Inside Tinder’s Biggest Product Shift in Years

Image Source: Tinder

🔦 Spotlight

Hello Los Angeles,

Despite headlines about swipe fatigue and dating app burnout, Tinder believes the problem isn’t that people are tired of dating. They’re tired of bad dating experiences.

So it felt fitting that Tinder chose the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, a venue known for reinvention, to make its case that the category is far from over.

Walking into the El Rey, it was clear Tinder wanted this to feel less like a tech launch and more like a cultural moment. Music was bumping, the room buzzed with chatter and excited energy, red light beams cut through the room, and chandeliers glowed overhead.

At Tinder Sparks 2026: Start Something New, Match Group and Tinder CEO Spencer Rascoff took the stage to outline what the company calls the biggest evolution of the app in years. Tinder remains the largest dating app in the world, used by tens of millions of people across more than 185 countries and responsible for billions of matches every year.

Match Group and Tinder CEO Spencer Rascoff

Rascoff framed the shift around a broader cultural reality. In a world where people increasingly interact with machines, technology and AI, the need for real human connection has not gone away. If anything, Tinder believes it has only grown stronger.

To respond to that shift, Tinder says it’s focusing on what it calls “sparks,” the moments when a match actually turns into a real conversation.

As Rascoff put it on stage:

“We are not optimizing for swipes or likes. We are optimizing for sparks.”

That philosophy is shaping a wave of new features discussed throughout the keynote by Tinder’s leadership team, including Mark Kantor, SVP and Head of Product, Yoel Roth, SVP of Trust & Safety, and product leaders Claire Watanabe and Hillary Paine.

Image Source: Tinder

Among the updates are Music Mode, which lets users connect through shared songs and artists, and a new Astrology Mode that highlights compatibility between zodiac signs. Tinder is also leaning further into social dating with Double Date, a feature that lets friends match with other pairs together. The feature is already gaining traction with Gen Z users, reflecting a broader shift toward more social and lower-pressure ways to meet people.

Image Source: Tinder

Tinder is also redesigning profiles to help users express more personality. New tools can surface stronger photos from a user’s camera roll, improve lighting, and highlight interests more visually, while integrations with platforms like Spotify, Duolingo and the restaurant app Belly bring more of a person’s real life into their profile.

Image Source: Tinder

But the most interesting experiment might be happening right here in LA. Tinder is launching IRL Events in the city, letting users browse and RSVP to real-world meetups directly through the app. Think coffee shop raves, trivia nights and pickleball tournaments. The idea is simple. Dating works better when it feels like a social activity instead of an interview.

Image Source: Tinder

Under the hood, Tinder is also leaning more heavily on AI to improve recommendations. New tools like Learning Mode and Chemistry aim to better understand what users are actually looking for and surface stronger matches faster. At the same time, the company is investing heavily in safety, expanding Face Check, a facial verification system designed to reduce bots and impersonation accounts.

Closing out the presentation, Melissa Hobley, Tinder’s Chief Marketing Officer, zoomed out from the product roadmap to the brand’s cultural footprint, noting that Tinder is mentioned in billions of TikTok videos and has become shorthand for how younger generations talk about dating.

Taken together, the updates represent Tinder’s most significant evolution in years. And judging by the energy inside the El Rey this week, the company believes the next chapter of dating will be more social, more expressive and more intentional. It’s a shift being shaped right here in Los Angeles, and one that could redefine how the next generation meets.

Now onto this week’s LA venture deals, fund announcements and acquisitions.

🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

Hurray’s GIRL BEER raised a $5M seed round led by Lakehouse Ventures, with participation from Spice Capital plus CPG insiders and entertainment executives, as it accelerates national expansion. The LA-based flavored light beer brand says it has already landed retail placements at Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and Whole Foods, and plans to use the new capital to deepen distribution, enter new markets, and ramp up marketing, alongside a rollout of seven new flavors. - learn more

Freestyle closed a $10M Series A led by Silas Capital, with significant participation from ECP Growth. The company also noted continued backing from existing investors including Mucker Capital, Adapt Ventures, and Superangel, as it scales its premium diapers and wipes business following nationwide launches at Walmart and Target. - learn more

MAX BioPharma announced a new investment and partnership with Technomark Life Sciences to advance Oxy210, its oxysterol-based, orally available drug candidate for MASH. Technomark is joining as a strategic lead investor by participating in MAX BioPharma’s $13M Series A to fund a Phase 1a/1b first-in-human study, and the companies say the collaboration will pair MAX’s therapeutic platform with Technomark’s drug development experience. - learn more

LA Venture Funds

B Capital participated in ORO Labs’ $100M Series C, which was led by Brighton Park Capital and Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, as the company pushes deeper into what it calls agentic procurement orchestration. ORO said the new funding follows 300% revenue growth over the past year and will be used to speed up product development, expand go-to-market and customer teams globally, and broaden enterprise use cases across procurement, finance, legal, and supply chain workflows. - learn more

