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Los Angeles Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Palmer Luckey's Anduril leads second quarter surge for venture capital in greater L.A.
Venture capital investments in the Greater Los Angeles region more than doubled to $5.8 billion in the second quarter, compared to a year ago, as investors poured money into the area's defense tech and aerospace companies amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Costa Mesa-based defense tech company Anduril received the most venture capital in the region last quarter, raising a $2.5-billion funding round, according to research firm CB Insights. The company, co-founded by entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, said it would use the money to invest in scaling up its production, hiring, taking big swings on products and capabilities and other efforts such as its mergers and acquisitions strategy. Anduril, which manufactures autonomous weapons systems, was recently awarded a $99.6-million contract to build a next generation command and control prototype for the U.S. Army that it says will help modernize communications on the battlefield. Anduril employs more than 6,000 people and has a valuation of $30.5 billion. Venture capital firm Founders Fund led the recent round with a $1-billion investment, marking the firm's largest check to date, said Founders Fund partner and Anduril executive chairman Trae Stephens in a Bloomberg TV interview in June. The company's recent fundraising round is an example of strong investor interest in defense tech and aerospace, which venture firms believe is ripe for disruption, with startups taking market share from incumbents such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Globally, venture capital investments in defense tech is on the rise. Already, the funding in this category has outpaced last year, according to CB Insights. For the first half of 2025, investors allocated $11.1 billion in venture capital to defense tech companies, compared to $8.2 billion in the full year of 2024, CB Insights said. Investors are eager to jump on an area of growth that has a lot of support from the government, as the U.S. enters a period in which defense and the geopolitical arena is at the forefront, analysts said. The world is being rocked by multiple international conflicts, including Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine and Israel's battle against Hamas in Gaza. 'We're entering an administration, a regulatory period, and a broader geopolitical arena where defense is at the forefront of everyone's minds,' said Jason Saltzman, head of insights at CB Insights. 'We're starting to see a lot of support from the government in particular, with an increasing number of investors hopping on the defense tech train.' Southern California, long an aerospace and defense tech hub, is benefiting from the investor interest, with the area's companies representing nine of the top 30 private businesses globally in defense tech that have received the most venture capital financing, according to CB Insights. Local companies said they were attracted to Southern California because of its strong talent pool, with nearby universities like Caltech and USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Going back to World War II and the Cold War period, key defense contractors like Northrop Grumman and Hughes were built in the South Bay area, making the region a crucial locale for the defense and aerospace industries, said Professor Dan Wadhwani, director of the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business. As startups build new technologies, they will need to integrate them with other existing systems, he added. 'The proximity to key players within the defense industry makes L.A. a prime place for capitalizing on the growing trends towards defense spending,' he said. Last quarter, defense tech and aerospace companies represented the top four businesses receiving venture capital, according to CB Insights. Anduril led the way, followed by Redondo Beach-based Impulse Space, which raised $300 million, Hawthorne-based Chaos Industries that had a $275-million funding round and L.A.-based spacecraft manufacturer Apex, which raised $200 million in the second quarter, CB Insights said. Chaos Industries makes sensors and radars that provide warning and tracking against unmanned aerial systems, missiles and aircraft. The company, which has more than 100 employees, raised a total of $490 million since it was founded in 2022. The funding will go toward hiring and increasing the company's manufacturing capabilities, said Chief Strategy Officer Will Hurd. Hurd said he remembers when he worked at an investment bank in 2021 and no investors were interested in funding companies where the government was their client because there was a fear or lack of understanding of how that process worked. Now, that's changed and evolved, with a wave of defense tech and aerospace companies, including Chaos Industries. 'Now the adversaries have gotten more sophisticated, and we have to match that,' Hurd said. Impulse Space, which makes space vehicles, said there has been surging customer demand. The company said it has more than 30 signed government and commercial contracts worth nearly $200 million in value and the additional venture capital funding will go toward hiring, scaling production and accelerating its research and development. 'We've proven that we can build fast and fly successfully,' said CEO and founder Tom Mueller in a statement. 'Now, the market is demanding more.'
