What Are LA’s Hottest Startups of 2021? We Asked Top VCs to Rank Them
Despite — or in many cases because of — the raging pandemic, 2020 was a great year for many tech startups. It turned out to be an ideal time to be in the video game business, developing a streaming ecommerce platform for Gen Z, or helping restaurants with their online ordering.
But which companies in Southern California had the best year? That is highly subjective of course. But in an attempt to highlight who's hot, we asked dozens of the region's top VCs to weigh in.
We wanted to know what companies they wish they would have invested in if they could go back and do it all over again.
Startups were ranked by how many votes each received. In the case of a tie, companies were listed in order of capital raised. The list illustrates how rapidly things move in startup land. One of the hottest startups had not even started when 2020 began. A number doubled or even 16x'd their valuation in the span of a few short months.
To divvy things up, we delineated between companies that have raised Series A funding or later and younger pre-seed or seed startups.
Not surprisingly, many of the hottest companies have been big beneficiaries of the stay-at-home economy.
PopShop Live, a red-hot QVC for Gen Z headquartered out of a WeWork on San Vicente Boulevard, got the most votes. Interestingly, the streaming ecommerce platform barely made it onto the Series A list because it raised its Series A only last month. Top Sand Hill Road firms Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners reportedly competed ferociously for who would lead the round but lost out to Benchmark, which was an early investor in eBay and Uber. The round valued PopShop Live at $100 million, way up from the $6 million valuation it raised at only five months prior.
Scopely, now one of the most valuable tech companies in Los Angeles, was also a top vote getter.
The Culver City mobile gaming unicorn raised $340 million in Series E funding in October at a $3.3 billion valuation, which nearly doubled the company's $1.7 billion post-money valuation from March. It is no coincidence that that was the same month stay-at-home orders began as Scopely has benefited from bored consumers staying on their couch and playing ScrabbleGo or Marvel Strike Force.
The company's success is especially welcome news to seed investors Greycroft, The Chernin Group and TenOneTen ventures, who got in at a $40 million post valuation in 2012. Upfront Ventures, BAM Ventures and M13 joined the 2018 Series C at a $710 post-money valuation.
Softbank-backed Ordermark, which flew more under the radar, also topped the list. The company's online ordering platform became a necessity for restaurants forced to close their dining rooms during the pandemic and raised $120 million in Series C funding in October.
On the seed side, two very different startups stood out. There was Pipe, which enables companies with recurring revenues to tap into their deferred cash flows with an instant cash advance, and Clash App, Inc., a TikTok alternative launched by a former employee of the social network in August.
We will have the list of Southern California's top seed startups out tomorrow.
Hottest
PopShop Live ($100 million)
The live-streaming shopping channel created by Danielle Lin reportedly found itself in the middle of a venture capital bidding war this year. Benchmark eventually won out leading a Series A round, vaulting the app at a $100 million valuation. The Los Angeles-based platform has been likened to QVC for Gen Z and it's part of a new wave of ecommerce that has found broader appeal during the pandemic. Google, Amazon and YouTube have launched live shopping features and other venture-backed startups like Los Angeles-based NTWRK have popped up.
Boiling
Scopely ($3.3 billion)
One of the most valuable Southern California tech startups with a $3.3 billion valuation, the Culver City mobile game unicorn has benefitted from a booming gaming market that has flourished in this stay-at-home economy. Scopely offers free mobile games and its roster includes "Marvel Strike Force," "Star Trek Fleet Command" and "Yahtzee with Buddies." In October the company raised a $340 million Series E round backed by Wellington Management, NewView Capital and TSG Consumer Partners, among others fueling speculation that it was on its road to an IPO. Co-CEO Walter Driver has said that he doesn't have immediate plans to go public.
Ordermark ($70 million)
The coronavirus has forced the closure of many dining rooms, making Ordermark all the more sought after by restaurants needing a way to handle online orders. Co-founder and CEO Alex Canter started the business in 2017, which recently rang in more than $1 billion in sales. Ordermark secured $120 million in Series C funding by Softbank Vision Fund 2 in October that it will use to bring more restaurants online. The company's Nextbite, a virtual restaurant business that allows kitchens to add delivery-only brands such as HotBox from rapper Wiz Khalifa to their existing space through Ordermark, is also gaining traction.
