LA tech news this past week was very on par with the city’s pop culture scene. Announcements included Kid Cudi’s app, digital fitness apps and a platform to help YouTubers. Read on to see what these companies are up to next. This is the Built In LA weekly refresh.
Spotter raised $200M. Spotter wants to offer content creators on YouTube cash upfront to scale their brand in exchange for future ad revenue from existing or new uploads. Spotter raised a Series D round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 that brought its valuation to $1.7 billion and will allow the company to invest $1 billion into its YouTube partners. Spotter plans to enhance its analytics offerings, provide more upfront funding, and hopes to expand to other platforms in the future. [Built In LA]
FitOn gained $40M. Fitness app FitOn raised $40 million in a Series C round and has acquired Peerfit. FitOn is a digital wellness platform offering users advice on nutrition and fitness classes led by celebrities. Peerfit connects employers with personalized health plans. The acquisition will bring health plans to more consumers, including employees and Medicare recipients. Terms of the acquisition were not announced. [PR Newswire]
LOS ANGELES TECH QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Encore got $9M. Encore is a live performance app that was co-founded by famous musician Kid Cudi. The app also provides musicians with tools to promote their music. Encore received $9 million in seed funding led by Battery Ventures that will help the LA-based startup scale its product development and grow its team, with six positions currently available. [Built In LA]
Telgorithm gained $3.8M. The seed funding was led by Bonfire Ventures with participation from a few other investors. Telgorithm offers a compliance-based messaging platform that allows SaaS providers to have text messaging on their platforms. The funding will go toward including a cloud-based voice communications platform with its existing messaging APIs. [MarTech Series]
