Meet the New Products From Snap's Inaugural Yellow Collabs Program

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

Clay Weishaar and his sneaker-freaker colleagues designed Dropr, an AR app to recreate the experience of camping out overnight to score a pair of limited-edition kicks. Working with developers and engineers from Snap, they then gamified the experience and added a social component to help make it go viral.

Dropr debuted today alongside eight other companies' new products, all of them developed in conjunction with Snap as part of the company's inaugural Yellow Collabs program.

Snap has previously run three Yellow Accelerator programs, geared toward early-stage companies. In October, it launched Yellow Community, a year-round virtual and in-person (eventually) events circuit for L.A. entrepreneurs. Collabs augments these efforts to connect Snap with external minds and ideas.

The new program focuses on more established companies and helps Snap keep its finger on the pulse of innovation outside the company's walls. It also helps Snap distinguish itself from other social media companies – not only by creating new features for users, but by spreading recognition of Snap's development tools among external developers and designers who can use them for their own projects and companies.

Collabs began on September 21, with a cohort of companies creating games, experiences and other features that integrate with Snap. These integrations can live inside or outside the Snapchat app, and sometimes both, as when a user is ushered between two apps. Some integrations rely on Snap's developer tools, many of which were first announced at Snap's 2020 Partner Summit this summer.

The program focused on supporting companies using the following Snap integrations:

-Snap Minis: small apps that live within Snapchat, with no extra installation required

-Dynamic Lenses: augmented reality (AR) overlays – which Snap calls lenses – that respond to dynamically generated inputs, such as a user's location

-Scan: Computer vision technology that can match what a camera sees with relevant lenses

-SnapML: Lenses designed with machine learning neural networks

-Snap Kit: A wide suite of additional developer tools

The nine companies in the 13-week remote Collabs program worked with Snap employees and executives on product development, design and strategy. Five of the nine companies in this first cohort are based in Los Angeles.

Snap did not provide official applicant numbers, but said the "overwhelmingly positive" response has validated its approach of finding "companies with big ideas for how to leverage the Snap platform to create incredible experiences with the help of some of ours."

Introducing the Nine Projects from Snap's First Yellow Collabs Program

www.almostfun.org

Almost Fun

A nonprofit that provides culturally-relevant, interactive educational resources for BIPOC and low-income students

Snap Integration: A Snap Mini designed to support users' learning, either individually or in groups with friends in their Snapchat network

Fake Artists

A Venice-based creative studio focused on using AR, ML and other tech to help brands engage fans through virtual experiences

Snap Integration: Integrates Snap's dynamic lens into its app, Dropr, which is meant to digitize fashion product-drops through AR try-ons and gamify the experience through challenges that unlock new items

"They were able to coach me on how people engage with Snapchat and the camera to create a better product," said Fake Artists co-founder Clay Weishaar, who is also one of Snap's official Lens Creators. "Originally it was just a virtual try-on...but Collabs helped us come up with gamified try-ons and using unlock mechanisms to reward people, which all comes together in this sharing loop that can reach millions of people."

The next step for Weishaar is to move from a dynamic lens Snap-integration that takes users back and forth between Dropr and Snapchat, and instead use Snap's Camera Kit to fully embed the experience into Dropr.

Givingli

An L.A.-based gift-giving company for digital greeting cards and e-gifts

Snap Integration: A Snap Mini that helps Snapchat users share expressive greetings, celebrate special occasions and connect through giving

NewNew

An L.A.-based social polling app, which helps groups of friends make everyday decisions

Snap Integration: Using Story Kit, one of the developer toolkits within Snap Kit, users on Snapchat and NewNew can create decision-making polls to turn their Snapchat messages into interactive content

"There was a real genuine interest in what we were building," NewNew co-founder Courtne Smith said. "They had a lot of questions and they were really interested to know how we were thinking about our products. I think they could see an immediate synergy between us and them."

"Collabs gave me insight into the inner workings of Snap and how they make decisions and what their values are," she continued. "They were really eager to teach us as much as possible...It's not every day that you get to pick the brains of people who work at these companies and do so so openly and freely."

QReal

Helps companies market and sell products through 3D and AR content with a focus on food, furniture and fashion

Snap Integration: Uses Snap's dynamic lens to import running workout data from a user's phone into a Snapchat lens, meant to help exercise apps and brands create marketing campaigns

SketchAR

An AI-based mobile app that helps users develop their creativity through tools like AR-assisted drawing and photo-editing

Snap Integration: A new tool that allows SketchAR users create and share their own AR lenses.