Simmering
Cameo ($300 million)
Cameo, which launched three years ago, had its breakout year in 2020 as C-list celebrities like Brian Baumgartner banked over a million dollars from creating customized videos for fans. In the sincerest form of flattery, Facebook is reportedly launching a feature that sounds a lot like Cameo. Even though the company is still technically headquartered in Chicago, we included Cameo because CEO Steven Galanis and much of the senior team moved to L.A. during the pandemic and say they plan to continue running the company from here for the foreseeable future.
Mothership ($64 million)
Co-founded by CEO Aaron Peck, Mothership provides freight forwarding services intended to streamline the shipping experience. The company's tracking technologies connect shippers with nearby truck drivers to speed up the delivery process. It raised $16 million in Series A venture funding last year, driving the platform to a $48 million pre-money valuation.
Nacelle ($6.7 million)
Founded in 2019, Nacelle's ecommerce platform helps retailers improve conversion rates and decrease loading speeds for their sites. The software integrates with Shopify and other services, offering payment platforms and analytics integration, among dozens of services. Nacelle raised about $4.8 million earlier this year with angel investors that included Shopify's Jamie Sutton, Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki and Attentive CEO Brian Long.
Boulevard ($30 million)
Matt Danna and Sean Stavropoulos came up with Boulevard when an impatient Stavropoulos was frustrated wasting hours to book a hair appointment. Their four-year-old salon booking and payment service is now used by some of Los Angeles' best-known hairdressers. Last month, the two secured a $27 million Series B round co-led by Index Ventures and Toba Capital. Other investors include VMG Partners, Bonfire Ventures, Ludlow Ventures and BoxGroup.
CloudKitchens ($5.3 billion)
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick CloudKitchens rents out commissary space to prepare food for delivery. And as the pandemic has fueled at-home delivery, the company has been gobbling up real estate. The commissaries operate akin to WeWork for the culinary world and allow drivers to easily park and pick-up orders as the delivery market has soared during pandemic. Last year, it raised $400 million from Saudi Arabia's colossal sovereign wealth fund.
GOAT ($1.5 billion)
Founded by college buddies five years ago, GOAT tapped into the massive sneaker resale market with a platform that "authenticates" shoes. The Culver City-based company has since expanded into apparel and accessories and states that it has 20 million members. Last year, Foot Locker sunk a $100 million minority investment into 1661 Inc., better known as Goat. And this fall it landed another $100 million Series E round bankrolled by Dan Sundeheim's D1 Capital Partners.
Savage X Fenty
The lingerie company co-founded by pop singer Rihanna in 2018 is noted for its inclusivity of body shapes and sizes. It has raised over $70 million, but The New York Times' DealBook newsletter recently reported that it's been on the hunt for $100 million in funds to expand into active wear. The company generates about $150 million in revenue, but is not yet profitable, according to the report. It became the focus of a consumer watchdog investigation after being accused of "deceptive marketing" for a monthly membership program.
Warming Up
FabFitFun ($930 million)
The lifestyle company provides customized personal subscription box services every three months with full size products. Started in 2010 by Daniel Broukhim, Michael Broukhim, Sam Teller and Katie Rosen Kitchens, it now boasts more than one million members. Last year, the company raised $80 million in a Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins last year and appears to be preparing for an eventual IPO as it slims down costs and refocuses on its high value products.
Dave ($1 billion)
Launched in 2016, the finance management tool helps consumers to avoid overdrafts, provides paycheck advances and assists in budgeting. Last year, it began to roll out a digital bank account that was so popular that two million users signed up for a spot on the waitlist. The company, run by co-founder Jason Wilk, has raised $186 million in venture capital and counts billionaire Mark Cuban as an early investor and board member. Other backers include Playa Vista-based Chernin Group.
Sure ($59 million)
SURE offers multiple technology products to major insurance brands — its platform can host everything from renter's insurance to covering baggage, so customers never have to leave an agency's website. It also offers its platform to ecommerce marketplaces, embedding third-party insurance protections for customers to purchase all on the same webpage. Founded in 2014, the Santa Monica-based startup last raised an $8 million Series A round led by IA Capital in 2017.
