Tech Forecast: 13 LA Companies You Don’t Want to Miss

Summer may be a season of relaxation, but it’s also a hotbed of activity in Los Angeles: Trails are crowded with hikers, freeways are packed with locals heading to Joshua Tree and Big Bear, and the city’s tech offices are buzzing with innovation. 

LA’s fast-growing tech scene is home to companies working to change the face of everything from digital advertising to healthcare. But businesses can’t power innovation without happy, hardworking employees — so the organizations on Built In LA’s summer roundup make a point of cultivating exceptional workplace cultures. 

While every company featured below does so differently, common themes include collaborative environments, support for personal and professional growth, a commitment to work-life balance and flexible remote work policies.

Whether you’re looking to engineer the future of national security at a multibillion-dollar organization or build a better e-commerce experience at a fast-growing startup, read on to find out more about the city’s most exciting companies.

 

 

Sensor Tower is a digital and mobile market intelligence company.

 

 

Team spirit: “I’ve learned something new every day and appreciate the consistent knowledge resources that really bring value to our day to day,” said Anna, a customer support manager at Sensor Tower. “Working from home is a great benefit and virtually surrounded by such supportive colleagues! ”

 

 

Anduril is a defense technology company that builds cutting-edge hardware and software solutions.

 

 

Impactful engineering: In December 2022, Anduril announced a $1.4 billion funding round, bringing its total valuation to $8.48 billion. In the news release, co-founder and CEO Brian Schimpf emphasized the company’s role in creating the next generation of defense systems using emerging technologies: “Anduril is a technology partner, not an equipment provider. Security threats are evolving faster than the Department of Defense can keep pace. In order to really outmaneuver emerging threats, we need to move past just efficiencies and create clear step changes in capability, quickly. Anduril has proven that our model — recruiting talented engineers, building quickly and efficiently using venture dollars and selling next-generation technology off the shelf to the government — works. And that with the right technology and incentives, the government can be a nimble customer.” 

 

 

OpenX is a digital advertising exchange helping publishers manage and sell their ad space and advertisers reach their desired audience more effectively.

 

 

Commitment to sustainability: In 2022, OpenX was the first ad exchange to be independently certified as carbon neutral, and recently, it achieved net-zero status for the second year in a row. The company’s leadership has practiced transparent emissions measurement and reporting since 2018. “Real change comes from transparency, strategy and process, and we’re continuing to share our story to encourage every company in our industry to measure and report their emissions so that we can collectively make strides towards a more sustainable future,” said John Gentry, CEO at OpenX, in a release.

 

 

Prodege is a marketing and consumer insights platform.

 

 

Award-winning culture: The company was recognized on several best-of lists for 2022, including Los Angeles Business Journal’s Best Places to Work and GreenBook’s Top 50 Most Innovative Suppliers. “We place a great importance on cultivating an employee-first culture, embracing open lines of communication and embodying the ‘Prodege Way,’ a term we’ve coined for going the extra mile every day,” Prodege chairman and CEO Chuck Davis said in a release.

 

 

Artera develops software to help healthcare companies manage patient communication and data.

 

 

Solving pain points: In June, the company launched Artera Harmony, a platform that helps providers unify and orchestrate their patient communications. “We’ve heard time and time again from health systems that patients are being bombarded with disparate communications, creating messaging fatigue and a subpar patient experience and outcomes. Artera Harmony is an open platform that integrates with the provider’s existing tech stack, suite of applications and various departments, to manage communications to the patient in an emotionally intelligent, coordinated way,” CEO and founder Guillaume de Zwirek said in a release.

 

 

BlackLine is a software company that develops solutions to automate and control the financial close process.

 

 

Leading with trust: “I prioritize my teams and our cooperative teams’ clean code by being stewards — leaving the code we touch better than we found it. This incremental, collaborative process seems to be the easiest to sustain. It allows work to get done without establishing draconian processes and empowers team members to find what works for them. It also lets them figure out how to be better teammates based on their own strengths,” Site Reliability Engineering Director Andrew Proksel told Built In LA in November 2022.

