LAUNCH

LAUNCH is a California-based organization that supports entrepreneurs and fosters innovation within the technology sector. Established in 2010, it encompasses multiple initiatives, including the LAUNCH Fund, which focuses on early-stage investments in technology-related companies. Additionally, LAUNCH operates an incubator designed to nurture startup development. Its flagship event, the LAUNCH Festival, attracts over 12,000 participants, including venture capitalists, angel investors, founders, and industry professionals, serving as a premier platform for startups to showcase their innovations. The organization also produces the podcast "This Week in Startups," which discusses trends and insights in the startup ecosystem. Through its various endeavors, LAUNCH aims to empower founders and promote the growth of emerging companies.

Mike Savino

President

Ashley Whitehurst

Managing Director

Molly Wood

Managing Director and Co-Host of TWiST

Past deals in Los Angeles, CA

Afterparty

Seed Round in 2022
Afterparty is a technology company focused on enhancing the music creator economy through its Web3 platform. This platform allows creators to directly monetize their work while fostering and managing relationships with their NFT collectors. By providing essential tools for community engagement, Afterparty enables creators to build and maintain direct connections with their fans and supporters, thus facilitating a more sustainable model for their artistic endeavors.

Rolebot

Venture Round in 2022
an intelligent Recruitment Engine

Afterparty

Seed Round in 2021
Afterparty is a technology company focused on enhancing the music creator economy through its Web3 platform. This platform allows creators to directly monetize their work while fostering and managing relationships with their NFT collectors. By providing essential tools for community engagement, Afterparty enables creators to build and maintain direct connections with their fans and supporters, thus facilitating a more sustainable model for their artistic endeavors.

LÜK

Seed Round in 2021
LÜK operates an online talent marketplace specifically designed for the fashion and entertainment industries, connecting clients with a diverse array of professionals, including models, photographers, stylists, and hair and makeup artists. By aggregating top talent agencies into a single platform, LÜK simplifies the process of locating and booking creative talent for photo and video shoots, allowing brands to efficiently cast from multiple premium agencies. In addition to facilitating talent bookings, LÜK is evolving into a payments platform for the industry, addressing a significant pain point where talent agencies often wait 60 to 150 days for payment. By factoring the receivables of over 150 talent agencies within its network, LÜK ensures that these agencies receive same-day payouts, thereby enhancing cash flow and operational efficiency.

STEEZY

Seed Round in 2021
Our mission is to make dance the next big sporting and fitness category. We've built our own proprietary video player that makes learning dance easy and fun. Our instructors have danced with major artists or shows including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, BTS, NBC’s "World of Dance”, and “America’s Best Dance Crew”.

KIPPO

Series A in 2021
Kippo is a dating and social app created by gamers that provides an immersive and engaging experience for a digital generation. Designed for anyone and everyone who likes to play games, the Kippo platform provides an organic approach to building connections, making friends and finding dates. The platform is built around the mission of creating a safe and welcoming community that facilitates meaningful connections and interactions through the love of games. Launched in early 2019, Kippo’s founding members include former dating app executives, prominent twitch influencers, professional gamers, esports shoutcaster/commentator and a kpop artist.

BuzzCast

Seed Round in 2021
Looking to produce large-scale virtual and hybrid events that work perfectly, every time? BuzzCast is the premium virtual events platform, powering the world’s most buzzworthy events. Trusted by global brands including Anthem, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Trade and Tourism Council and Uber, BuzzCast delivers a broadcast-quality experience with zero downtime - 100% of the time. BuzzCast features advanced networking capabilities and supports complex ticketing access, tracks and formats, making it an ideal platform for global summits, investor conferences and high-profile industry events. BuzzCast also offers a fully branded, immersive user experience and a single-tenant architecture, ensuring that our clients’ innovative ideas and regulated content remain secure. To learn more, visit buzzcast.com.

Hop

Seed Round in 2021
Hop is a developer of a multiplayer browser designed to facilitate online collaboration for team meetings and video streaming. Its platform features a real-time shared browser that allows users to create or join portals remotely. This enables fast and secure connections through screen sharing, voice, and video chat, enhancing the experience of sharing content and collaborating with peers. By offering a dedicated space for users to interact, Hop aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual teamwork.