Zest AI ($90 million)
Founded in 2009 by former Google CIO Douglas Merrill and ex-Sears executive Shawn Budde, Zest AI provides AI-powered credit underwriting. It helps banks and other lenders identify borrowers looking beyond traditional credit scores. It claims to improve approval rates while decreasing chargeoffs. The company uses models that aim to make the lending more transparent and less biased. This fall the company raised $15 million from Insight Partners, MicroVentures and other undisclosed investors, putting its pre-money valuation at $75 million, according to PItchbook.
PlayVS
Santa Monica-based PlayVS provides the technological and organizational infrastructure for high school esports leagues. The pandemic has helped the company further raise its profile as traditional sports teams have been benched. Founded in early 2018, PlayVS employs 46 people and has raised over $100 million. In addition to partnering with key educational institutions, it also has partnerships with major game publishers such as Riot and Epic Games.
Tapcart ($40 million)
A SaaS platform helps Shopify brands create mobile shopping apps. The marketing software saw shopping activity jump 50% over 90 days as the pandemic walloped traditional retailers. Founded by Eric Netsch and Sina Mobasser, the company raised a $10 million Series A round led by SignalFire, bringing the total raise to $15 million.
Papaya ($31.8 million)
Papaya lets customers pay any bill from their mobile devices just by taking a picture of it. The mobile app touts the app's ease-of-use as a way to cut down on inbound bill calls and increase customer payments. Founded by Patrick Kann and Jason Metzler, the company has raised $25 million, most recently a S10 million round of convertible debt financing from Fika Ventures, Idealab and F-Prime Capital Partners.
Floqast ($250 million)
FloQast is a management software that integrates enterprise resource planning software with checklists and Excel to manage bookkeeping. The cloud-based software company claims its system helps close the books up to three days faster. It is used by accounting departments at Lyft, Twilio, Zoom and The Golden State Warriors. In January, it raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners to bring the total raise to $92.8 million.
Brainbase ($26.5 million)
The company's rights management platform expedites licensing payments and tracks partnership and sponsorship agreements. It counts BuzzFeed, the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and Sanrio (of Hello Kitty and friends fame) among its clients. In May it announced $8 million in Series A financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Nosara Capital, bringing the total raised to $12 million.
OpenPath ($28 million)
The Los Angeles-based company provides a touchless entry system that uses individuals cell phones to help with identification instead of a key card. The company offers a subscription for the cloud-enabled software that allows companies to help implement safety measures and it said demand has grown amid the pandemic. Founded by James Segil and Alex Kazerani the company raised $36 million led by Greycroft earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $63 million.
FightCamp ($2.5 million)
FightCamp is an interactive home workout system that turns your space into a boxing ring with a free standing bag, boxing gloves and punch trackers. The company is riding the wave of at-home fitness offerings including Peloton, Mirror and Zwift that have taken off during the pandemic as gyms closed. The company has raised $4.3 million to date.
Numerade
The Santa Monica-based company provides video and interactive content for education in math, science, economics and standardized test prep. Founded in 2018 by Nhon Ma and Alex Lee, who previously founded Tutorcast, an online tutoring service, the company gathers post-graduate educated instructors to create video lessons for online learning.
Our Place ($32.5 million)
The creator of a pan with a cult following on social media, this Los Angeles-based startup designs and retails cookware and dinnerware. Founded by Amir Tehrani, Zach Rosner and Shiza Shahid, the company completed its Series A funding earlier this year, bringing its total raised to date to $10 million.
Tala ($560 million)
For customers that have no formal credit or banking history, this company's application promises more financial access, choice and control. It gathers data to create a credit score that can be used to instantly underwrite and disburse loans ranging from $10 to $500. Co-founded by Shivani Siroya and Jonathan Blackwell, Tala has raised $217.2 million to date. Its investors include PayPal Ventures, Lowercase Capital and Data Collective.
ServiceTitan ($2.25 billion)
Founded in 2007 by chief executive Ara Mahdessian and president Vahe Kuzoyan, ServiceTitan operates software that helps residential home contractors grow their businesses. It provides businesses tools like customer relationship management and accounting integration to streamline operations. The company closed a $73.82 million Series E funding round from undisclosed investors earlier this year.