 

 

Mythical Games is a Web3 gaming studio.

 

 

In the news: In April, the gaming studio announced its move from Ethereum to the decentralized multichain network Polkadot. “We believe this new technology will not only support our growth efforts, but also enable other Mythos partners to utilize this technology for their own high-scale projects,” Mythical Games founder and CEO John Linden said in the press release. Alongside the announcement, it released NFL Rivals, the National Football League and NFL Players Association’s first officially licensed blockchain video game, which has now surpassed 1 million downloads.

 

 

MasonHub helps brands and retailers improve their customer experience through advanced warehouse management, order management and real-time inventory visibility.

 

 

In the news: MasonHub’s innovative technology and inspiring leadership have earned the company several honors in recent months. CEO and founder Donny Salazar was named as a finalist in EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 Pacific Southwest program, recognizing his role in “building the economy of tomorrow.” MasonHub likewise landed a spot on The Lead’s Leading 100 list of high-impact technology startups transforming the direct-to-consumer business model. 

“MasonHub’s product is built by retailers who have first-hand experience with the pain points of antiquated fulfillment technology. Our roadmap was created based off of things we wished we had — things like a pre-built Shopify integration, dynamic kitting and bundling, and backorder and pre-sale management,” the company’s Head of Sales and Account Management Melissa Oliver told Built In LA in April 2022.

 

 

Emotive.io is an e-commerce growth platform.

 

 

Making moves: In May, Emotive.io announced its acquisition of marketing agency Bloom Digital and the launches of its first-party pixel product, Emotive Attribution, and white-glove managed services. “This strategic acquisition and product expansion will enable us to provide even more comprehensive and effective solutions for e-commerce merchants, helping them grow throughout the entire funnel,” Brian Zatulove, Emotive.io’s CEO, said in the news release.

 

 

MFour Mobile is a market research company that leverages mobile surveys and behavioral data for consumer insights.

 

 

Adaptable team: “As my career has grown at MFour, I have seen my team blow expectations out of the water because of their belief in themselves. Recently, we transitioned to a SaaS customer success team compared to a project management team and they have gone above and beyond to understand the higher-level goal by learning and executing their tasks with new tech, client personas and solutions,” Yvette Gonzalez, VP of customer success, told Built In LA in March.

 

 

Inspire is a clean energy company offering members easy access to renewable wind, solar and hydro power for the home.

 

 

Upward momentum: Greg Chu, Inspire’s director of machine learning engineering, told Built In LA in July 2022 that the challenging and engaging work continually pushes him to be a better engineer and leader. “My favorite part of our team is the continual commitment toward personal growth and learning and the culture of mentorship that accompanies that. Developing talent is a leadership value that Inspire aims for across the company, and I think the data platform team does this well,” he said. 

 

 

Jaanuu creates fashionable and functional scrubs for healthcare professionals.

 

 

Improving every day: In April, Jaanuu ushered in a new chapter of the brand with its data-informed, science-backed G14 collection. Its engineering is a reflection of the company’s culture of innovation. “At the core, we focus on the needs and experiences of our customers. We understand that our products and services directly impact the lives of medical professionals, so we prioritize user feedback and data-driven insights to enhance our offerings. Usability tests, customer feedback analysis and key metrics monitoring ensure our medical scrubs, apparel and accessories consistently meet and exceed expectations,” Reza Dawood, Jaanuu’s SVP of product management, told Built In LA in March.

 

 

​​Veritone builds artificial intelligence solutions for organizations across a broad range of industries.

 

 

In the news: Veritone bolstered its position as a leader in AI-enabled HR solutions with the acquisition of recruitment technology company Broadbean in June 2023. The move “accelerates Veritone’s mission to disrupt and modernize attractive market verticals — including the global talent acquisition and staffing technology and services market, which is forecasted to be $196 billion by 2028 — by leveraging AI-based automation, optimization and intelligence at global scale,” said Ryan Steelberg, Veritone’s president and CEO, said in a release.