StrictlyVC Los Angeles gathers defense tech and AI investors June 18
TechCrunch's StrictlyVC series returns to Los Angeles on June 18 with panels on defense tech, AI, and venture fundraising for founders and investors.
StrictlyVC Los Angeles takes place Thursday, June 18, at The Aerospace Corporation Campus in El Segundo. The evening event brings together venture investors, startup founders, and tech executives for panel discussions on defense technology, artificial intelligence, and current fundraising dynamics.
The StrictlyVC format typically features fireside chats and moderated Q&A sessions with active GPs and operators in the Southern California tech scene. Past Los Angeles editions have drawn several hundred attendees from aerospace, defense, and enterprise AI companies clustered around the region's growing tech corridor. The choice of The Aerospace Corporation Campus as venue underscores the event's focus on defense tech — the nonprofit federally funded research center has been a hub for space and national security technology development since 1960.
Defense tech has seen a sharp uptick in venture attention over the past eighteen months, with startups building AI-powered surveillance systems, autonomous drones, and logistics software for military applications collectively raising billions in recent quarters. AI remains the dominant theme across venture portfolios in 2026, with open-source model development, enterprise deployment tooling, and inference infrastructure attracting the largest checks. The Los Angeles region has emerged as a secondary AI hub outside the Bay Area, with concentrations of talent in multimodal models, robotics, and defense-adjacent machine learning. Registration opens at strictlyvc.com.
