For Rebel One we take pride in elevating entrepreneurs wherever they are. In our ecosystem research report on Los Angeles we identify the venture capitalists, incubators, accelerators, startups, and other players that help the startup ecosystem flourish. Check out our latest report here.

1. Rebel One Ventures
Startup Ecosystem Analysis:
Los Angeles, CA
Vrat Joshi, Analyst
Alex Montenegro, Scout
Jesha Casenas, Venture Partner
Sergio Marrero, Managing Partner

2. City Snapshot
Population | 3.9M (12.4M Metro Area)
Unemployment | 19.5% (2020)
(~4.2% historically | 2019)
GDP | $941.06B (2nd largest in US)
Education System
63 Colleges, 650K+ Students
Top Programs:
University of Southern California
California Institute of Technology
University of California - Los Angeles
UCLA School of the Arts / Architecture
Roski School of Art & Design | USC
Pepperdine University
Occidental College
Sources: Statistica, Pitchbook, LA Times, LA Almanac, US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Los Angeles, CA
A Bird’s Eye View
RBL1.COM

3. Venture Capital Ecosystem
Funding Statistics
VC Investment: $8B, 661 deals
U.S. Deal Share: ~5.86%
VC Investment per Capita: $645
Top Investment Sectors:
Advertising Tech, Gaming (including
e-sports), Media, Retail, Life Sciences,
Logistics & Transportation
Macroeconomics of the VC Space
Sources: Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Startup Genome, Forbes
RBL1.COM
Ecosystem Observations
» Pool of historic successes around social media adtech startups such as Snap and a
plethora of world class universities
» Significant drop in investment and deals overall from 2019 (30% and 13.7% respectively) - far
from the national average (2.3%)
» The Series A Problem: funds in LA strongly support pre-seed and seed investments, but
larger, later stage investments taper down. There are two ways to analyze this. 1) startup
valuations will quickly plateau, or 2) this issue can be front facing allowing the global VC
community to unify throughout the US (more geographic crossover within LA)
» LA breaths a large diverse population which is its core strength
Los Angeles, CA

4. Funding Options
Looking into the Investors
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Venture
Capital
Angels &
Angel Groups
Accelerators &
Incubators
A-Grade Investments, Anthem
Venture Partners, Baroda
Ventures, CAA Ventures, MaC
Ventures, Double M Partners
(founders formed Bonfire
Ventures), Frontier Venture
Capital, Greycroft, Karlin
Ventures, Mucker Capital, M13,
Pritzker Group Venture Capital,
TenOneTen Ventures, Upfront
Ventures, Wavemaker Partners,
Wedbush Capital Partners
Ibrahim AlHusseini, Jonathan
Strauss, Clark Landry, Ashton
Kutcher, Michael Jones, Bill
Gross, Tom Ryan, Troy Carter,
Talmadge O’Neill, Tech Coast
Angels, Pasadena Angels, 12
Angels, Angel Vision Investors,
VoiVoda, MiLA Capital, MaC
Ventures
Amplify LA, Disney Accelerator,
Founder Institute Los Angeles,
Global Sports Venture Studio,
Grid 110, The Hub, Idealab, LA
Cleantech Incubator, Launchpad
LA, Make in LA, Net Zero
Accelerator, Science Inc, Startup
Boost, Techstars LA, Quake
Capital
Los Angeles, CA
Sources: Founder Institute, BuiltinLA

5. Startup Media Channels:
Built In Los Angeles, Hub101, LA Tech Digest,
Represent LA, Silicon Beach LA, socalTech,
Southern California - Tech Central, StartUp Beat,
Startups LA, Startup Digest LA, Tech Cocktail LA,
TechZulu
Meetups / Community Organizations:
CoInvent, Downtown LA Startups, Entrepreneur Startup
Support Community of LA, LA Startup Nights, LA Tech
Happy Hour, Latino Startups & Entrepreneurs, Los
Angeles Young Entrepreneur Meetup, Pledge LA
Other Resources
Co-Working Spaces:
WeWork, LAX Coworking, The Muse Rooms, Village
Workspaces, dots SPACE, Industrious, Cross Campus,
The Park, BizHaus, Procolo, Paper Dolls, Ignited
Spaces, The Riveter, Opodz, Phase Two, The
Hatchery Press
Founder Resources to Gain Knowledge
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Sources: Founder Institute
Los Angeles, CA

6. Current Leaders & Rising Players
Largest Companies (Market Cap)*:
Activision Blizzard, AECOM Tech, CBRE Group,
Disney, Edison International, Farmers Insurance,
Guess, Live Nation, Molina Healthcare, The
Cheesecake Factory
*Major corporate HQ or regional offices
Notable High-Tech Ventures Started:
SpaceX (Space Transportation), Dollar Shave Club
(E-commerce Grooming), Hulu (Streaming Service),
Honey Science (also, Honey - Financial Coupon
Software), Snap (Social Media), The Honest
Company (Online Products), Headspace
(HealthTech), Tinder (Social Media), Fandango
(Entertainment), NEXT Trucking (Logistics)
Who Dominates the LA Economy?
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Sources: LA Almanac, Pitchbook, BuiltinLA
Los Angeles, CA

