Southern California's
Startup Directory
Every VC-backed and bootstrapped startup founded in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Inland Empire, and Ventura — company profiles, funding rounds, and the investors and accelerators actually writing checks in the region, not a national list with a few SoCal names mixed in.
SeedStaxiom provides diligence-grade accounting for startups — bookkeeping, tax prep, and capital strategy, with an AI-assisted R&D tax credit engine reviewed by EY-trained CPAs. Founded by the team behind Ardius, the R&D tax credit company Gusto acquired in 2021.
Pre-Seed$4.0MSocialCrowd automatically tracks employee progress towards goals, reminds them of the work they have left, and rewards them instantly – so you can save time and stay focused!
Pre-Seed$250KBetter, faster tech vendor research
Series D$833.1MWe provide efficient in-space mobility that moves payloads from low Earth orbit to any destination. Our vehicles deliver rapid, reliable access, reducing costs and timelines to make space operations feasible for commercial, government, and scientific missions.
Seed$3.3MPayment Labs is a Los Angeles–based fintech startup providing payment solutions for businesses; creators; athletes; and contractors. They focus on seamless global payments; NIL compliance; and royalty
Seed$11.6MChronicle Studios is a B2B entertainment company using AI to develop and launch original franchises. Founded by industry veterans; it partners with creators to produce and market animated content; lev
Seed$10.0MAndrenaM builds AI-driven autonomous maritime systems for defense; founded by ex-SpaceX engineers.
Seed$4.0MFinal Boss Sour is a Santa Monica food-and-beverage company founded in 2023 by James Hicks. The gaming-themed brand makes sour snacks from dried fruit; including cranberries; blueberries; strawberries
Seed$10.0MCheehoo is an AI-driven animation technology company revolutionizing 3D content creation. Founded by industry veterans; it offers tools that integrate with Maya and Unreal Engine; accelerating animati
Seed$3.0MAI-driven tools provider for jewelers; designers; brands and retailers.
Seed$5.1MLiminal is a brand-new user-generated content game for narrative action role-playing games.
Seed$4.3MUthana operates as a 3D character animation studio that uses generative AI.
EXPLORE TOP CITIES
WHAT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BUILDS
Artificial Intelligence
The region's largest single cluster by company count — AI and machine learning threaded through nearly every other industry here, from defense to biotech to entertainment.
Aerospace & Defense
Home to SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and a new wave of hypersonics and space-infrastructure startups.
Entertainment & Gaming Tech
Hollywood's production infrastructure, live events, and a growing games and creator-tools scene.
Semiconductor Hardware
Qualcomm and Broadcom anchor a chip-design cluster spanning the region.
Pharmaceutical & Biopharma
Drug developers and biopharma platforms, concentrated in San Diego's Torrey Pines corridor and the LA biotech cluster. Searched as "pharmaceutical companies in San Diego / Orange County" more than any other industry phrase in our Search Console data.
Biotechnology & Life Sciences
The life-science research base behind San Diego's and Los Angeles's biotech reputations: platforms, tools, diagnostics and therapeutics spun out of UCSD, Scripps, Caltech and UCLA.
Software & SaaS
Software companies across the region, from Irvine's enterprise SaaS bench to Santa Monica's consumer apps: the broadest category here after AI, and the one people search for by city.
Medical Technology
A deep biotech research base and a growing bench of medical device and diagnostics startups.
B2B
Business software and services sold to other companies. The largest single category of startup across Southern California, spanning sales tools, vertical operating systems, and everything in between.
Industrials
Manufacturing, hardware, and physical-world operations. Overlaps heavily with the region's decades-old aerospace and defense manufacturing base, now extending into robotics and automated production.
Consumer
Products and apps built directly for individual consumers, drawing on Southern California's media and entertainment base.
Healthcare
Health tech, medical devices, and healthcare services, backed by a decades-old biotech research base and a deep bench of clinical and diagnostics startups.
Fintech
Financial technology: payments, banking, investing, and financial infrastructure.
Education
Education technology and learning platforms built across Southern California.
Real Estate & Construction
Property technology, construction tech, and real estate services.