100 Thieves ($160 million)
Founded in 2017 by former professional "Call of Duty" player Matthew Haag, 100 Thieves manages esports competitions in major titles including "Counter Strike Global Offensive" and "League of Legends." The company also produces apparel and merchandise, opening a physical store and training ground called the "Cash App Compound" in collaboration with Fortnite earlier this year. The company has raised $60 million to date, from investors including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Aubrey Graham, better known as the rapper Drake.
Emotive ($16.5 million)
This AI-powered customer service platform automates text conversations between customers and businesses to increase sales. Emotive uses their sales team to verify questions, distinguishing it from other bot-driven marketing services, according to the company. The company was founded in 2018 by Brian Zatulove and Zachary Wise, who serve as the chief executive and the chief operating officer, respectively. It has raised $6.65 million to date, from Floodgate Fund and TenOneTen Ventures.
Everytable ($33 million)
Created by former hedge fund trader Sam Polk, the Los Angeles-based startup wants to be a healthy fast food chain. It prices its healthy pre-packaged meals around $5 in underserved communities while costing more in other neighborhoods with the goal of reducing so-called food deserts in low-income neighborhoods. It also offers a subscription delivery service. The company recently closed a $16 million Series B round led by Creadev along with Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
Lead art by Candice Navi.
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Eric Zassenhaus, dot.LA
TikTok addresses 'tough but fair questions' about opportunities for black creators on the platform
TikTok sent a message out to "our black community" on Monday addressing what the company called "tough but fair questions" about whether the platform allows all creators the opportunity to have their content viewed.
In a message to its black community, Vanessa Pappas, TikTok's U.S. general manager and Kudzi Chikumbu, director of creator community, said "we hear you and we care about your experienced on TikTok.
"We acknowledge and apologize to our Black creators and community who have felt unsafe, unsupported, or suppressed. We don't ever want anyone to feel that way."
The company, which is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based internet technology company, said that on May 19 black creators and their allies changed their profile pictures and connected on the platform to speak out against how they felt marginalized on TikTok. Then, last week, "a technical glitch made it temporarily appear as if posts uploaded using #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd would receive 0 views."
TikTok said that the company understands that many assumed the bug to be an intentional act to suppress the black community's experiences and invalidate their emotions. It's unclear why TikTok wrote about the glitch Monday, or if had intended to do so before recent demonstrations in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. A Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while he pleaded for his mother and to breathe.
The company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Culver City, said it is donating $3 million in honor of black creators to nonprofits that help the black community, which has been disproportionately affected by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. TikTok also said it is committing $1 million to fighting racial injustice and inequality.
TikTok said it will standing in solidarity on Tuesday by participating in Blackout Tuesday, turning off all playlists and campaigns on its "Sounds" page to observe a moment of reflection and action. The company said it is also investing in technology. and better moderation strategies with a more user-friendly appeals process. It's also establishing a creator diversity council and developing a creator portal to expand communication and opportunities.
"We know we have work to do to regain and repair that trust," the post said.
-- Tami Abdollah
Los Angeles VC's react
Art by Candace NaviIt has been notoriously difficult for people of color to break into the insular world of venture capital, where who you know and previous success are are highly prized. Just 2% of investment professionals are black, which in turn makes it hard for black founders to get funded. Here is a sampling of some of the reaction from the Los Angeles VC community, many of whom have offices in Santa Monica near protests and looting:
-Ben Bergman
LA County public health director calls police violence "a public health issue"
Los Angeles County top public health official Barbara Ferrer linked the unrest that has rocked the region to the deep health disparities that black Americans experience. Ferrer, who has been providing somber daily updates on coronavirus deaths and its spread, called police brutality a public health issue that must be addressed.
"It's important to comment on the connection between these two concerns the death of a black man at the hands of police and the experience of COVID-19 in L.A. County," she said in starting her briefing. "We know that black Americans fare worse than other groups on virtually every measure of health status. And it has become all too common to blame this on individual behaviors, when in fact the science is clear, the root cause of health inequities is racism and discrimination."
"Science also tells us that lifetime stress associated with experiences of daily acts of discrimination and oppression, play a major role," she said. "It starts at birth with higher rates of black infant mortality and shockingly higher rates of maternal mortality among black women and extends to adulthood, when we see black residents in L.A. County experiencing earlier onset of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes and earlier deaths."