Snack Break

An L.A-based app-building company that focuses on "bitesize" communication to create shared experiences

Snap Integration: Arteest, Snack Break's newest app, uses Snap's dynamic lens to allow users to make drawings based on a friend's suggestions, then share their creations on Snapchat.

Stacks

A social video studio that helps users to discover, remix and share video and gif memes

Snap Integration: A Snap Mini that enables users to share, edit and react to video and gif memes

Tastemade

An L.A.-based media company focused on food, travel, and home & design content; it reaches 300 million monthly viewers and has been working with Discover, Snap's curated content platform, since its launch in 2015

Snap Integration: A Snap Mini, "Tastemade Me Do It", that offers weekly recipe and DIY challenges, along with polls and stickers that users can share with friends

"We really see this as a huge opportunity to grow our audience and build an even bigger business through Snapchat," said Tastemade general manager of social, Lauren Arso.

"We love the work we do on Discover, and with the Mini platform, we were excited that we could have a little more control over the experience," she continued. "We're also working with the Snap team to create new ways to connect the Discover platform with the Mini platform."

Snap's Yellow ecosystem is now comprised of three programs – Collabs, Accelerator, and Community – but the company's developer and integration tools are not limited to program participants; most are available via a quick application process.

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Sam Blake primarily covers media and entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA

From Your Site Articles

LA’s New Defense Startup Comes Out Swinging

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday LA,

A new defense startup just emerged from stealth with one of the week’s biggest funding rounds and a mission built for the realities of modern warfare.

Los Angeles-based Singularity raised an oversubscribed $80M Series A at a $400M valuation to develop low-cost air defense systems at scale. Khosla Ventures and Felicis led the round, with participation from AE Ventures, NEA, Long Journey, Harpoon, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator and others.

The company is targeting an increasingly lopsided problem: inexpensive drones and munitions can be produced quickly and deployed in large numbers, while the systems used to intercept them are often costly and difficult to manufacture at comparable scale.

Singularity’s answer is to borrow from the automotive industry. Its manufacturing team, which includes talent from Tesla and Toyota, is building an assembly line designed to rapidly produce interceptors, while developing the hardware and software in-house. The broader team also includes veterans of SpaceX, Anduril and Lockheed Martin, along with military operators who have deployed air defense systems in combat.

The company is already conducting multiple flight tests each month. Now it has $80M to prove that air defense can be manufactured more like cars and less like traditional military hardware.

Whatnot Wants AI to Find Your Next Obsession

The thrill of Whatnot is not always finding what you came for. It is stumbling into a live show and discovering something you suddenly need to own.

Now the Marina del Rey-based marketplace is investing in AI to make those moments happen more often.

Whatnot acquired Shaped, a machine-learning startup that builds real-time recommendation and search systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murrell and nearly a dozen engineers and researchers will join Whatnot, where Murrell will create and lead a new applied AI research group focused initially on discovery and personalization.

The acquisition comes as Whatnot’s marketplace becomes much larger and more complicated. The company launched more than 35 new categories last year and over 45 during the first half of 2026. Cross-category purchasing is also up 170% year over year, suggesting users are increasingly willing to venture beyond the products that first brought them to the platform.

Unlike a traditional online store, Whatnot’s inventory shifts constantly as sellers start and end live shows. That makes recommending the right product or stream in real time a particularly difficult AI problem.

Whatnot is betting Shaped can help solve it. Because the longer shoppers keep discovering new interests, sellers and communities, the less likely they are to close the app.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Senra Systems raised a $65M Series B co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Interlagos, with participation from CIV and several other investors, bringing its total funding to more than $112M. The aerospace and defense manufacturer will use the capital to expand production of its software-enabled wire harnesses and open a third factory, following a recent expansion expected to increase monthly output from 1,000 harnesses to 10,000 by next year. - learn more

Intrinsic Power announced the first close of its seed round, with backing from Kyocera Ventures, Drive Catalyst, Boost VC and RPV Global; the company did not disclose the amount raised. The funding will support product development, engineering hires and customer deployments as Intrinsic commercializes its AI-powered platform for optimizing electricity use across commercial buildings, critical infrastructure and data centers. - learn more

