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Meet the New Santa Barbara Venture Fund Eyeing Software Startups
Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
A new venture fund based up the 101 isn’t letting the current market slowdown curb its appetite for new software startups.
Santa Barbara Venture Partners has officially closed its first, $11 million investment fund, the company told dot.LA, with the primary goal of backing software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies based predominantly in Southern California.
The Santa Barbara-based firm was founded in 2020 by former tech entrepreneur Dan Engel, who said that he looks to invest in companies that can weather the storms of tumultuous capital markets. SBVP claims a strict set of criteria for its portfolio companies; Engel said it won’t invest unless a startup can prove it’s already conquered product-market fit and is generating at least $3 million in annual revenue, with an emphasis on companies with subscription-based revenue models and annual growth rates of at least 75%.
“We invest at a stage when product-market fit has already been figured out,” Engel told dot.LA. “We don't want to take that risk, because too many times it doesn't end up getting figured out, and an investor ends up with a goose-egg zero.”
The firm plans to invest in startups that are anywhere from the seed stage up to their Series D round, and which have the potential to deliver a 3x-to-6x return in at least a seven-year time span, Engel added.
“We try to invest in businesses that are really hard to screw up,” Engel noted, half-jokingly.
So far, SBVP has backed nine companies out of its debut fund with an average check size of about $850,000, according to Engel. The fund recently saw its first exit via San Diego-based nonprofit fundraising platform Classy, which raised $118 million in a Series D round last year before being acquired by GoFundMe this January.
While he’s cautious about backing companies that don’t have a clear track record of growth, Engel did say he’s optimistic about the current state of the tech startup environment despite increasingly sluggish market conditions. He noted particular optimism about SBVP’s chosen software market.
“Every time SaaS is down, it comes roaring back up,” Engel asserted. “It's got real advantages to it as an investment—such as having the ability to weather storms that others can’t, [like] much more capital-intensive businesses that don't have predictable recurring revenue.”
Still, there is at least one company in the SBVP portfolio that’s been directly affected by stagnating IPO markets—with Classy originally planning to go public before opting to shelve its Nasdaq ambitions
“The M&A market I don't think is too different at the moment; maybe multiples are down a little bit. The IPO market is certainly on hold at the moment, and that affects us too,” said Engel, who worked in customer acquisition and marketing for the likes of Google before co-founding Santa Barbara-based fintech software startup FastSpring. He also served as FastSpring’s CEO prior to its 2013 acquisition by L.A.-based investment firm Pylon Capital.
Other recent SBVP investments include Hydrosat, a satellite thermal imaging company that graduated from Techstars’ aerospace accelerator in Los Angeles; and Berkeley-based Voltaiq, which makes software to analyze the efficiency of electric vehicle batteries. The remaining investments from the new fund include Bark Technologies, Specright, Nice Healthcare, Jackpocket, Rad AI and Curri. Engel said over 70% of the fund is already invested, including via sidecar deals.
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la
ADHD and Dyslexia Often Aren't Caught Until It's Too Late. Santa Monica-Based Polygon Wants to Change That.
06:00 AM | May 20, 2022
Courtesy of Polygon
Here’s how Jack Rolo describes his childhood: He was good at chess, and bad at spelling. He was good at math, and bad at reading. Rolo went on to study physics at Durham University in his native England—and despite often struggling in his courses, it wasn’t until after he graduated that he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a common language processing disorder that affects reading.
Rolo’s experiences informed his founding of Polygon, a Santa Monica-based diagnostics startup that emerged from stealth on Friday with $4.2 million in funding, and the goal of better diagnosing dyslexia, ADHD and other learning-related disabilities. The funding includes a $3.6 million seed round led by Spark Capital, as well as $600,000 in pre-seed funding led by Pear VC.
“It really is a product I wish I'd had access to at an earlier age myself,” Rolo told dot.LA.
After moving to California to earn his MBA degree at UC Berkeley, Rolo met his co-founder Meryll Dindin, who now serves as Polygon’s chief technology officer. Together, they’ve built a platform that aims to partner with schools to test children for a myriad of disabilities that may affect academic performance. (The startup claims it’s already teamed with schools in California, but did not disclose which.) Rolo says he envisions that these assessments become as ubiquitous as vision and hearing exams: that every student, regardless of age, background or academic performance, will be tested.
