is launching from stealth with SecureIQ, a continuous Threat Exposure Management platform that blends AI-driven testing with human validation to help organizations find and shore up attack paths. The funding will be used to expand engineering, enhance AI-assisted ethical hacking, deepen enterprise partnerships, and broaden compliance and monitoring capabilities. - learn more
      • Prototype Capital was among the investors in Nilo Technologies’ $4M seed round, alongside backers like Supercell, a16z Speedrun, KFund, and Flex Capital. Nilo is building an AI native 3D creation platform that makes game development more accessible, letting creators build interactive worlds in their browser without complex tooling. The funding will help accelerate product development, bring in more users as “Founding Builders,” and expand the platform’s capabilities for real time, multiplayer creation. - learn more
      • Rebel Fund participated in a $7.5M funding round for Indian fintech Gold Firm Gullak backed by Y Combinator. Gullak offers digital gold savings and lending solutions targeted at underbanked consumers in India. Rebel Fund’s investment will help Gullak scale operations, deepen financial inclusion, and expand its product offerings. - learn more
      • B Capital joined Wellington Management, General Catalyst and others in a $400M funding round for Capital Rx, which is rebranding as Judi Health. The company, which operates a pharmacy benefits management platform, will use the capital to expand into full-spectrum health benefits, integrating medical, dental and vision claims processing with its existing PBM capabilities. The move positions Judi Health as a unified tech backbone for benefits administration across employer and plan clients. - learn more
      • Supply Change Capital joined a seed funding round that raised $4.7M for Helios AI, a startup building the first AI co-pilot for food and agriculture supply chains. Helios’ platform combines climate modeling, commodity forecasting, and real-time data to help buyers and suppliers make smarter decisions in volatile markets. The funding will be used to scale the product, expand data coverage globally, and bring its AI tools to more players across the agri-food sector. - learn more

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          ServiceTitan Ups the AI Stakes

          Grace Lee
          ServiceTitan Ups the AI Stakes

          🔦 Spotlight

          Hello Los Angeles,

          ServiceTitan is making it clear: the trades are getting a tech glow up. At its annual Pantheon conference in Glendale, the home services software giant rolled out a bold AI vision and topped it off with a fresh acquisition that could change the way HVAC contractors do business.

          First, the AI. ServiceTitan unveiled what it calls the “next evolution” of its platform, and this is not just window dressing. Think automated call summaries so techs spend less time typing, predictive scheduling that knows when your AC is likely to fail before you do, and estimates that generate faster than a homeowner can ask, “So, how much is this going to cost me?” For small and mid sized contractors, these are the kinds of tools that level the playing field against the big chains and maybe even help them get home before dinner. It is AI built not for hype, but for the day to day grind of the trades, where minutes saved can mean jobs won and customers kept.

          Then came the news that ServiceTitan is acquiring Conduit Tech, a Boston startup best known for its LiDAR powered HVAC design software. Instead of squinting at tape measures and crunching numbers in clunky spreadsheets, contractors can now scan a home, generate a 3D model, and deliver a polished, ACCA certified proposal on the spot. Translation: faster bids, more trust, and fewer “I will get back to you next week” moments.

          Put together, the AI rollout and Conduit deal are more than product updates. They are a signal of where ServiceTitan wants to take the industry. This is not just software that keeps the books balanced or trucks dispatched. It is an attempt to make technology an advantage in a field where labor is scarce, expectations are high, and every interaction with a customer matters. In short, ServiceTitan is not just keeping the lights on, it is rewiring how the trades get work done.