Pasadena-based Linker Finance raised an additional $5M in seed funding, bringing its total seed financing to $8.7M. Existing investors Chingona Ventures, Ten One Ten Ventures, Audaz Capital and Angeles Investors returned for the round, alongside new strategic investor 22nd State Banking Company, with the funding earmarked for product development, agentic AI and expanded payment capabilities. - learn more

Corner Health raised $32.5M across seed and Series A financing, with its latest round led by Oak HC/FT and participation from First Round Capital and Zigg Capital. The company, which helps nurse practitioners launch independent primary care practices using an AI-powered operating platform, will use the funding to expand its team, improve its technology and enter additional states. - learn more

Cognify Health raised a multimillion-dollar seed round led by Game Changers Ventures, with participation from Westbound Equity and several individual investors. The company, which provides youth athletes with virtual concussion care within 24 hours, will use the funding to grow its team and enhance its platform and medical services. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Act One Ventures participated in logcat.ai’s $2.55M pre-seed round, which was led by Founders’ Co-op and included TheFounderVC, Shorewind Capital, Clayoquot Capital and Alumni Ventures. The startup is building an AI platform that helps engineering teams diagnose and fix complex software issues across Android and Linux-powered devices, including phones, vehicles and robots. - learn more

Plus Capital participated in Fora’s $60M Series D, which was led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures and valued the travel platform at $1B. Fora will use the funding to expand its AI capabilities, enter new markets, grow into categories including cruises and flights, and continue hiring. - learn more

M13 led Rime’s $24M Series A, with participation from Corazon Capital, Unusual Ventures, Cadenza Ventures and Twilio Ventures. The AI startup will use the funding to develop faster, more natural voice models for enterprise applications, while M13 partner Morgan Blumberg will join its board. - learn more

Calibrate Ventures participated in Walden Robotics’ $300M seed round, co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital, which valued the company at $1.1B. The robotics startup emerged from stealth with general-purpose robots designed to learn on the job and work alongside people in manufacturing and logistics environments. - learn more

Lasagna Ventures participated in Cyclops’ $20M Series A, which was led by Nava Ventures and also included Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle and Global PayTech Ventures. The stablecoin infrastructure company will use the funding to accelerate product development, expand its teams and global licensing, and grow its go-to-market operations. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Pure’s $8M seed financing, raised across multiple rounds led by Hidden Capital. The company will use the funding to expand its engineering and compliance teams and further develop its platform for verified, real-money peer-to-peer games. - learn more

Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Feathery’s latest financing, which brought the company’s total funding to $30M, including its recently completed Series A. The AI platform, used by insurance and wealth-management firms to automate workflows and improve decision-making, plans to expand its products and grow its engineering and go-to-market teams. - learn more

Matter Venture Partners led TYLsemi’s oversubscribed $43M early-stage funding round, with participation from Viola Ventures, GHOVC, Egis Technology and other strategic investors. The semiconductor startup emerged from stealth with a full-stack chiplet platform designed to cut the time and cost of developing custom AI silicon by as much as 50%. - learn more

Lasagna participated in Pact Labs’ $7M Series A, which was anchored by a strategic investment from Tether and also included Blockchange Ventures. The company will use the funding to expand infrastructure that brings Tether’s U.S.-regulated USA₮ stablecoin to payroll, earned-wage access, credit and payment platforms. - learn more

LA Exits

Communications startup TextPlus has agreed to be acquired by Truecaller for $15M in cash. TextPlus, which provides app-based phone numbers, messaging and internet calling to roughly 1.5M monthly active users, will help Truecaller expand its U.S. presence and add second-number and VoIP services to its platform. - learn more

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This LA Startup Wants Dealers to Fight Over Your Car

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles,

Selling a car is one of those modern processes that somehow still feels like it was designed to test your patience.

You can list it yourself and deal with strangers from the internet. You can take the first online offer and wonder if you left money on the table. Or you can walk into a dealership and prepare for the emotional sport of negotiation.

Los Angeles-based Bidbus is trying to make that process feel a little less broken.

The company raised a $15M Series A led by Ibex Investors, with participation from Mucker Capital, FJ Labs, Motley Fool Ventures, Data Point Capital, Walter Ventures and Yossi Levi, better known as the Car Dealership Guy.