As is, testing for disorders like ADHD and dyslexia often depends on parents, teachers or pediatricians observing a child, detecting something amiss and intervening. There are problems with this method; for instance, girls are chronically underdiagnosed with ADHD because it presents itself differently than it does for boys. Teachers juggling crowded classrooms may not be able to perceive why a specific child is falling behind. And Black and Latino children are often overlooked when it comes to diagnosing disabilities.
“Common roots of referral are teachers, and typically that's flagged because they'll see the student failing,” Rolo said. “That's part of the problem—that this then becomes almost a wait-to-fail approach, when ideally you want to pick these things up proactively.”
Polygon employs full-time psychologists who evaluate students through a telehealth platform. After undergoing a range of standardized assessments and interviewing their parents and teachers, a student who is diagnosed will receive an "Individualized Education Program," a schooling curriculum tailored toward their disabilities.
Assessments start at $995, which Polygon says is up to five times cheaper than traditional disability testing alternatives. The company plans on driving that cost down further by collecting a large data sample of assessments and building machine learning technology to “pre-screen” students; those who are flagged would then undergo more extensive testing.
“Ultimately, what we're trying to move toward is a model quite similar to the optician, where everyone gets the evaluation,” Rolo said. “Yes, assessments are still not accessible for all families just yet—but this is the beginning, and we hope to drive this cost down way further over time.”
Polygon said the new funding will go toward expanding beyond California and growing its network nationally.
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Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
https://twitter.com/KeerthiVedantam
keerthi@dot.la
Your Bank Wants to Cancel Your Subscriptions
09:02 AM | October 23, 2026
🔦 Spotlight
Hello, LA.
Somewhere between the streaming service you still use and the free trial you forgot to cancel, recurring payments have become a surprisingly complicated part of modern financial life.
Los Angeles-based ScribeUp believes your bank should help manage them.
The fintech company raised a $13M Series A led by Curql, with participation from Mucker Capital and Service Ventures. The financing includes $10M in equity and a $3M venture debt facility, bringing ScribeUp new capital to expand its team, accelerate sales and further develop its AI-powered bill-management technology.
The product is designed to live directly within the apps of banks, credit unions, fintechs and neobanks. Instead of simply showing customers that a recurring charge occurred, ScribeUp gives them tools to do something about it.
That could mean canceling a forgotten subscription, changing a payment method, accessing an advance or exploring refinancing options for an outside loan, all without leaving the financial institution’s app.
It sounds like a useful feature. It is also part of a much larger contest over who gets to manage the consumer’s financial life.
For years, banks have held customers’ money while third-party apps have increasingly helped them understand and manage it. Budgeting platforms organize spending. Subscription services identify recurring charges. Fintech apps recommend ways to save, borrow or invest.
Now AI assistants are beginning to combine those functions into a single interface capable of not only analyzing financial information, but acting on it.
That creates a risk for traditional financial institutions. If consumers begin turning to an outside app whenever they need to cancel a service, manage a bill or make a financial decision, their bank could become little more than the infrastructure beneath someone else’s customer experience.
ScribeUp offers banks a way to compete without building that technology themselves.
Its platform combines recurring-payment information with the financial context a bank already has, including balances, cash flow and payment timing. That allows a financial institution to do more than flag an upcoming charge. It can potentially recommend and execute an action based on the customer’s broader financial position.
ScribeUp says its technology is already used by more than 60 banks, credit unions, fintechs and neobanks. It can be added through an API, software development kit or embedded interface, allowing institutions to introduce bill-management features without creating the underlying infrastructure from scratch.
The new funding will support more advanced AI capabilities that can take action across different billers. That distinction matters. The first generation of personal finance software helped people see where their money was going. The next generation wants permission to do something about it.
For banks, the opportunity is straightforward: become more useful before another app takes their place.
For consumers, the appeal may be even simpler. Most people do not want another financial dashboard. They want the unwanted charge to stop.
The next battle in banking may not be over who holds your money.
It may be over who gets to press cancel.