Hop

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Hop is a developer of a multiplayer browser designed to facilitate online collaboration for team meetings and video streaming. Its platform features a real-time shared browser that allows users to create or join portals remotely. This enables fast and secure connections through screen sharing, voice, and video chat, enhancing the experience of sharing content and collaborating with peers. By offering a dedicated space for users to interact, Hop aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual teamwork.

Taskable

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Taskable is a personal productivity platform designed to streamline the workflow of modern knowledge workers who often juggle multiple software tools. By consolidating essential information into a single, organized workspace, Taskable enhances efficiency and reduces the time spent searching for necessary data. Users can create recurring tasks, set start dates, and utilize customizable filters to prioritize actions effectively. The platform enables individuals to manage diverse responsibilities, whether personal or professional, ensuring that nothing is overlooked. Taskable aims to improve productivity by minimizing context switching and providing a clear overview of tasks from various sources.

STEEZY

Secondary Market in 2020
Our mission is to make dance the next big sporting and fitness category. We've built our own proprietary video player that makes learning dance easy and fun. Our instructors have danced with major artists or shows including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, BTS, NBC’s "World of Dance”, and “America’s Best Dance Crew”.

STEEZY

Venture Round in 2020
Our mission is to make dance the next big sporting and fitness category. We've built our own proprietary video player that makes learning dance easy and fun. Our instructors have danced with major artists or shows including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, BTS, NBC’s "World of Dance”, and “America’s Best Dance Crew”.

Amelia

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Amelia is a computer software company that offers an app that helps employees develop mental health habits with breathing, meditation, and yoga. It syncs with popular wearable devices like Apple Watch or Fitbit to suggest data-driven recommendations unique to each person. Also, it provides an analytics dashboard to help HR teams better understand employee health outcomes and gives an aggregated and personalized employee data which shows improvements to heart rate, sleep, and mood. Isaac Hunter, Shubh Jagani, and Carl Eckert established the company in Los Angeles, California in 2017.

Rolebot

Pre Seed Round in 2020
an intelligent Recruitment Engine

Ozone

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Ozone AI, Inc. is a company based in Santa Monica, California, that focuses on data privacy solutions, allowing users to take control of their digital data. The company has developed a platform that enables individuals to own, secure, and monetize their online information by sharing anonymized and non-identifiable data. Users can earn cash and rewards for their data while maintaining privacy and accessing exclusive offers from various brands. Ozone's ecosystem also facilitates interactions among users, developers, publishers, and advertisers, requiring advertisers to compensate users for their engagement. This approach empowers individuals to manage their online presence and derive direct value from their data as they navigate the internet.

LÜK

Seed Round in 2019
LÜK operates an online talent marketplace specifically designed for the fashion and entertainment industries, connecting clients with a diverse array of professionals, including models, photographers, stylists, and hair and makeup artists. By aggregating top talent agencies into a single platform, LÜK simplifies the process of locating and booking creative talent for photo and video shoots, allowing brands to efficiently cast from multiple premium agencies. In addition to facilitating talent bookings, LÜK is evolving into a payments platform for the industry, addressing a significant pain point where talent agencies often wait 60 to 150 days for payment. By factoring the receivables of over 150 talent agencies within its network, LÜK ensures that these agencies receive same-day payouts, thereby enhancing cash flow and operational efficiency.

Tonebase

Seed Round in 2019
Tonebase is an online training platform focused on democratizing music education by providing access to high-quality instructional content. The platform features educational materials created by renowned musicians and music educators, allowing users to learn from influential artists through instructional videos. Additionally, Tonebase offers personal feedback and insights, enhancing the learning experience for its users. By making expert knowledge accessible to a broader audience, Tonebase aims to transform the way music education is delivered and experienced.

Captiv8

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Captiv8 Inc. is an analytics platform and marketplace that facilitates connections between marketers and influencers across various social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. The company utilizes artificial intelligence to help brands discover and match with influencers based on real-time audience data, considering factors such as geography, income, ethnicity, age, and gender. This enables brands to identify the influencers most likely to generate impactful results. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, with additional offices in Los Angeles and New York, Captiv8 also provides insights that allow companies to better understand their audiences, optimize content, benchmark against competitors, and expand their reach globally.