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
This robot uses Japanese tradition and AI for sashimi that lasts longer and is more humane
A local startup is using artificial intelligence and robotics in an unlikely way: making sashimi and other fish dishes taste better, last longer and more humane. El Segundo-based Shinkei Systems wants to bring a traditional Japanese method of handling fish to fine dining in America, using technology to replace the labor-intensive process historically handled by practitioners on board ships. Investors have just bet millions that it will succeed. The company's AI-driven robot — called Poseidon — has been designed to do a traditional form of fish handling called ikejime in Japanese. It is a method of killing fish that enthusiasts say enhances flavor, texture and shelf life. Although fish processed in this way is found in some of the best restaurants in Japan, it hasn't been promoted in the U.S. because it is generally too expensive. Automating the process will make it more readily available to Americans, said Saif Khawaja, the company's chief executive. 'My end goal is that you're walking into your local grocery store and can buy fish that lasts three times as long, tastes better and is handled humanely,' he said. The company raised $22 million in a funding round last month, co-led by Founders Fund and Interlagos, bringing total funding to $30 million since its inception. It has four Poseidons working on ships in the Pacific and Atlantic and hopes to have 10 more working in the coming year. The ikejime process involves taking live fish that has just been caught and quickly putting them out of their misery by killing them with a spike through the brain and cutting their gills. This stops the stress hormone and lactic acid buildup that can hurt flavor and texture when fish are left to asphyxiate. Although traditional practitioners sometimes add a step in which the spinal cord is destroyed, Poseidon just does the first steps of the ikejime technique. The method has remained largely artisanal even in Japan, where only some fishermen will make the effort to process batches of fish in this way to sell to specific sushi chefs who are obsessed with having the highest-quality ingredients. Even in Japan, the method, 'is still too labor-intensive to replicate at a high speed without damaging the fish,' Khawaja said, adding that, 'It's impractical and unsustainable for fishermen to adopt methods that require significant hands-on work,' in the U.S. Shinkei says it also has a higher calling than just better-tasting fish. Khawaja said one of the motivations for developing the technology was to try to find a kinder, gentler way to kill fish than letting them die gasping for air. During childhood fishing trips with his father in the Red Sea, he remembers it being 'very hard to watch' fish suffocating after they were caught. While he was in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Khawaja was moved by an essay that argued that fish suffer inhumane deaths because they cannot vocalize pain. He even once considered developing sensors to make fish's pain audible. Shinkei provides Poseidon machines to fishermen, who then sell fish processed through the machines back to Shinkei at a premium. Shinkei in turn sells the fish to restaurants and other retailers underits fish company Seremoni. Poseidon is roughly refrigerator-sized and sits on fishing boat decks. It processes fish within seconds of being caught. The fish is fed through an opening in the machine and into a small vinyl cavity. The machine then uses AI to identify what kind of fish it is and where exactly its brain and gills are. Fish emerge with a hole in the head and incisions near the gills before being placed in an ice slurry for blood drainage. Quickly killing the fish, bleeding it and chilling it without freezing leads to fish that is noticeably better, Khawaja said. 'There's going to be a flavor profile difference and there's going to be texture profile difference,' he said. The company chose Los Angeles for its headquarters and production because it has the right mix of potential employees as well as customers. It has the mechanical engineering talent as well as a major fishing fleet and lots of high-end restaurants. 'The best mechanical engineering talent in the world, in my opinion, is in Southern California,' said Seremoni co-founder Reed Ginsberg. The city is also a major health and consumer products hub as well as a trend setter for cutting-edge food fads. Chef Michael Cimarusti, co-owner of the Michelin starred Providence restaurant in Los Angeles, says he tries to buy local ikejime fish when he can because it preserves the quality and color. The fish preserved using ikejime look as if they 'were just pulled from the water minutes ago,' he said in an interview posted on YouTube by the American Fishing Tackle Co. Shinkei currently processes thousands of pounds weekly across operations in Washington, Central California and Massachusetts, with expansion to Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico planned this year. After feedback from fishermen that the bots took up too much deck space, the company is developing 'Block 2' robots this year that will have roughly half the footprint while processing fish twice as fast. Currently, black cod and black sea bass processed through Poseidon are sold under Shinkei's brand Seremoni at retailers such as Happier Grocery and served at upscale restaurants including Atomix and Sushi Zo. This summer, the company plans to add salmon and red snapper to its offerings.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Hadrian Raises $260 Million to Expand Manufacturing Capabilities
Hadrian, a Torrance-based advanced manufacturing company building AI-powered factories, received $260 million in Series C financing led by existing investors Founders Fund and Lux Capital and a factory expansion loan facility arranged by Morgan Stanley. It will use the investment to expand operations in California and Arizona with new manufacturing space, expanded research and development capacity, and dedicated teams focused on shipbuilding and naval defense production. With its 'Factories-as-a-Service' model, Hadrian can rapidly scale production across key Department of Defense areas, such as munitions, shipbuilding and other high-priority programs. 'America cannot afford to lose another generation of industrial capacity,' said Chris Power, chief executive and founder of Hadrian, in a statement. 'We're building the factories that will secure American leadership in advanced manufacturing and create new jobs here in the United States.' It plans to build a large-scale production facility and software hub spanning approximately 270,000 square feet in Arizona and initiated a search for a 400,000-square-foot corporate and R&D headquarters. Both facilities are expected to come online by year-end. Cooley advised Hadrian on the funding round as well as its previous $117-million funding round in February 2024. Information for this article was sourced from Hadrian.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Stablecoin-Focused Bitcoin Sidechain Plasma Draws $373M in Oversubscribed Token Sale
Stablecoin-focused blockchain Plasma has closed its public token sale with $373 million in commitments, more than seven times the $50 million it was targeting. The sale, according to available data, has led to an oversubscription of around $320 million looking to get around $209,000 worth of XPL that weren't purchased. The token's launch is expected to occur within 40 days, while refunds for overcommitted funds will be processed in the near future. At launch, the Plasma network will hold $1 billion in stablecoins, becoming the fastest blockchain to reach that figure, according to the project. Plasma, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Bitcoin sidechain, aims to provide fee-free stablecoin transfers, starting with Tether's USDT. Plasma enters a competitive market dominated by Tron and Ethereum, which settles billions in stablecoin transfers daily and has seen Tether itself shift its focus to Layer 2s. It has secured funding from notable investors including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Framework Ventures, and Bitfinex. U.S. investors face a 12-month lock on their tokens, but for the rest of the world, XPL will be unlocked at launch. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Founders Fund, Microsoft-Backed Armada Raises $131 Million For AI Data Centers
Armada, a startup that makes movable AI data centers for use in fields like manufacturing and defense, has raised $131 million from investors in a deal that highlights the broad use cases for artificial intelligence. The round included new investors Pinegrove Capital Partners, Veriten and Glade Brook Capital Partners, as well as more funding from existing investors like Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Microsoft Corp.'s venture fund and Marlinspike Partners. The company declined to provide its valuation.