          🤝 Venture Deals

              LA Companies

              • Modern Animal has hit a $100M annual run rate and closed a new $46M funding round led by Addition, True Ventures and Upfront Ventures with participation from Founders Fund. The company delivers veterinary care both in clinics and virtually, and it is using the funds to expand services such as specialty care, 24/7 virtual access, integrated pharmacy and ecommerce, along with extended urgent care hours. The company also announced a board expansion with new leadership added to support scaling operations and enhancing its technology infrastructure. - learn more
              • MarqVision raised a $48M Series B round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from investors including Salesforce Ventures, HSG, Coral Capital, and returning backers like Y Combinator and Altos Ventures. Based in Los Angeles, MarqVision offers AI-powered brand protection tools—monitoring marketplaces, removing counterfeit listings, managing trademarks, and protecting brand reputation online. The new funds will go toward expanding its AI and engineering teams, accelerating automation, enabling enterprise-grade features, and growing its global presence in markets like Japan, Korea, China, Europe and beyond. - learn more
              • Divergent Technologies raised $290M in a Series E round led by Rochefort Asset Management, with $250M in equity and $40M in debt, bringing its valuation to about $2.3 billion. Using its proprietary DAPS (Divergent Adaptive Production System) platform, the Torrance based company builds hardware for aerospace, defense and automotive sectors by combining rapid design, additive manufacturing and automated assembly. The new capital will help Divergent scale its manufacturing capacity, build out its team and develop new capabilities for upcoming product lines. - learn more
              • Apex raised $200M in a Series D round led by Interlagos, giving the Los Angeles company a valuation above $1 billion. Apex builds configurable “satellite bus” platforms used by commercial and government clients, including for communications, sensing, and national security constellations. The capital will boost production capacity by 50 percent, expand its manufacturing footprint in Los Angeles, and strengthen vertical integration including acquiring propulsion technology and insourcing more subsystems. - learn more

                LA Venture Funds

                • Mantis Venture Capital joined Benchmark, Uncork, Y Combinator and Mayfield in backing Numeral’s $35M Series B, part of a $57M total funding haul. Numeral is an AI powered platform that automates everything around sales tax for e-commerce and SaaS brands including filing, remittance, exemption certificates, state registrations, nexus detection and more. The money will go to speeding up product innovation, building out its global compliance footprint, and adding smarter automation so finance teams can stop wrestling with tax rules and start scaling. - learn more
                • Magnify Ventures participated in Series A for Seven Starling, contributing to an $8M funding round led by Rethink Impact. Seven Starling is a virtual women’s mental health company focused on maternal mental health, offering group therapy, medication management, patient advocates, and digital tools. The new capital will fuel its expansion into more U.S. states (aiming for over 30 by the end of 2026), deepen partnerships with healthcare providers, and scale its model to help more mothers. - learn more
                • Calibrate Ventures led Vibranium Labs’ $4.6M seed round, joined by Mirae Asset and investors including a16z and Franklin Templeton. Vibranium Labs’ flagship product, “Vibe AI,” acts as a full-time AI incident engineer, monitoring, triaging, and resolving IT incidents automatically. The funds will be used to expand the engineering team, accelerate product development, and deepen integrations so Vibe AI can be embedded into more incident response systems across industries. - learn more
                • B Capital led a $20M financing round in Extend, with additional participation by March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and Commerce Ventures. Extend, a spend-and-expense management platform, allows businesses to use virtual cards with their existing bank or card programs while offering workflow tools like receipt capture, approvals, and automated reconciliation. The new capital will help Extend scale issuer partnerships, launch new expense management services, accelerate its path to profitability, and the company also added Francois Horikawa as CFO to help guide the financial strategy forward. - learn more
                • Alexandria Venture Investments joined Versant Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners USA in a $65M Series A for Dualitas Therapeutics, a South San Francisco company developing bispecific antibodies through its DualScreen discovery engine. Dualitas is advancing two lead programs, DTX-103 for allergic disease and DTX-102 for autoimmune conditions, both showing strong preclinical results. The funding will support these programs and expand the company’s platform to discover new bispecific candidates in immunology, inflammation and beyond. - learn more
                • Oversubscribed Ventures joined a syndicate that invested in Noble Mobile’s $10 million seed round. Noble Mobile, founded by Andrew Yang, is a telecom startup offering unlimited data plans while giving customers cash back when they use less data. The funds will be used to launch operations, roll out its mobile virtual network service, and build features that encourage better digital wellness. - learn more
                • Mantis Venture Capital participated in Doctronic’s $20M Series A round, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and also backed by Union Square Ventures, Tusk Ventures, Seven Stars, and others. Doctronic is a healthcare AI startup building a platform for fast, personalized medical advice and virtual visits with licensed physicians, aiming to reduce wait times and costs. The new funds will help the company scale its operations across the U.S., expand partnerships with insurers and health systems, and extend its reach to more patients. - learn more
                • Strong Ventures led a Series A round investing about ₩1 billion in Ares3, with Seoul National University Technology Holdings also participating. Ares3 runs florist subscription service “Honest Flower” for consumers and “FlowerGo,” a B2B platform for floral suppliers, with steady growth thanks to brand partnerships and solid demand. The new capital will help Ares3 extend its reach via offline experience locations and campaigns to shift public perception of flowers from luxury to everyday goods. - learn more
                • Gold House Ventures participated in MedSetGo’s oversubscribed $2.4M seed round led by TurboStart. MedSetGo is an AI-driven healthcare company based in San Francisco that is working to streamline patient care transitions by helping people find and schedule the right care after discharge. The funding will go toward accelerating product development and hiring, especially expanding the engineering, data science, and commercialization teams. - learn more
                • March Capital was among the investors in Lila Sciences’ $235M Series A round, which was co-led by Braidwell and Collective Global. Lila builds an autonomous science platform combining AI, robotics and software to automate the scientific method - generating hypotheses, designing experiments, running them, learning from results. The funds will be used to scale Lila’s “AI Science Factories,” expand globally in cities like Boston, San Francisco and London, and accelerate its ability to explore materials, chemistry, life sciences and diagnostics more quickly. - learn more