"When I report each week that we have seen elevated numbers of black deaths in this county due to COVID-19, I am reporting on the consequences of these long standing inequities. And it's not just the direct victim of violence, the person who's beaten, or shot or asphyxiated who pays the price for brutality. It is an entire community that lives with the fear that the next time, it could be them or their son or daughter neighbor or friend. It is a consequence of that fear that we are seeing when we report instance after instance of inequality and health outcomes," she said.
"As the department responsible for public health in L.A. County and in acknowledgement of our national association, the American Public Health Association, declaring that addressing law enforcement violence is a public health issue, this rush to justice has to be part of our prescription, as well.
Los Angeles county and city declared a 6 p.m. curfew on Monday.
-Rachel Uranga
L.A.'s music industry will shut down for 'Black Out Tuesday'
Many organizations in the music industry are pledging to close on Tuesday as part of a 'Black Out Tuesday' campaign. Participants include the three major labels: Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Universal Music Group, along with many of their associated sub-labels.
The initiative started with a pop-up webpage calling for the music industry to shut down on Tuesday, published by Jamila Thomas, a marketing executive at Atlantic Records (owned by Warner Music Group), and Brianna Agyemang, an artist campaign manager at Platoon (owned by Apple).
"It is a day to take a beat for an honest, reflective and productive conversation about what actions we need to collectively take to support the black community," the post said. "The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited predominantly from Black art. Our mission is to hold the industry at large, including major corporations + their partners who benefit from the efforts, struggles and successes of Black people accountable… This is not just a 24-hour initiative. We are and will be in this fight for the long haul. A plan of action will be announced."
The post includes a list of links for suggested actions to take on Tuesday.
#TheShowMustBePaused has traveled widely through the music industry's social media. Santa Monica-based Interscope (owned by Universal Music) pledged to delay releasing new music this week.
Other organizations have been posting messages of solidarity to their social media accounts including Sony Music, Columbia Records (owned by Sony), Universal Music, and Atlantic Records (owned by Warner).
Spotify and Apple Music have also issued brief statements on their social channels.
— Sam Blake
Hollywood, streaming services nod to Black Lives Matter
Over the weekend, several streaming companies took to social media to show support for the peaceful protests.
Some streaming platforms have changed their social media profile names and descriptions to express solidarity, including
HBO Max and Quibi. Other organizations with similar messages on their social media pages include
NBCUniversal, Disney, and Hulu.
On Sunday, various Hollywood union leaders weighed in as well.
SAG-AFTRA leaders Gabrielle Carteris and David P. White issued a statement. "The murder of George Floyd is deeply emblematic of a corrosive inequality and injustice at the heart of America," it began. "It's not enough to demand change. We must recognize that racism lives in our culture and only we can change that."
WGA West President David Goodman said: "As demonstrations continue today across America, our union stands with those who peacefully protest the racist, extrajudicial murders of George Floyd and other Black people...National outrage about bigotry, discrimination, and injustice is the only way we will ever see real change."
ViacomCBS announced on Monday that several of its networks, including Nickelodeon, BET and CBS Sports Network, would go dark for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in tribute to George Floyd and "other victims of racial violence."
— Sam Blake
L.A.'s gaming companies express support for BLM
live.staticflickr.com
Several Los Angeles gaming companies have weighed in to express solidarity and sympathy with social activists.
Culver City-based Jam City, a mobile game developer founded in 2010, took to social media to stand with Black Lives Matter. Santa Monica's Activision Blizzard and West LA's Riot Games also posted on social media, as has startup Esports One.
Gaming and lifestyle company FaZe Clan, based in Hollywood, published an "honest message" to its fans:
FaZe Clan is donating all profits from a retail campaign to a Memorial Fund created in George Floyd's name.
— Sam Blake
Snap and Twitter reportedly used by ill-intentioned protesters to organize theft; Snap CEO talks reparations and heartbreak
Photo by Tami Abdollah
Twitter has long been the social media platform of choice for people protesting an abuse of power -- during the Arab Spring uprisings it proved crucially useful as a way to get around and deal with internet blackouts.
So too has it been used this past week, by groups organizing mostly peaceful efforts to express their anger at George Floyd's death. But as Twitter has upped its efforts to counter violence on its platform, notably by placing a warning label on a tweet by President Trump for glorifying violence, those with less peaceful intentions have also taken their messages to Snapchat to urge their contacts and the broader public to engage in violence, theft and property damage.