Bidbus lets consumers submit their cars and have verified dealerships compete to buy them. Instead of a seller shopping the same car around manually, the platform turns the process into a competitive auction where dealers bid against each other for inventory.

That model is especially interesting right now because used cars remain one of the strangest corners of consumer commerce. The market is huge, the transaction is high-stakes and the average seller still has very little visibility into whether they are getting a fair price.

Bidbus says its marketplace can generate offers that are $2,000 to $3,000 higher than Carvana in some cases. That is the kind of delta that can make people pay attention, especially in a category where convenience often comes at the cost of leverage.

The company is currently focused on California and Texas and plans to use the new funding to expand into more markets. The bigger question is whether it can make dealer competition feel as simple and trustworthy as the instant-offer platforms consumers already know.

For sellers, the pitch is easy to understand: make the dealers fight for your car, not the other way around.More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

EdVisorly raised a $13.3M Series A led by Breachway Capital, with participation from U.S. News & World Report, Lumina Foundation, Strada Education Foundation, Motley Fool Ventures, Juvo Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners. The company builds AI-powered software that helps colleges and universities automate admissions, transcript processing, transfer credit evaluation and enrollment workflows, with the new funding going toward product innovation, engineering infrastructure and expanding its student-facing tools. - learn more

Savi Security launched its iOS and Android app to help families detect and avoid AI-powered scams and fraud, while also announcing $7M in seed funding led by Acrew Capital. The app uses behavioral AI to screen calls, texts, voicemails and suspicious messages before users engage, with features including text protection, voicemail screening, live call monitoring and a free scam-checking tool called Scamwise. The round also included participation from Magnify Ventures, TTCER and Resolute Ventures. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

UP.Partners co-led Skapion’s $36M seed round alongside Khosla Ventures, with participation from Fusion VC, Stratos Ventures, TBD VC and q Fund. Skapion is developing a counter-drone swarm defense system designed to address large-scale UAV attacks involving dozens or hundreds of drones operating at once. The company was founded in late 2025, has R&D operations in Ramat Gan and a headquarters in Washington, D.C., and plans to use the funding to expand engineering, system development, integration, testing and work with defense and government customers. - learn more

Trousdale Ventures participated in Venus Aerospace’s $91M Series B, which was led by Mercury Fund with backing from investors including Lockheed Martin Ventures. Houston-based Venus Aerospace is scaling its rotating detonation rocket engine technology after completing a U.S. flight test in 2025, with potential applications across hypersonic aircraft, defense systems, orbital vehicles and space propulsion. The funding will help move the company’s engine technology from prototype toward production. - learn more

B Capital led Kaon AI’s Series B, backing the company’s push to build an AI-native content engine for brands and creators. Kaon AI is developing tools that combine deep computer science with mainstream culture, helping teams generate, personalize and distribute content for the generative AI era. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its platform, grow its team and support broader adoption across enterprise and creative customers. - learn more

Ulysses Capital participated in Pearl Health’s $110M capital raise, which included a $50M equity round led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $60M debt facility led by Trinity Capital. Pearl Health builds AI-powered technology for Medicare-focused providers, helping care teams manage risk, predict patient needs and automate workflows across value-based care. The company supports more than 10,000 providers across over 40 states and plans to use the new capital to expand its AI platform, Medicare Advantage offerings and provider partnerships. - learn more

WndrCo co-led Wonderdog’s $5M pre-seed round alongside Maveron, with participation from Cultivate Next, Mars Petcare’s early-stage investment program. Hermosa Beach-based Wonderdog is building an AI-powered preventive health platform for dogs, using microbiome, blood and genetic testing to help identify health risks earlier and recommend personalized diet, supplement and care plans. The company plans to use the funding to scale its diagnostics platform, expand its AI tools and grow into new markets. - learn more

GordonMD Global Investments co-led Cyllene Therapeutics’ €33M Series C alongside M Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Andera Partners, Bpifrance’s InnoBio 3 Fund and Lamond Ventures. Paris-based Cyllene, formerly known as EG 427, is developing precision genetic medicines using its non-replicating HSV-1 HERMES platform, with the funding going toward continued clinical development of EG110A for neuro-urology indications and broader pipeline expansion. The company plans to initiate a Phase 2b/3 study for EG110A in 2027. - learn more

