LA Tech Week in Review: 11/18/18-11/24/18

With so much going on in the thriving LA tech and startup ecosystem, it is easy to miss some of the news in the space. We keep you abreast of a few of things that you may have missed in LA Tech news for the week of ending 11/24 including the LA startup fundings , exits, and events including news for PlayVS, Genies, Italic, and much, much more… USE THE ARROWS BELOW TO NAVIGATE THE REPORT

PlayVS , the e-Sports league focused on high school students, has raised $30.5M in Series B funding from investors that include New Enterprise Associates , Samsung NEXT , Crosscut Ventures , Coatue Management , Science Inc. , WndrCo LLC , Elysian Park Ventures , Rahul Mehta , Michael Dubin , Adidas , David Drummond , Plexo Capital , and Sean Combs . Founded by Delane Parnell in 2017, PlayVS has now raised a total of $46M over two funding rounds.

Italic , the marketplace that allows consumers to buy luxury products directly from manufacturers, has raised $13M in Series A funding from investors that include Index Ventures , Comcast Ventures , Global Founders Capital , iNovia Capital , Ludlow Ventures , Charlie Songhurst , Scott Belsky , Fred Ehrsam , and 0 Ventures . Italic was founded by Jeremy Cai in the spring of 2018.

Bitmoji competitor Genies , with allows users to clone themselves digitally has raised an additional $10M. Founded by Akash Nigam , Evan Rosenbaum , and Matt Geiger , it raised $10M and there were 13 participants in this round: New Enterprise Associates , Foundation Capital , Lerer Hippeau , Trinity Ventures , BoxGroup , CAA Ventures , Joe Montana , Carmelo Anthony , Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson , Russell Westbrook , Shawn Mendes , The Chainsmokers , and ASAP Rocky . Genies has now raised a total of $23.8M across eight rounds.

According to a recent SEC filing, online dance instruction platform STEEZY has raised $3M in funding. STEEZY was founded in 2014 by Conner Lim and Evan Zhou .

BELLAMI Hair designs hair products with top beauty influencers, and this LA startup raised a $20M Venture round led by Cathexis .

Mitu , the Latino-focused content platform, has secured an additional $10M in funding from investors that include Upfront Ventures , Verizon Ventures , WPP , and LEAP Global Partners . Founded by Beatriz Acevedo , Doug Greiff , and Roy Burstin in 2014, Mitu has now raised a total of $52M over five rounds.

Lumi , the provider of packaging for e-commerce retailers, has raised $6.5M in Series A funding from investors that include Follow[the]Seed and Josh Liberman Investment Group . Founded by Jesse Genet and Stephan Ango in 2009, Lumi has now raised a total of$15.9M in total equity funding over five rounds. In conjunction with this funding, the company also announced an additional $25M in debt financing

According to a recent SEC filing, Santa Monica-based HR management platform Varius Solutions , has raised $5M in funding. The filing indicates that this round came from a sole party. The filing also lists Gary Budzinski as an Executive and Director and Sam Englebardt as a Director.

WeRecover , the online matching platform that connects patients with addiction recovery centers, has raised $2M in additional funding from investors that include Crosslink Capital , BoxGroup , Social Starts , Arab Angel Fund , Struck Capital , and Wonder Ventures . Founded by Maximillian Jaffe and Stephen Estes in 2016, WeRecover has now raised a total of $5.3M in funding over four rounds.

According to a recent SEC filing, SyncOnSet , the software platform for TV and film management operations, has raised an additional $1.25M in funding. The filing indicates that there were five participants in the round. SyncOnSet was founded by Alexander LoVerde , Brett Beaulieu-Jones , Dan Stefanis , and Jeff Impey in 2012 and has now raised a total of $7.55M in funding over five rounds. Investors in previous rounds include Techstars Right Side Capital Management CVP , Techstars Boston Accelerator , Rose Park Advisors , Laconia Ventures , Hub Angels Investment Group , and David Arcara .