Capsul

Seed Round in 2019
At Capsul, we don't sell jewelry, we sell memories. Our passion is to encapsulate your joyous moments into modern, timeless jewelry you'll want to wear each and every day. Using 3D-printing for mass customization, we are able to reduce lead time from 6 – 8 weeks to 1 – 2 weeks, and create high quality, personalized jewelry at an accessible price. Each piece can be customized with your own unique handwriting, sound wave of a voice, or engraving of a special name, date, or place. We are committed to the highest standard of sustainable and ethically-manufactured accessories, and seek to be the #1 global brand in customized jewelry.

OpenFan

Pre Seed Round in 2019
OpenFan is arming every business -- small, medium and large -- with Amazon-level customer intelligence. Our analytics platform and data feed surface powerful and actionable consumer insights based on SKU-level purchasing history at more than 1,000 retailers.

STEEZY

Seed Round in 2018
Our mission is to make dance the next big sporting and fitness category. We've built our own proprietary video player that makes learning dance easy and fun. Our instructors have danced with major artists or shows including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, BTS, NBC’s "World of Dance”, and “America’s Best Dance Crew”.

AMHC Fine Jewelry

Convertible Note in 2018
AMHC Fine Jewelry (Amarilo, Haati Chai) are digitally native vertical fine jewelry brands serving the modern woman. Our customers connect with us daily through multiple touch points such as our pop-up events, e-commerce store, physical store, and our online content.

Tonebase

Pre Seed Round in 2018
Tonebase is an online training platform focused on democratizing music education by providing access to high-quality instructional content. The platform features educational materials created by renowned musicians and music educators, allowing users to learn from influential artists through instructional videos. Additionally, Tonebase offers personal feedback and insights, enhancing the learning experience for its users. By making expert knowledge accessible to a broader audience, Tonebase aims to transform the way music education is delivered and experienced.

TutorMe

Angel Round in 2018
TutorMe is the online tutoring solution of the future. Our mission is to level the academic playing field for students everywhere. We believe that every student should have access to incredible tutors regardless of where they go to school or who their parents are. We do this by connecting students with the best online tutors in under 30 seconds using a matching system powered by AI. Students can receive help in over 300 subjects via our advanced lesson space, featuring video chat, screen-sharing, virtual whiteboards and much more. TutorMe's national network of online tutors gives students the help they need when they need it.

STEEZY

Convertible Note in 2018
Our mission is to make dance the next big sporting and fitness category. We've built our own proprietary video player that makes learning dance easy and fun. Our instructors have danced with major artists or shows including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, BTS, NBC’s "World of Dance”, and “America’s Best Dance Crew”.

LÜK

Pre Seed Round in 2018
LÜK operates an online talent marketplace specifically designed for the fashion and entertainment industries, connecting clients with a diverse array of professionals, including models, photographers, stylists, and hair and makeup artists. By aggregating top talent agencies into a single platform, LÜK simplifies the process of locating and booking creative talent for photo and video shoots, allowing brands to efficiently cast from multiple premium agencies. In addition to facilitating talent bookings, LÜK is evolving into a payments platform for the industry, addressing a significant pain point where talent agencies often wait 60 to 150 days for payment. By factoring the receivables of over 150 talent agencies within its network, LÜK ensures that these agencies receive same-day payouts, thereby enhancing cash flow and operational efficiency.

The Stylist LA

Pre Seed Round in 2018
The Stylist LA is revolutionizing retail for the Millennial and Gen Z consumer by allowing them to rent the wardrobe of their dreams. The Stylist LA offers a la carte rentals and also has a fast fashion focused subscription where customers can rent from an unlimited collection for a set monthly fee.

OpenFan

Seed Round in 2018
OpenFan is arming every business -- small, medium and large -- with Amazon-level customer intelligence. Our analytics platform and data feed surface powerful and actionable consumer insights based on SKU-level purchasing history at more than 1,000 retailers.

