Notable LA-area tech companies raked in funding last week, including a startup launched by retired baseball player Derek Jeter. Read on to see how these businesses plan to spend their fresh capital to innovate their industries and expand their teams. This is the Built In LA Weekly Refresh.
Anduril Industries gained $1.48B. Supplying the U.S. military and its allies with tech-backed defense solutions, Anduril is now valued at $8.48 billion following its Series E round. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, General Catalyst and others. Since the company’s last raise in June 2021, it has expanded to Australia and doubled its headcount. [Built In LA]
Slingshot Aerospace pulled in $40.85M. The El Segundo-based company uses data and analytics to make space operations safer. A portion of the Series A2 round led by Sway Ventures was put toward acquiring two companies. The remaining funds will be used to expand Slingshot’s customer base. [Built In LA]
LA Tech Quote of the Week
Rooted Fare was featured in the Built In Future 5 series. Childhood friends Ashley Xie and Hedy Yu co-founded Rooted Fare during the pandemic. The food startup fuses Asian and American cuisines with products like Black Sesame Crunchy Butter, which combines the spreadability and texture of peanut butter with the flavor of black sesame tangyuan. Rooted Fare recently launched holiday specials and plans to roll out new concepts for Lunar New Year early next year. [Built In LA]
Arena Club raised $10M. Founded by New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter, Arena Club is an online sports trading card marketplace. Lightspeed Ventures, M13 and others participated in the round, bringing Arena Club’s total funding raised to $20 million since the company launched last year. [Dot LA]
Edify hired a new chief revenue officer. Edify Labs aims to make business communication feel personal with its customer experience software. The Santa Monica-based company hired Tony Lama as its new CRO. Lama previously worked at Kore.ai, Twilio and Amazon Web Services. In addition to bringing on Lama, Edify is currently hiring. [Edify]
