LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- dot.LA, the soon-to-be-launched news and events company dedicated to covering L.A.'s startup and tech ecosystem, today announced it has closed its $4 million seed round from dozens of top L.A. investors. Zillow and Hotwire Co-Founder Spencer Rascoff is serving as executive chairman and co-founder.
Investors include prominent companies and individuals from the Los Angeles tech scene, including:
Venture capital firms and their investing partners at: 3L, Act One, Anthos, CAVU, Comcast Ventures, Crosscut, Greycroft, Hawke Media Ventures, K5, March Capital, Maveron, m13, Mucker, NFX, Pelion, Thrive Capital, Torch Capital, Troy Capital, Upfront Ventures, Watertower Ventures and Waverley Capital
Companies such as GeekWire, Jam City, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Perkins Coie, Safire Partners, and Snap, Inc.
Executives including David Bonderman (TPG), Adam Friedman (CAA), Brad Gerstner (Altimeter), Rick Hess (Evolution Media), Gabe Greenbaum (Pritzker), Todd Lemkin (Canyon Partners), Navid Mahmoodzadegan (Moelis), Mark Mullen (Bonfire), Chris Ovitz (Future Positive), Danny Passman (Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman), Karl Peterson (TPG), Brad Ramberg (Beachbody, Idealab), Avery Rosin (Lead Edge), Elie Seidman (Tinder), Sukhinder Singh (Stubhub), Jeff Stibel (Bryant Stibel), Brendan Wallace (Fifth Wall), Brian Weinstein (Bad Robot), Jeff Wilke (Amazon), Josh Yguado (Jam City), and Jeremy Zimmer (UTA)
Entrepreneurs including Austin Allison (dotloop), Allison Checchi (Atom Tickets), Dick Costolo (Twitter), Michael Dubin (Dollar Shave Club), Rand Fishkin (SparkToro), Brad Inman (Inman News), Ross Hoffman (Headspace, Twitter), Todd Jackson (Dropbox), Josh Jones (HMC INQ), Jeff Kearl (Stance, SkullCandy), Brian Lee (BAM Ventures), Paul Levine (Sapphire Ventures), Eddy Lu (GOAT), Adam Miller (Cornerstone OnDemand), Jane Park (Tokki, Julep), Sean Rad (Tinder), JJ Ramberg (NBC News, Goodshop, Goodpods), Ken Ramberg (JOBTRAK, Goodshop, Goodpods), Keith Richman (Voi), Michael Stoppelman (Yelp), Sam Teller (Tesla, SpaceX), Russell Wilson (Seattle Seahawks) and musician Ciara.
dot.LA will launch on Jan. 27 with the mission of shining a light on innovation in the L.A. startup and tech community. At launch, the newsroom will have at least five journalists covering all aspects of L.A.'s startup scene, and is actively hiring several more reporters and editors. Its editor-in-chief is Joe Bel Bruno, who previously held editor positions at The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Other dot.LA journalists include Tami Abdollah, who most recently covered cybersecurity for the Associated Press; Ben Bergman, who most recently worked for NPR and KPCC; Rachel Uranga, who most recently worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal; and Managing Editor for Digital and Reader Engagement Eric Zassenhaus, who most recently worked at Pacific Standard.
Co-Founder and CEO Sam N. Adams, a former financial journalist and strategy consultant, manages business operations for dot.LA. Adams will focus on building a sustainable business driven by events, sponsorships, and proprietary data.
"It's finally prime time for the L.A. tech scene, after many years of steady growth, and dot.LA is here to chronicle and report on what is going to be an explosive decade for L.A. tech," Rascoff said. "Los Angeles has so many ingredients that make a successful tech ecosystem: a culture of innovation and entrepreneurialism, world-class universities, many angel investors, venture capitalists, and startup mentors. One of the only missing ingredients was journalism to highlight the incredible startups and tech companies changing the world. Now with dot.LA on the scene, Los Angeles will be able to achieve its full potential."
Rascoff continued: "The Los Angeles startup culture is special and unique. The environment here is creative and collaborative, and also rightly concerned with creating a foundational focus on diversity and inclusiveness. Los Angeles is a global, diverse city, and there is a recognition among the tech community here that if we establish the right cultural foundation at the beginning of this decade of growth, those who work in tech in L.A. -- and those around the world who use the products and services invented here -- will be better for it."
"We have assembled a team of world-class journalists who are already digging into every aspect of L.A.'s startup ecosystem," said Bel Bruno, dot.LA's editor-in-chief. "We are all excited to leverage those years of experience covering business, entertainment and technology to provide hard-hitting, timely news coverage that will shine a light on this fast-moving scene. We'll cover new companies, funding rounds and the unique intersection of industries that make L.A.'s startups so interesting."
About dot.LA
dot.LA's mission is to celebrate and empower the Los Angeles startup and tech community, fueling innovation around the world. Launching in 2020 and co-founded by tech veteran Spencer Rascoff, its newsroom will report news about new companies, funding rounds and other aspects of the startup ecosystem. The company will also host events dedicated to bringing together the startup community.
To sign up for updates about dot.LA visit our website at dot.LA.
Media Relations Contact:
Katie Curnutte
617.640.9765
[email protected]
SOURCE dot.LA
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