Aliment Capital participated in Tropic’s oversubscribed $105M Series C, which was co-led by Forbion’s Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva as the company scales the commercial rollout of its gene-edited tropical crops. Tropic said the funding will help expand production of its banana portfolio, accelerate its banana and rice pipelines, and support entry into additional climate-resilient crops, following the 2025 launch of its first new banana varieties in more than 75 years and demand that is already outpacing supply. - learn more

B Capital doubled down in Axiom’s $200M Series A, which valued the company at more than $1.6 billion and was led by Menlo Ventures. Axiom said the new funding will help it extend its lead from formal mathematics into what it calls “Verified AI,” with plans to apply its technology beyond mathematical discovery into software and hardware verification. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Quince’s $500M Series E, a round led by ICONIQ that values the manufacturer-to-consumer retail platform at $10.1B post-money. Quince says it will use the fresh capital to accelerate growth and global expansion of its proprietary M2C operating system, which uses AI-driven demand forecasting and direct factory partnerships to cut traditional retail markups. Other investors in the round included Basis Set Ventures, Wellington Management, MarcyPen Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Notable Capital, and DST Global. - learn more

Matter Venture Partners co-led Eridu’s oversubscribed Series A, part of $200M+ raised as the AI networking startup emerges from stealth to tackle what it calls the “network wall” bottleneck in AI data centers. - learn more

Matter Venture Partners participated in Rhoda AI’s $450M Series A, backing the startup as it comes out of 18 months in stealth with FutureVision, a video-predictive control platform aimed at helping robots operate reliably in messy, real-world industrial environments. The round included a large syndicate of investors, including Capricorn Investment Group, Khosla Ventures, Leitmotif, Mayfield, Premji Invest, Prelude Ventures, Temasek, Xora, and John Doerr, and the company says the funding will accelerate development and industrial deployments. - learn more

Halogen Ventures participated in Rasa Legal’s $5M late-seed round, backing the company’s push to scale its tech-enabled criminal record sealing and expungement service nationwide. The round was led by Rethink Education with participation from Social Finance and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Rasa says the funding will help it expand leadership, speed product development, and grow beyond its current footprint (Utah, Arizona, and Pennsylvania). - learn more

Halogen Ventures participated in Nyad’s $1.3M oversubscribed pre-seed round, backing the Birmingham-based startup as it launches an AI decision-support tool for wastewater treatment operators. The round was led by Boost VC with participation from Draper Associates, Ollin Ventures, Apprentis, First Avenue Ventures, and strategic angel Troy Wallwork, and Nyad says it will use the funding to hire, grow customers, and keep building the product as retirements thin the wastewater workforce. - learn more

MANTIS VC participated in Scanner’s $22M Series A, which was led by Sequoia Capital and also included CRV, as the company builds a high-speed security data layer for AI-driven threat investigation. Scanner said the funding comes as security teams at companies like Notion, Ramp, and BeyondTrust use its platform to search years of log data quickly and power agentic workflows that help hunt threats, triage alerts, and investigate incidents more efficiently. - learn more

Chapter One participated in Zcash Open Development Lab’s $25M+ seed round, joining a syndicate that included Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Cypherpunk Technologies, and Maelstrom. The new company, formed by former Electric Coin Company team members, said the funding will support continued development of privacy-focused infrastructure for the Zcash ecosystem, including its self-custodial wallet and broader shielded payments tooling. - learn more

CIV participated in Isembard’s $50M Series A, which was led by Union Square Ventures and also included Tamarack Global, IQ Capital, and existing backer Notion Capital. Isembard said the new funding will help it open 25 AI-powered factories by the end of 2026, expand its engineering team, and enter Germany, France, and Ukraine as it scales software-driven component manufacturing for aerospace and defense customers. - learn more

WndrCo participated in Crafting’s $5.5M seed round, which was led by Mischief as the startup launched general availability for Crafting for Agents. The company said the new capital will support its push to become core infrastructure for AI-driven engineering teams, giving agents secure access to production-like environments so they can validate, test, and ship code inside complex enterprise systems used by customers including Brex, Faire, and Webflow. - learn more

LA Exits

Hireguide has been acquired by HireVue, which is buying Hireguide’s underlying technology and bringing the Hireguide team into HireVue’s product org. HireVue says the deal accelerates its agentic AI roadmap, starting with a voice-based AI interviewer designed to help employers qualify candidates earlier and run smarter, more conversational hiring workflows. - learn more

Ultracor has been acquired by Applied Aerospace & Defense, bringing the California-based maker of specialized honeycomb core materials into Applied’s advanced composites platform. Applied says the deal supports its selective vertical integration strategy by strengthening supply chain control and boosting speed and capacity for space and defense programs, from satellites and missiles to antennas, radomes, and next-gen aircraft. - learn more

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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

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

🔦 Spotlight

🤝 Venture Deals

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