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                  $160M Tugboats and Undersea Drones: LA Startups Are Raising the Stakes

                  Grace Lee
                  $160M Tugboats and Undersea Drones: LA Startups Are Raising the Stakes

                  🔦 Spotlight

                  Happy Friday LA,

                  This week’s headlines take us from the ocean floor to the docks of Long Beach, with LA companies leading the charge.

                  Image Source: Anduril

                  Let’s start with Anduril Industries, which rolled out three major announcements that underline just how quickly it is expanding its footprint across defense tech. The biggest milestone came from Ghost Shark, an extra large undersea drone developed in partnership with the Australian Navy. After just three years, it has moved from prototype to an official program of record, an unusually fast turnaround in an industry where procurement often takes decades. It marks a significant step for autonomous systems under the sea, an area where defense agencies have long struggled to innovate.

                  Image Source: Anduril

                  The company also revealed Menace I, a ruggedized system designed to bring petabyte scale processing power directly to the battlefield. Think of it as cloud computing without the cloud, giving troops the ability to process massive amounts of sensor data and video on site rather than relying on faraway servers. And finally, Anduril landed a contract to create mixed reality training tools, using immersive simulations to prepare service members for missions more effectively. Training has always been one of the costliest and most logistically challenging aspects of defense, and bringing advanced MR into the mix could transform how quickly and safely soldiers can get mission ready. Together, these updates show an LA company moving fast across land, sea and even into the training ground.

                  Image Source: Arc

                  Meanwhile, Arc is proving that electrification is not just for cars and yachts, it is now heading into some of the hardest working vessels on the water. The Venice based startup announced a $160 million deal with Long Beach’s Curtin Maritime to deliver eight hybrid electric tugboats. Tugboats are the muscle of the harbor, guiding massive cargo ships in and out of ports, and they usually burn through enormous amounts of diesel. Arc’s push into this space signals more than just a big contract. It is a pivot from building high performance electric speedboats for early adopters to tackling one of the most carbon heavy corners of maritime work.

                  The scale of this deal shows how far Arc has come since launching just a few years ago. Building hybrid electric tugboats is not a side project, it is a sign that the company wants to play a role in reshaping the future of port operations. And if LA’s own clean tech boat builder can make a dent in one of the dirtiest industries on the water, the ripple effects could stretch far beyond the coastline.