Bonfire Ventures led Katalyze AI’s $10.5M seed round, with participation from Inovia Capital, Ripple Ventures, Alumni Ventures and angel investors including Gokul Rajaram and Farzad Soleimani. San Francisco-based Katalyze is building an agentic operating system for pharmaceutical companies, helping scientists, engineers and analysts deploy AI agents across scientific, engineering and manufacturing workflows. The company says its platform is already used by five of the 20 largest global pharma companies. - learn more

Strong Ventures participated in Studio Kiko’s undisclosed Pre-A round for NearDoc, alongside Smilegate Investment and Korea Investment Accelerator. NearDoc is an AI medical charting service that listens to doctor-patient conversations in real time and automatically generates completed SOAP notes for EMR systems, helping reduce physicians’ documentation burden. The company says NearDoc was adopted by more than 300 clinics and hospitals within two months of launch and plans to use the funding to recruit talent, advance the product into a clinical decision support system and expand into non-English-speaking Asian markets. - learn more

Foxhog Ventures invested $1.34M in FundingBazar.com, a fintech platform building a digital marketplace to help startups, SMEs and businesses access capital. Currently in beta, FundingBazar.com plans to connect companies with investors through both equity funding and revenue-based financing, while adding tools for investor discovery, digital documentation, due diligence and founder-investor communication. - learn more

March Capital participated in Together AI’s $800M Series C, alongside investors including Aramco Ventures, NVIDIA, Vista Equity, General Catalyst, Emergence Capital, SE Ventures, Pegatron, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP Growth, Lux Capital, Geodesic and others. Together AI provides infrastructure for open-source and custom AI, spanning inference, training, fine-tuning, GPU clusters and accelerated compute for companies building production AI applications. The company also secured commitments for more than 500 MW of compute capacity to support future growth. - learn more

Wavemaker360 Health co-led Materna Medical’s $5M B3 financing alongside InnovaHealth Partners and Band of Angels, with continued support from existing investors. Mountain View-based Materna is developing women’s pelvic health products, including Milli, an FDA-cleared vaginal dilator, and Ellora, an investigational obstetrical system designed to reduce pelvic floor muscle injury during vaginal delivery. The funding will support Materna’s EASE pivotal trial readout, Ellora launch preparations, market access work and commercial manufacturing capabilities. - learn more

CIV participated in 1001’s $30M Series A, which was led by Lux Capital with participation from Sanabil Investments, 9Yards, Hanabi and existing backers including General Catalyst. Dubai- and London-based 1001 is building sovereign AI operating systems for critical infrastructure sectors such as aviation, ports, logistics, energy and industrial operations, helping operators automate decisions while keeping AI systems locally owned and governed. The company plans to use the funding to expand engineering and go-to-market teams across key GCC markets. - learn more

Fifth Wall participated in Higharc’s $95M Series C, which was led by Insight Partners with additional backing from Wellington Management and existing investors including Spark Capital, Lux Capital, SE Ventures, Simpson Strong-Tie, PSP Partners, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Suffolk Technologies, Vertex Ventures, NC Tweener Fund and MetaProp. Higharc builds AI software for homebuilding, generating homes as 3D spatial data so builders and suppliers can better manage design, estimating, sales and construction workflows. The new funding brings Higharc’s total raised to more than $170M and will support AI product development and expansion into building materials supply chain workflows through a new partnership with US LBM. - learn more

StoryHouse Ventures is an existing investor in PvX Partners, which secured a new $5M equity investment from MIT to expand its user acquisition financing platform for consumer apps and mobile games. Singapore-based PvX uses its machine learning system, PvX Lambda, to evaluate marketing and performance data before underwriting user acquisition campaigns, giving app companies an alternative to traditional venture capital or lending. The company has now surpassed $750M in committed user acquisition financing. - learn more

WndrCo participated in 8090 Labs’ $135M Series A, which was led by Salesforce Ventures with additional backing from Craft Ventures, The Production Board and Launch. Founded by Chamath Palihapitiya, 8090 Labs is building Software Factory, an AI coding agent designed for enterprise engineering teams that need production-quality software, audit trails and controls rather than quick prototypes. Palihapitiya is also stepping in as CEO. - learn more

