Here's a roundup of recent L.A. startups news you need to know:
WEB3 STREAMING: \Stacked raised $12.9 million in a Series A round. Pantera Capital led the financing. Stacked is a web3 streaming platform for content, including gaming. Web3 is the continuing evolution of the internet, which uses emerging tech like blockchain, AI, decentralized apps and AR/VR devices. On Stacked, creators can receive ownership of the platform through "governance tokens," earned through various performance metrics.
COMMUNITIES: Koop raised $5 million led by 1confirmation and Variant Fund, with participation from other investors, including Palm Tree Crew and Day One Ventures, according to TechCrunch. Koop creates communities, led by creators and their members. The communities are backed by a treasury created from an NFT collection or membership pass. The treasury is used to bring a community's ideas to life, whether it's creating an animated web show or developing software. The community becomes the viewers, users and builders of their creations, all of whom are incentivized to share the content, software or products built out of their treasuries.
SATELLITES: Outpost announced the closing of a $7.1 million seed round, according to Space Daily. The round was oversubscribed. The company has developed and flight tested a re-entry method that enables satellites to safely return to Earth with precision landing. This round of funding will enable Outpost to advance technology development and build out its team.
ANIMATION: Invisible Universe is debuting its first web3 project, The R3al Metaverse, a community-driven animated series starring characters inspired by blue chip NFTs. The project will also mint 7200 Producer Pass NFTs, allowing the community to have an impact on the creative direction and a chance to have their NFTs animated and brought onto the show. Invisible Universe is an internet-first animation studio that develops and debuts original animated character IP on social media in partnership with high-profile celebrities, creatives and influencers.
E-COMMERCE: Viavia, a video-first e-commerce platform, announces $8 million in seed funding to launch a debut fashion retail destination catered to Gen Z shoppers. The funding was co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Basis Set Ventures, with participation from Exor Seeds, Backend Ventures and Andrew Ng's AI Fund. The funding follows a $1.15 million pre-seed round that the company announced in February. Viavia's goal is to modernize the fashion e-commerce experience by combining creator-driven live and short-form video content with end-to-end, AI-powered tech infrastructure for the fashion supply chain.
NFT'S: NFT Genius, a company developing marketplace technology for the NFT market, announced the close of a $10.5 million Series A funding round led by Dapper Labs, Spartan Labs, Commonwealth Asset Management and Fundamental Labs. Spartan, One Football, and Unibanco also participated in the round. NFT Genius developed Gaia, an NFT marketplace on the Flow blockchain that houses NFTs from some of the world’s best brands, athletes, musicians and artists.
SOFTWARE: RentSpree, a rental management software provider, announced that it has closed $17.3 million in Series B financing. This brings the company's total amount raised to nearly $28 million. These investments will help the company expand product offerings for both renters and agents, as well as obtain additional strategic partnerships. Green Visor Capital led the round.