                  🤝 Venture Deals

                      LA Companies

                      • Apex Space closed a $200M Series D round led by Interlagos, with participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures and 8VC, pushing its valuation past $1 billion. The Los Angeles based company builds satellite buses, the standardized spacecraft platforms that carry and power payloads ranging from Earth imaging sensors to missile early warning systems. With the new funding, Apex plans to increase production capacity by 50 percent and more than double its manufacturing facility as demand for space defense systems continues to grow. - learn more
                      • Sapphire Technologies has raised an $18M Series C round, including investment from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries along with existing backers such as Equinor Ventures, Cooper and Company and Energy Capital Ventures. The funds will be used to scale up production at Sapphire’s manufacturing facility in Cypress, California, expand global deployments of its FreeSpin In-line Turboexpanders in regions like Japan and enter new markets. Sapphire’s technology converts otherwise wasted pressure energy, often from natural gas, into clean and emissions free electricity, playing a growing role in the global energy transition. - learn more
                      • LocalExpress has raised $6.2M in a venture round led by OXZ Capital to expand its AI data capabilities into the grocery industry. The Glendale based platform, already serving independent grocery and food retailers across the US, Canada and Latin America, is transitioning from supporting internal operations to becoming a premier data syndication hub in the sector. This round will fuel further development of its unified commerce solutions and help scale its AI-powered systems for harmonizing transaction and inventory data. - learn more
                      • ProRata.AI closed a $40M Series B financing round led by Touring Capital with participation from Bold Capital Partners and others, to launch Gist Answers, a new AI-as-a-service tool for publishers. Gist Answers lets publishers embed custom AI search, summarization, and recommendation features directly on their sites while maintaining control over their content. The move is designed to help publishers increase engagement, protect their content, and unlock new revenue streams in the AI era. - learn more

                      LA Venture Funds

                      • Upfront Ventures joined a group of investors in backing Sophont’s $9.22M seed round, led by Kindred Ventures. Sophont is building multimodal medical foundation models that combine data from pathology slides, brain scans, clinical notes, and lab results to enable functionalities like symptom triage, biomarker discovery, and clinical trial cohort selection. The funding will go toward increasing compute capacity, expanding data partnerships, and recruiting researchers to accelerate the development and release of model backbones and open science infrastructure. - learn more
                      • Presight Capital participated in the $24M Series A round raised by TERN Group, which was led by Notion Capital. The funding will help TERN scale its AI powered infrastructure for global healthcare worker recruitment, credentialing and mobility, especially helping caregivers and nurses in places like India gain access to international job opportunities. TERN plans to use the investment to expand into new geographies, deepen training programs, and further build tools that make migration, compliance and placement faster, fairer and more transparent. - learn more
                      • Emmeline Ventures joined a strong syndicate in Lōvu Health’s $8M Series A round, led by SJF Ventures. The funding will support Lōvu in scaling its AI-powered maternal health platform, enhancing remote monitoring, curated specialist services, and ongoing care from pre-conception through the first two years postpartum. With this investment, Lōvu aims to close gaps in maternal healthcare access and outcomes, especially for underserved populations. - learn more
                      • Integrity Growth Partners led a $28M Series A round in Pest Share, joined by existing investors including MetaProp, Capital Eleven and RE Angels. Pest Share is an on-demand pest control platform tailored for residential property managers, operating in all 48 states and serving 300,000 residential units. The capital will fuel expansion in single-family and multifamily rental markets, enhance product innovation, and deepen integrations with property management systems. - learn more
                      • Mantis VC joined Forerunner Ventures, Neo, Abstract and several angel investors in backing Hero Assistant’s $3.5M seed round at a $30M valuation. Hero Assistant is building a “Daily Assistant” super-app that consolidates things like calendars, weather, tasks, habits, goals, grocery ordering, notes and news, already replacing up to eight separate apps for its more than 300,000 users. The funds will help the company enhance features, scale growth, and deepen its reach in productivity. - learn more
                      • Wedbush Healthcare Partners took part in Odyssey Therapeutics’ oversubscribed $213M Series D financing round alongside both new and existing investors. The funding will be used to push forward Odyssey’s pipeline of clinical and preclinical therapies focused on treating complex autoimmune diseases. With this capital raise, Odyssey aims to make progress toward key clinical milestones and bring precision immunomodulation treatments closer to patients in need. - learn more
                      • BroadLight Capital participated in Higgsfield’s $50M Series A round, which was led by GFT Ventures and also backed by firms like Menlo Ventures and NextEquity Partners. Higgsfield is pushing its “click-to-video” AI platform, which lets users turn curated presets into cinematic clips with a single click rather than wrestling with complex prompts. In only five months since launch, the company has already drawn over 11 million users and more than 1.2 billion social media impressions, signaling strong momentum in the creator video space. - learn more
                      • Impatient VC participated in Sphinx’s $9.5M Seed round, which was led by Lightspeed and also included investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, and K5. Sphinx is launching an AI copilot built especially for data scientists, one that thinks in statistics and patterns to turn raw data into actionable insights without skipping rigor. The funds will go toward refining tools that integrate into workflows like Jupyter notebooks and VSCode so data teams can explore, model, and make decisions faster. - learn more
                      • WME Group led a $20M Series B round in Palm Tree Crew, valuing the company at $215 million. The funding will power expansion across its hospitality venues, live events, and lifestyle ventures while leaning into WME’s entertainment, licensing, and brand network. Palm Tree Crew plans to scale its properties, deepen its festival footprint globally, and continue growing its portfolio of consumer brands as part of the next chapter. - learn more
                      • Blue Bear Capital participated in Nuclearn’s $10.5M Series A round that helps the company deepen its AI-capabilities for nuclear operations. Nuclearn, founded by engineers who've worked inside power plants, builds specialized tools like CAP AI to automate safety-critical, documentation-heavy tasks and ensure regulatory compliance. The funding will support product expansion, talent hiring, and scaling its platform to more reactors worldwide. - learn more
                      • Amplify was one of the investors joining Endurance28 and others in Cascade Bio’s $6M raise, which includes $2.8M in equity and $3.2M in nondilutive funding. Cascade Bio is advancing its enzyme-immobilization technology to help industrial partners transition from petrochemical processes to greener, biomanufacturing workflows. The funding will enable Cascade to scale its high-stability biocatalysts for use across chemicals, food ingredients, fragrances, and pharmaceuticals. - learn more