Multiball Capital participated in Nebex’s $30M seed round, which was led by GV, as the company builds market infrastructure for the global space economy. Nebex connects sovereign space programs with the founders and companies building space technologies, while also announcing a banking relationship with J.P. Morgan to support revenue, cash flow and transaction infrastructure for space-sector deals. The company was founded by former Axiom Space executives and entrepreneurs Tejpaul Bhatia and Anand Subramanian. - learn more

LA Exits

Versed, the clean skincare and makeup brand founded by Katherine Power, was acquired by Belle Brands, a platform company formed by consumer-focused private investment firm Windsong Global. Versed will join JVN Hair, Pipette and KVD Beauty under Belle Brands, with CEO Andy Chiu supporting the transition. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. - learn more

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Not Every Robot Wants Your Job

Grace Lee

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles,

When people talk about the robotics boom, the conversation usually turns to warehouses, defense, humanoids or automation.

But one Los Angeles company is building a very different kind of robot.

Tombot, a local companion robotics startup, closed a $7 million Series A3 round with participation from Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living and Florida Community Health Network to scale production of Jennie, its robotic companion dog. The product is designed for older adults, people with dementia, children with autism and others who may benefit from the emotional comfort of a pet but cannot safely or practically care for a real animal.

It is a quieter kind of robotics story, but a revealing one.

The most common vision of the robotics future is built around productivity: robots that move boxes, patrol borders, assemble parts or perform repetitive tasks. Tombot is aiming at something more personal. Its bet is that robots will not only help people work faster, but also help them feel less alone.

That makes the company part of a broader shift in robotics, where the question is not just “What can a machine do?” but “What role can it play in someone’s daily life?”

The need is real. Aging populations, caregiver shortages and rising demand for dementia care are putting pressure on families and health systems. At the same time, many people who would benefit from animal companionship cannot manage feeding, walking, grooming, vet bills or the safety risks that come with a live pet.

Image Source: Tombot

Tombot’s answer is a robotic dog that behaves like a companion, not a gadget. Jennie is designed to respond to touch, voice and interaction, giving users some of the emotional benefits of pet ownership without the responsibilities of caring for a living animal.

Southern California’s robotics scene is often viewed through the lens of defense, drones, aerospace and manufacturing. Those categories are important. But LA also has deep advantages in design, storytelling, entertainment, consumer products and human-centered technology. A companion robot sits at the intersection of all of those things.

It has to work technically. But it also has to feel right. The movement, expression, texture and emotional cues matter. This is where robotics starts to look less like pure engineering and more like product design, character development and trust-building.

The broader robotics market is still difficult. Hardware is expensive. Manufacturing is hard. Consumer expectations are high. And companion robots have historically been a tricky category, with plenty of hype and uneven adoption.

But Tombot’s traction suggests there may be real demand for robots that solve emotional and caregiving problems, not just operational ones. The company says it has built a large waitlist as it moves toward commercialization, giving it a chance to test whether companion robotics can move from novelty to necessity.

The bigger takeaway is that LA’s robotics future may not fit into one box.

Some companies will build for the battlefield. Some will build for factories. Some will build for space. And some, like Tombot, will build for the living room, the care facility and the family trying to support someone they love.

The robotics boom is often framed as a story about replacing human labor.

This one is about supporting human care.

More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Cosm received a $100M strategic investment from Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Sony taking a minority stake as the lead investor in Cosm’s Series C financing round. Cosm operates immersive “Shared Reality” venues that use dome-shaped LED screens for live sports, concerts and entertainment experiences, and the funding will support venue expansion and new technology initiatives across sports and entertainment. Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja will join Cosm’s board as part of the deal. - learn more

Pasadena-based Sophia Space finalized a $7M SAFE financing round, bringing its total funding to $22M. The round included participation from EverGreen, The NVIDIA Alumni Investment Network, SparkLabs Group and other strategic investors, with the new capital going toward product development, engineering and commercial hiring, partnerships and deployment across government, commercial and international markets. Sophia Space is building AI-powered infrastructure and intelligent systems for the space economy, including autonomous computing capabilities for orbital and terrestrial environments. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

Sound Ventures participated in Warp’s $60M Series B, which was led by Battery Ventures with additional backing from Peak XV and Y Combinator. Warp is building an AI-native employee management platform for payroll, benefits, compliance, onboarding, offboarding and workforce operations, with the new funding bringing its total raised to $85M. The company says the capital will support deeper AI agents, expanded tax and compliance infrastructure, a broader product suite and more customer support. - learn more