7. Economic Activity
Los Angeles, CA
Sources: Pitchbook, Crunchbase, Dot.LA, BuiltinLA
RBL1.COM
Gaming and Entertainment Lead the Way
Recent M&A & IPO’s:
» Vudu, Fandango | Undisclosed
» The Ringer, Spotify | $196M
» Ring, Amazon | $1B
» Kellytoy, Jazwares | Undisclosed
» Honey, Paypal | $4B
» Dollar Shave Club, Unilever | $1B
» Circ, Bird | Undisclosed
» Storybots, Netflix | Undisclosed
» SNAP Inc. IPO (SNAP) | $23B (MC)
» Beyond Meat IPO (BYND) | $1.5B (MC)
» Super Gaming League IPO (SLGG) | $91.7M
Top Ranked Startups:
» Fair | Automotive/Transportation Software
» Anduril | Aerospace & Defense
» Dreamscape Immersive | Entertainment VR
» Metropolis Technology | Future of Mobility
» Network Next | Gaming Software
» Coinmine | Bitcoin Mining
» Esportz Entertainment | Entertainment Media
» Fernish | Renting Furniture
» FlipFit | E-Commerce & Social Media
» Pearl | HealthTech (Dentistry)
» Singularity 6 | Video Game Developer
(Acquired, Acquiree | Deal Value), Market Cap (MC) at IPO

8. Map / Region Insights:
» From Santa Monica & Venice down Hermosa area are
where early stage ventures are clustering --
nicknamed ‘Silicon Beach’
» Los Angeles graduates more engineers than any
other metro in the United States, thanks to USC,
UCLA, CalTech, and LMU to name a few universities
serving talents towards innovation
» While consumer products and services remain king
accounting for 29% of most seed stage deals,
concurrently, the number of logistics and
transportation tech companies founded in the city are
increasingly growing, led by Next Truck raising a
$100M round in Jan 2019.
» Strategic branding and marketing partnerships with
local entertainment studios in the city offers great
incentives for certain startups to build in LA
» Ranked top 10 in global startup ranking
Area Insights
Venture Capital Accelerator / Incubator Co-Working
Sources: Startup Genome
RBL1.COM
Analyzing the Geographic and Economic Reach Los Angeles, CA

9. Feedback from locals immersed in the ecosystem:
» Innovations in the Tech Media and Telecommunication (TMT) sector paved the way for the media and
advertising industry to serve highly personalized and curated content
» The instability of ad monetization increased demands to include other forms of revenue, resulting in
many consolidations within digital media and the rise of eCommerce and D2C brands such as Honey
and Dollar Shave Club
» With downtown LA being a center for retail and manufacturing together with its close proximity to two of
the busiest container ports in the U.S. makes it accessible for CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) brands
to utilize the city’s existing distribution network
» LA has been home to bioscience R&D, and has recently made a huge initiatives for investments and
entrepreneurship with BioLA (Amgen’s partnership with the city) leading the path for more innovations
in Life Sciences
Analysis
Subject Matter Expert: Jesha Casenas
RBL1.COM
Insight from Local Subject Matter Experts Los Angeles, CA

10. Cultural advantages
» As a hub for Music, Film, Arts, and Culture, LA fosters an ecosystem of collaboration, a key ingredient
that helps unlock creativity and innovation. Its cultural diversity makes it a go to market launchpad for
startup ideas
» With the city being only six hours drive from Silicon Valley, better weather and a slightly lower cost of
living, founders and investors are claiming Los Angeles as a new center for innovation and for early
stage startups, being in Los Angeles can help develop and build MOATS through it storytelling and
positioning prowess
Analysis
Subject Matter Expert: Jesha Casenas
RBL1.COM
Insight from Local Subject Matter Experts Los Angeles, CA

11. Summary
Home to Hollywood, Los Angeles stands as the symbol of media, entertainment, diversity, and
tourism with LA’s startup community focusing on its unique advantages in Gaming,
Advertisement, Life Sciences, and Digital Media.
With Snap’s $20B and Honey’s $4B successful exits, the city has carved a path for maturity in
the Southern California region. In addition to Digital Media, the city is also home to one of the
largest private space transportation & aerospace manufacturing companies, SpaceX (with a
staggering $44B valuation). With employee spin-offs building new ventures such as Relativity
Space or Elementary Robotics, it fosters a snowball effect of innovation serving the local startup
ecosystem.
Overall, many describes Los Angeles as “going to college within a day’s drive from your
parents’ house” due to its close relationships with Silicon Valley. Although the city has been
known for its Media & Entertainment, there is so much LA has to offer outside of entertainment,
and we believe it in its growth potential to surpass most investment expectations.
Local Experts:
Interviews:
https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ca_losangeles_md.htm, https://www.flaticon.com/, https://www.statista.com/statistics/183822/gdp-of-the-los-angeles-metro-area/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-09/l-a-unemployment-rate-hits-stunning-24-these-are-our-neighbors-and-theyre-hurting-garcetti-says,
https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/los-angeles-vc-stars-are-on-the-rise-amid-mega-exits, http://www.laalmanac.com/economy/ec03.php,
https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/los-angeles-vc-stars-are-on-the-rise-amid-mega-exits. http://www.laalmanac.com/economy/ec03.php, https://dot.la/fastest-growing-companies-in-la-2645351186.html,
https://www.builtinla.com/2018/03/26/silicon-beach-guide-tech-scene, https://www.builtinla.com/2015/10/22/vcs-to-know-la-tech,
https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/greater-los-angeles-area-public-companies#section-funding
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/20/spacexs-spin-out-startups-are-helping-build-las-startup-ecosystem/
Analysis
State of the Market Los Angeles, CA