                      LA Exits

                      • Northstar has been acquired by Nayya, combining Northstar’s financial wellness tools with Nayya’s health, compensation and actuarial data platform. The unified offering introduces a “SuperAgent,” an AI adviser that not only helps employees understand benefits but, with their permission, can take actions like auto enrolling in wellness programs or appealing denied claims. The goal is to make health and wealth benefits simpler, more transparent and more useful year round rather than just during open enrollment. - learn more
                      • Integrated Rental Systems has been acquired by VitalEdge Technologies, a major provider of dealer management software for heavy equipment. Integrated Rental’s platform is considered one of the most advanced in its field, and this deal allows VitalEdge to offer more fully integrated solutions covering rental, parts, and service revenue streams for equipment dealers. Alise Moncure, CEO of Integrated Rental, will join VitalEdge’s leadership team as President of Expansion Markets, leading rental and other high-growth segments. - learn more
                      • VideoVerse has been acquired by Minute Media, bringing its AI-powered sports video platform Magnifi into the company’s portfolio. Magnifi helps leagues, teams and publishers automatically detect key moments, create instant highlights and distribute short-form video content more efficiently. With the acquisition, Minute Media is expanding beyond publishing to offer a more complete solution for video creation, distribution and monetization. - learn more
                      • Bespoke Treatment has been acquired by Stella Mental Health, expanding the company’s services in Los Angeles. Known for its integrative approach, Bespoke offers treatments such as stellate ganglion block for trauma, IV ketamine, Spravato® and intensive outpatient programming. Through the acquisition, Stella is broadening its footprint and strengthening its ability to deliver personalized behavioral health care. - learn more

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                      Snap’s AI, Paramount’s RTO, and NeueHouse’s Exit: LA’s Wild Week

                      Grace Lee
                      Snap’s AI, Paramount’s RTO, and NeueHouse’s Exit: LA’s Wild Week

                      🔦 Spotlight

                      Good Morning LA,

                      If you blinked this week, you might’ve missed Snap unveiling new AI-powered Lenses, NeueHouse announcing its closure, and Paramount rolling out a five-day return to office mandate. Let’s get into it.

                      First up: Snap. The company introduced its new “Imagine” Lenses powered by generative AI. Instead of the playful filters we all know, these tools feel closer to an on-demand art studio, letting people turn imagination into visuals instantly. It shows Snap leaning into what it does best: pushing the boundaries of how we express ourselves through the camera.

                      Meanwhile, NeueHouse announced it will be closing. Known for blending hospitality, community and high-design workspaces, it attracted a mix of entertainment, design and tech professionals who wanted something beyond the typical co-working setup. Its exit comes as Paramount is moving in the opposite direction, requiring employees to return to the office full time starting in January. Together, these moves highlight the different paths workplaces are taking in a post-hybrid world, from phasing out to doubling down.