Mucker Capital participated in Zave’s ₹4.7 crore bridge round, which was led by Inflection Point Ventures. Zave is building an AI-native shopping assistant that helps consumers discover products, compare prices and make purchase decisions across Amazon, Flipkart and more than 5,000 brand websites. The company plans to use the funding to strengthen its AI product, improve platform reliability and scalability, and support continued user growth. - learn more

B Capital co-led Seltz’s $12.5M seed round alongside Speedinvest, with participation from Future Present, Italian Founders Fund, Arc Investors, United Ventures, Vento Ventures, Mango Capital, 2100 Ventures and Future Back Ventures. Seltz is building web search infrastructure for AI agents, designed for the way agents query the internet: running long, parallel searches, pulling full documents and accessing live web context. The company plans to use the funding to scale its index to tens of billions of documents and build out engineering, sales and marketing. - learn more

Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Caplight’s $16M Series A, which was led by BlackRock and Fin Capital, with strategic participation from UBS Investment Bank. San Francisco-based Caplight is building data, trading and workflow infrastructure for private markets, including secondary market pricing, institutional trading, company and investor intelligence, and AI-powered venture deal sourcing. The company says the new funding will help expand its role in rebuilding the rails for venture capital as private markets become larger, more liquid and more complex. - learn more

MaC Venture Capital participated in Coval’s $28M Series A, which was led by Norwest with backing from Base10 Partners, Twilio Ventures, Y Combinator and others. San Francisco-based Coval builds simulation, evaluation and monitoring infrastructure for voice and chat AI agents, helping enterprises test and improve autonomous agents before and after deployment. The company works with more than 60 organizations, including Zoom and Deepgram. - learn more

B Capital participated in Cadence’s $100M Series C, which was led by Spark Capital with additional backing from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Coatue, Corewell Health Ventures, Memorial Hermann and Duke Health. Cadence is a clinical AI company automating chronic care for older adults through supervised AI agents that monitor patient vitals, surface risks and coordinate care between visits. The company now works with more than 20 health systems, treats over 100,000 active patients and will use the funding to expand across new health systems, advance its AI agents and grow value-based care models. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Partly’s $50M Series B, which was led by DST Global Partners. Partly is building AI-powered infrastructure for the auto repair industry, helping repairers, insurers and parts suppliers identify and source the right vehicle parts as cars become more complex. The new funding will support Partly’s push to bring frontier AI into repair workflows and reduce friction across the global replacement parts market. - learn more

Döpfner Capital participated in Stark Defence’s €500M funding round, which was backed by major investors including Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund and valued the German drone company at roughly €3.2B to €3.5B. Stark develops unmanned defense systems, including loitering munitions, and plans to use the funding to expand R&D and manufacturing capacity across Europe. The raise comes as European defense tech continues attracting significant investor interest amid rising military spending and demand for autonomous systems. - learn more

Smash Capital led Redo’s $81M Series B, with participation from existing investors Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures, valuing the commerce technology company at a reported $1.25B. Draper, Utah-based Redo started in returns and exchanges but has expanded into a broader post-purchase and AI-powered commerce platform covering order tracking, package protection, fulfillment, customer service, marketing and shopper engagement. The funding will support product development, AI initiatives and international expansion. - learn more

Wavemaker 360 Health participated in ChemT Biotechnology’s $4M seed round, which was led by Wavemaker Ventures with participation from co-investment partner SEEDS. Singapore-based ChemT has raised $5M total in 18 months and is building AI infrastructure for biomanufacturing, including its CelMo virtual cell platform, which helps manufacturers model and guide cell behavior to improve biologics production, scalability and cost. The funding will support expansion of ChemT’s AI and experimental infrastructure, advancement of its molecular products toward GMP standards and broader commercial partnerships. - learn more

LA Exits

The New Bar, a Venice-born non-alcoholic beverage discovery platform, was acquired by The Zero Proof. The deal combines The New Bar’s hospitality, live events and cultural partnerships with The Zero Proof’s national e-commerce, owned brand portfolio and retail distribution platform. The New Bar’s leadership will join The Zero Proof, with founder Brianda Gonzalez becoming Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships. - learn more

Introducing the Nine Projects from Snap's First Yellow Collabs Program

Almost Fun

Fake Artists

Givingli

NewNew

QReal

SketchAR

Snack Break

Stacks

Tastemade

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

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