More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- International Dance League raised a $15M Series A led by Elysian Park Ventures, with participation from Sony, KB Partners, APEX, Yamaha Music Innovations Fund and October Ventures. Following a debut season that sold out all six events and generated 2B views, IDL will use the funding to expand its tour, strengthen team and dancer operations, improve broadcast production and develop new fan experiences for 2027. - learn more
- Santa Fe Springs-based DrizzleX raised a $6.8M Series A-2 led by Israel Investment Fund Group, with several of the water-management platform’s own customers also investing. The company will use the funding to expand sales, streamline hardware manufacturing, build partnerships and develop new products that help property owners detect leaks, reduce water use and lower operating costs. - learn more
- POV Beauty raised an undisclosed Series A led by Silas Capital, with participation from RÉDO Capital and existing investor Imaginary Ventures. The skin-prep brand will use the funding to build on its nationwide Sephora launch, expand its team and TikTok Shop presence, and develop more skincare-makeup hybrid products. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Chapter One participated in Warp Sciences’ $215M Series A, which was led by Lightspeed and included a large group of venture firms and angel investors. The company is building AI-powered, increasingly automated laboratories that will manufacture and test molecules for drug developers, aiming to accelerate preclinical research while expanding scientific infrastructure in the U.S. - learn more
- Capital Group participated in Legora’s $550M Series E, which was led by Atreides Management and valued the legal AI company at $8.8B. Legora will use the funding to expand across the U.S. and international markets while developing new capabilities for its agentic operating system, which is used by more than 140,000 legal professionals. - learn more
- Group 11 participated in CapitalOS’ $21.9M Series A, which was led by LGVP and included WEX Venture Capital, Great North Ventures and Night Capital. CapitalOS will use the funding to scale its infrastructure, which enables B2B software platforms to quickly offer financial products while outsourcing functions such as compliance, risk management and underwriting. - learn more
- Starshot Capital participated in IMIO’s $12M funding round, which was led by Sofinnova Partners and included Chipotle’s Cultivate Next, Grow Together Salinas, Earth Foundry and Serra Ventures. The agricultural biotechnology company will use the capital to build a Chicago headquarters, laboratory and manufacturing facility for its freeze-dried microbial products, which are designed to improve soil health and crop yields. - learn more
- SUM Ventures participated in Vectorial’s $3M seed round, which was co-led by Smilegate and SenseAI Ventures and included several investors connected to UC Berkeley and Stanford. The startup will use the funding to scale its AI-powered consumer research platform, which lets companies test products, marketing campaigns and AI agents against simulated audiences before launching them publicly. - learn more
- Wave Function Ventures participated in Stellios Technologies’ oversubscribed $5M pre-seed round alongside Sofreh Capital, Cubit Capital, Mana Ventures, Atoms & Bits and other investors. The Austin-based company will use the funding to deliver its first high-power microwave systems, establish domestic research and manufacturing facilities, grow its team and advance technologies spanning directed energy, compact fusion and next-generation propulsion. - learn more
- Upfront Ventures participated in Daytona’s $60M Series B, marking the Santa Monica firm’s third investment round with the company. Led by FirstMark Growth, the financing valued Daytona at $1B and will help the startup expand sales and engineering for its cloud infrastructure, which provides secure virtual computers where AI agents can execute tasks. - learn more
- Core Innovation Capital participated in Delegance Brokerage’s $3.1M pre-seed round, which was led by Grit Capital Partners and included Gilgamesh Ventures and Outside VC. The AI-powered commercial insurance brokerage will use the funding to hire licensed brokers and engineers and expand partnerships as it promotes a flat 5% fee model in place of traditional commissions. - learn more
- Core Innovation Capital participated in Prism Data’s $20M Series A, which was led by Story Ventures and included FINTOP Capital, Obvious Ventures, 1st & Main Growth Partners and Mana Ventures. Prism will use the funding to expand its cash-flow underwriting technology, AI infrastructure and data science team while growing across the U.S. and Canada and preparing for international expansion. - learn more
LA Exits
- Sanctuary has been acquired by WSG Brands, adding the contemporary women’s label to a portfolio that includes Von Dutch, Nasty Gal and Allbirds. The purchase price was not officially disclosed, though earlier documents placed it at $67M; WSG plans to expand Sanctuary internationally and into new categories, while founders Ken and Debra Polanco will remain involved. - learn more
- SecureNet Solutions was acquired by CompassMSP, expanding the managed IT and cybersecurity provider’s presence on the West Coast. The deal gives SecureNet’s real estate, healthcare and professional services clients access to CompassMSP’s national cybersecurity, compliance and advisory resources while retaining their existing service team; financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
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