33-year-old nonprofit absorbed $3M in overnight federal contract cuts and kept 300 companies moving forward
Los Angeles, CA — Larta Institute today released its 2025 Impact Report, a frank account of how one of Los Angeles’ longest-standing science commercialization organizations navigated a year of simultaneous shocks: the Palisades and Altadena wildfires, continuing post-pandemic strain on health systems, and the sudden contraction of federal research funding that has long underpinned early-stage innovation in the United States.
When DOGE restructured Department of Energy programs in 2025, Larta lost $3 million in contracts overnight. DOE had been Larta’s largest federal partner, representing 210 of the 289 startups the organization supported through federal channels that year.
Larta kept working.
“Innovation only matters when it reaches people,” said Rohit Shukla, Founder and CEO of Larta Institute. “In 2025, the systems that move science from discovery to deployment came under real strain. This report is our account of what we built anyway — and why the infrastructure of translation has never mattered more.”
Across its programs, Larta worked hands-on with 300 companies and advanced 361 technologies in 2025, helping mobilize more than $40 billion in follow-on funding. The work spanned federal commercialization programs, two Community Labs initiatives — Heal.LA and Venture Fellows — and the Global Bridge international partnership network.
Among the companies in Larta’s 2025 cohorts: Witching Hour, which uses robotics to insulate wildfire-prone overhead power lines at a fraction of conventional cost; Ouros Materials, whose fire-resistant, carbon-negative building composites secured $445,000 in non-dilutive funding; and Evanesc Therapeutics, which secured a competitive NIH SBIR Phase I award after completing the Heal.LA program. InventWood, a company Larta first supported through DOE programs in 2018, closed a $15 million Series A in 2025 and is now constructing its first commercial manufacturing facility.
To address the widening gap between federal withdrawal and community need, Larta in 2025 also helped direct $3.3 million in early-stage capital through California’s Jobs First initiative and launched the Larta Impact Fund, a blended capital vehicle designed to move science-driven ventures across the “missing middle” between research and market adoption.
The Fund is being developed in partnership with Avenida Advisors, led by former U.S. SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman.
Over three decades, Larta has supported more than 7,000 ventures and helped mobilize over $34 billion in private investment and $21 billion in non-dilutive capital.
The full 2025 Impact Report is available at larta.org/2025-report.
About Larta Institute
Larta Institute is a Los Angeles–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds translation infrastructure to move science- and technology-based solutions from discovery into real-world deployment for a sustainable planet. Since 1993, Larta has supported more than 7,000 innovators developing solutions that create economic opportunity and community impact. Learn more at Larta.org.
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Ilaria Ghelardoni
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BMC@larta.org