PassionFlix

Seed Round in 2017
Passionflix Inc. is an entertainment platform focused on producing and distributing romantic movies and series, primarily adapted from popular novels. Established in 2016 and based in Los Angeles, California, the company curates original content by extracting key sections from bestselling romantic novels to create visual presentations for its audience. In addition to its film and series offerings, Passionflix also sells apparel and caps online, enhancing its brand presence in the romance genre.

OpenFan

Convertible Note in 2017
OpenFan is arming every business -- small, medium and large -- with Amazon-level customer intelligence. Our analytics platform and data feed surface powerful and actionable consumer insights based on SKU-level purchasing history at more than 1,000 retailers.

Transported

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Transported, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based company founded in 2016 that specializes in virtual reality solutions for the residential real estate market. Its platform enables real estate agents to create immersive VR home tours in under ten minutes, enhancing the marketing and sales process for properties. Transported also serves as a marketplace where potential buyers can explore these VR walkthroughs, providing a user-friendly interface reminiscent of popular real estate websites. This innovative approach to home viewing offers significant advantages, allowing buyers to virtually tour multiple homes efficiently, thereby streamlining the decision-making process and reducing the need for in-person visits.

Keepster

Pre Seed Round in 2017
Developer of a customized chat backup application designed to save and protect important messages. The company's application offers robust search capabilities and organizes text messages across major messaging platforms into folders to create printed customized books or PDFs, enabling users to have their messages plus photos safe, secure, private and always accessible.

PassionFlix

Seed Round in 2017
Passionflix Inc. is an entertainment platform focused on producing and distributing romantic movies and series, primarily adapted from popular novels. Established in 2016 and based in Los Angeles, California, the company curates original content by extracting key sections from bestselling romantic novels to create visual presentations for its audience. In addition to its film and series offerings, Passionflix also sells apparel and caps online, enhancing its brand presence in the romance genre.

Betagig

Seed Round in 2016
Betagig Inc. is a platform designed to streamline the job shadowing process, enabling students, recent graduates, and career switchers to discover opportunities they may not have previously considered. Incorporated in 2016 and based in Los Angeles, California, Betagig addresses the challenges of turnover and hiring mismatches by allowing candidates to experience a day in the life of a job before applying. This approach benefits employers by helping HR managers fulfill their hiring needs, enhance diversity, and attract quality candidates. By connecting potential employees with real-world job experiences, Betagig aims to foster a better understanding of company culture and position requirements, thereby improving the overall hiring process.

Shots Studios, Inc.

Series A in 2015
Shots Studios, Inc. is a data-driven entertainment company based in San Diego, California, founded in 2011 by John and Sam Shahidi. The company specializes in producing online comedy and music videos targeted at Millennials and Gen Z, collaborating with prominent creators such as Lele Pons and Rudy Mancuso. Shots Studios operates a creator network that offers media management services to influencers and celebrities, focusing on original mobile-first content for platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. With its content garnering over 1.2 billion minutes of viewing per month, Shots Studios has established itself as a leading digital media company in the evolving landscape of online entertainment. The firm is backed by notable figures including Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather, highlighting its strong connections within the entertainment industry.

Captiv8

Seed Round in 2015
Captiv8 Inc. is an analytics platform and marketplace that facilitates connections between marketers and influencers across various social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. The company utilizes artificial intelligence to help brands discover and match with influencers based on real-time audience data, considering factors such as geography, income, ethnicity, age, and gender. This enables brands to identify the influencers most likely to generate impactful results. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, with additional offices in Los Angeles and New York, Captiv8 also provides insights that allow companies to better understand their audiences, optimize content, benchmark against competitors, and expand their reach globally.

Hyperloop One

Series A in 2015
Hyperloop One, Inc. is focused on the design and development of a high-speed tubular transit system that employs magnetic levitation technology to facilitate the rapid transportation of passengers and cargo. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company aims to provide direct and sustainable transportation solutions. Hyperloop One's innovative system allows for speeds of up to 760 miles per hour, utilizing a vacuum tube to optimize travel efficiency. The company collaborates with various partners, including renowned firms such as Parsons, ARUP, and McKinsey, to enhance its technology and implementation strategies. Originally known as Hyperloop Technologies, Inc., the company rebranded in May 2016 to reflect its evolving mission within the transportation sector.
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