A Snap spokesperson said the company's Community Guidelines "prohibit content that incites or glorifies violence, hate speech and discrimination of any kind. We have in-app reporting tools that Snapchatters can use to quickly report any content that may be in violation of our guidelines to our Trust and Safety team, who then reviews the reports and takes appropriate action."
On Sunday evening, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sent a letter to staff in which he said "we simply cannot promote accounts in America that are linked to people who incite racial violence, whether they do so on or off our platform.
"Our Discover content platform is a curated platform, where we decide what we promote. We have spoken time and again about working hard to make a positive impact, and we will walk the talk with the content we promote on Snapchat. We may continue to allow divisive people to maintain an account on Snapchat, as long as the content that is published on Snapchat is consistent with our community guidelines, but we will not promote that account or content in any way."
The self-described camera company is currently protected from financial liability for such messages by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that that has been broadly interpreted by the courts over the years as shielding internet sites and apps from being financially liable for what user tweets, posts or generally publishes on their platforms.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order that may change all of that by enabling federal regulators to punish social media companies for how they moderate content on their sites. Lawmakers and internet freedom advocates called the action illegal and improper under the First Amendment.
Such a change could have far-reaching impacts on Santa Monica-based Snap and smaller companies with an online presence that lack the budgets to moderate every single message or post on their apps.
Spiegel said he is "heartbroken and enraged by the treatment of black people and people of color in America." He called for the establishment of a diverse, nonpartisan "Commission on Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations" to investigate the criminal justice system and take action on reconciliation and reparations.
— Tami Abdollah
Airmap's Santa Monica headquarters destroyed by looters
Greg McNeal/Twitter
Airmap's headquarters on Santa Monica boulevard near the Third Street Promenade was destroyed by looters Sunday night, according to co-founder Greg McNeal, who recounted the damage in a series of Twitter posts. The company, founded in 2015, is the world's leading airspace services platform for unmanned aircraft.
AirMap co-founder and chairman Ben Marcus added this on Twitter: "Last night, the AirMap office in Santa Monica was consumed by fire. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. What hurts is the unending racism & injustice in America. We all must work harder to make our union more perfect. We're all brothers and sisters. Let's treat each other with love, respect, & dignity, and create opportunity for all who choose to make a positive impact."
— Ben Bergman
Santa Monica, Beverly Hills announce 1 pm curfews for business districts
Santa Monica and Beverly Hills announced 1 p.m. curfews for their business districts on Monday, as shop owners and residents began sweeping the glass off the street and assessing the damage after a night of peaceful protests turned into fires, looting and vandalism over the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. Citywide curfews will go into effect at 4 p.m. The chaos went to the heart of Silicon Beach, home to tech companies like Snap Inc and venture capitalists like Upfront Ventures, whose office overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
Long Beach issued a similar curfew.
"Sunday was one of the most distressing days in Santa Monica history," said Santa Monica Mayor Kevin McKeown in a statement. "We know better than to let the looters obscure the message of the protesters, who have indeed been heard."
Downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, Fairfax District and the Grove shopping center all got hit by looters over the weekend as police cars were set ablaze and the national guard was called in. News outlets reported that some chanted "eat the rich" as they marched along Rodeo Drive, one of the most expensive slices of commercial real estate in the region.
Floyd's death caused anguish in communities that have seen a number of black men die or be hurt by police officers who often suffer few consequences. Meanwhile, blacks and Latinos have higher arrest and incarceration rates. The deep disparity extends beyond the criminal justice system to education, housing and other areas.
And the frustration over it played out during the protests. Unlike the 1992 civil unrest after the release of Los Angeles police officers who beat Rodney King, demonstrations hit some of the wealthiest parts of the city. In 1992, looting and fires devastated South Central, further impoverishing an already economically disadvantaged area.
"Pretty wild to see the epicentre of this chaos at my office," Laurent Grill, an investor at Santa Monica based Luma Launch wrote on Twitter Sunday. "Quite a divide... on one side we had massive peaceful protests and 3 blocks away, people are looting & burning stores in my community. Makes me extremely sad."
— Rachel Uranga
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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