                      On the global stage, the world’s eyes are on Berlin, where IFA 2025 is underway. The trade show is buzzing with foldable devices, wearables and AI-powered appliances that are blurring the line between tool and companion. The innovations debuting there are setting the tone for what consumers and startups everywhere will soon be building with, competing against and dreaming beyond. For those following along, The Verge is running live coverage with updates on the biggest reveals.

                      And finally, OpenAI announced a new jobs platform, aimed at connecting workers with opportunities in an AI-driven economy. It is positioned as a way to broaden access and help talent navigate shifting industries. For engineers, creatives and founders alike, it is another signal that collaborating with AI is not a future skill, it is a present-day requirement.

                      🤝 Venture Deals

                          LA Venture Funds

                          • FirstLook Partners participated in Hello Patient’s $22.5M Series A round, which backs the Austin based conversational AI platform transforming patient intake and communications. Hello Patient’s technology, handling voice, text, and chat conversations, helps healthcare providers streamline appointments, reduce missed calls, and improve patient access. The fresh funding will accelerate enhancements to its AI driven platform and support expansion to healthcare organizations nationwide. - learn more
                          • Hyperlink Ventures joined Mojo Vision’s $75M Series B Prime funding round to support the expansion of its high performance micro LED platform. Mojo Vision plans to leverage the investment to accelerate commercialization of its wafers in, wafers out micro LED technology, which merges advanced silicon architecture, GaN on silicon emitters, quantum dots, and micro lens arrays to power next generation AI devices and infrastructure. - learn more
                          • Fika Ventures joined Dispatch’s $18M Series A round, helping to bring its total funding to $30M. Dispatch provides AI powered, automated data orchestration for wealth management firms, eliminating repetitive tasks, streamlining client onboarding, and ensuring real time, connected client data. The new capital will fuel the expansion of its agentic workflows and further development of its AI ready infrastructure for advisors. - learn more
                          • TenOneTen Ventures participated in Elysian’s $6M seed round to support the company’s AI native third party administration platform for commercial insurance claims. Elysian’s technology automates the complex, document heavy middle of claim handling by surfacing coverage insights and drafting communications so adjusters can focus on making strategic decisions. The funding will help accelerate go to market efforts, enhance customer onboarding, and scale both delivery operations and the underlying AI platform. - learn more
                          • M13 participated in Allocate’s $30.5M Series B round, backing the company’s platform that helps wealth advisors and family offices access and manage private market investments. The new funding will support expansion of its AI-powered infrastructure and workflow automation, as well as broaden its reach beyond venture capital into private equity and credit. - learn more
                          • Walkabout Ventures took the lead in Advisor.com’s $9M seed round. Advisor.com operates an AI-powered platform that pairs investors, especially those with under $500,000 in investable assets, with vetted fiduciary financial advisors. The funds will be used to accelerate customer acquisition, enhance its advisor matching technology, and expand its network of top-tier advisors. - learn more
                          • Ares Management participated in ID.me’s latest funding, where the company raised a total of $340M in a Series E round combined with a credit facility, pushing its valuation above $2 billion. ID.me, a digital identity wallet trusted by more than 152 million users, will use the capital to scale access to secure, reusable digital identities and bolster its defenses against increasingly AI-driven fraud. - learn more
                          • Core Innovation Capital participated in Flex’s $15M Series A funding round. Flex is a payments infrastructure platform that enables health and wellness retailers to accept Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds at checkout. With this investment, Flex plans to scale its enterprise reach, enhance its core technology, and grow its team to help merchants tap into more than $150 billion in underutilized pre‑tax health spending. - learn more
                          • F4 Fund joined Camera Intelligence’s $2M seed funding round. The company is developing an AI-powered camera system that embeds a large language model (LLM) directly into a Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera, simplifying content creation through voice-activated controls and in-camera editing. The new capital will accelerate the build-out of this integrated AI-native camera and content editing solution, with an LLM feature set to launch on iOS in fall 2025. - learn more

                          LA Exits

                          • Air Lease Corporation has entered into a merger agreement to be acquired by a consortium including Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Aviation Capital, Apollo-managed funds, and Brookfield in an all cash deal expected to close in the first half of 2026. Shareholders will receive $65 per share, valuing the company at about $7.4 billion or $28.2 billion including debt, and the company will be rebranded as Sumisho Air Lease with SMBC set to manage its fleet and order book. - learn more

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