UP Partners and Calm Ventures participated in a $160 million fundraise for Mountain View-based Reliable Robotics Corp.

According to the company announcement released in late April, the new capital will be used to accelerate Reliable Robotics through multiple deployments and help the company scale up the production of its autonomous aircraft platform called the Reliable Autonomy System.

For Up Partners and Calm Ventures, the fundraise is another notch in their belt for the two firms, which have been active in the revival of the logistics, manufacturing and aerospace sectors in the South Bay and beyond. From 2023 to 2025, Los Angeles-based venture capital firms consistently made up 11% of all fundraising deals to those U.S.-based companies, according to PitchBook.

Hard tech in L.A.

UP Partners, which specializes in the nebulous world of software-meets-hardware, boasts an investment portfolio that includes a handful of companies in aerospace.  Among them is El Segundo-based Hermeus, which is working to build the fastest unmanned aircraft for the U.S. military. Hermeus reached a $1 billion valuation after raising $350 million in early April.

“This new funding lets us build multiple aircraft at the same time and scale our manufacturing capabilities, adding more hardware richness and robustness to our program. That accelerates our path to ramjet-powered flight,” AJ Piplica, the founder and chief executive of Hermeus, said in a statement. “We’re bringing scalable, asymmetric capabilities to our national security customers.”

Calm Ventures, based downtown, has invested in more than 500 companies, like Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Anthropic. The firm’s portfolio spans sectors from consumer goods to deep tech, including Chatsworth-based manufacturing startup Machina.