Tuesday, April 19, 2011Sangart Raises $50MSan Diego-based Sangart, a firm developing products to prevent and treat ischemia and to stabilize the hemoglobin of sickle cell disease patients, said Tuesday that it has raised $50M in a Series G equity financing round. The round was led by Leucadia National Corporation. The company said the funding brings its total raised to more than $230M since 1998. Sangart also said the round included warrants, which if exercise, could provide up to $50M in future funding. The company said the funding wil (More info...)
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DFJ Mercury Promotes Venture Partner In San DiegoDFJ Mercury, one of the affiliate venture firms of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said Tuesday that it has promoted a venture partner who will be splitting his time between La Jolla and Houston, its headquarters. The firm--which invests in seed and early stage venture capital--said that it has promoted Russ Lebovitz, Ph.D., to Venture Partner, from his prior role as a venture advisor to the company. Lebovitz will split his time between an office in La Jolla and DFJ Mercury's headquarters. Lebovitz is (More info...)
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HipGeo Raises $500KLos Angeles-based HipGeo has raised $500,000 in an initial round of funding, the firm is announcing this week. The funding comes from Morado Venture Partners, a seed stage fund run by ex-Yahoo executives Ash Patel and Michael Marquez. Other investors in the round include Galen Buckwalter, former Chief Scientist at eHarmony, and San Diego angel investor Bob Bingham. HipGeo develops a location-aware platform which includes smartphone apps which enable users to continuously record and organize thei (More info...)
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Goldstar Adds Coffin, Moriarty, Harris As AdvisorsLos Angeles-based Goldstar, the half price ticketing and event promotion service, has tapped Matt Coffin, Sean Moriarty, and Neil Patrick Harris as advisors, the company said Tuesday. Coffin is the former founder of LowerMyBills.com, and is now an investor in such firms as Demand Media, Houtelook, Ad.ly, ShoeDazzle, and other startups. Moriarty is the former President and CEO of Ticketmaster, and is currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mayfield Fund, and was also an executive at Citysearch, (More info...)
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STEC Buys Indian Software FirmSanta Ana-based STEC, which develops enterprise solid-state disk drives (SSDs), said Tuesday that it has acquired a company in India, Quest Infotech Private Limited (KQI). STEC did not disclose financial details of the acquisition. As part of the acquisition, STEC said it has established a "strategic R&D" presence in Pune, India, hiring approximately 30 employees of KQI. KQI is a software development company which STEC says has developed storage software. STEC explained that the deal will help i (More info...)
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Apple iOS Beating Android In Adoption, Says ReportOnline and digital measurement firm comScore is reporting today that Apple's iOS, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, outreach Android by 59 percent in the U.S., in comScore's first report on "connected media" devices. comScore said it counts nearly 37.9 million users of Apple iOS devices in the United States, surpassing the 23.7 million users of Android devices by 59 percent. comScore also says it has found that 16.2 percent of mobile subscribers are using Apple iOS, with 10.2 perce (More info...)
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San Diego's Lindzon Re-Ups On TicketFlyProlific San Diego angel investor Howard Lindzon, the CEO and founder of Stocktwits, has re-upped in Ticketfly, a social event ticketing service. Ticketfly said Tuesday that it has raised $12M more in funding, in a round led by Mohr Davidow Ventures, High Peaks venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, as well as angels Roger Ehrenberg and Howard Lindzon. Lindzon was an investor in Ticketfly's earlier, May 2010 round.
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Briabe Media Finds $2MVenice, California-based Briabe Media, a mobile marketing firm targeting Hispanic, African, and Asian American consumers, said today that it has raised more than $2M in funding. The firm came from Stochasto Holdings AS of Norway. According to Briabe, the funding also includes a joint venture between the company and Stochasto Holdings AS. Briabe Media offers up mobile advertising targeted at ethnic audiences, and is headed by James Briggs.
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Sonos Controller for Android Debuts On Android MarketSanta Barbara-based Sonos, which makes user friendly, wireless, multi-room music systems, has released an Android version of its music controller software. Sonos said that the app is now available in the Android Market, and is free for Sonos users. The new app allows users who have Sonos hardware to control what music is playing is different rooms, searching for songs, controlling volume, and more. Sonos had announced the new app in February. Sonos is headed by John MacFarlane. The new App works (More info...)
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SpaceX Gets $75M From NASAHawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the commercial rocket firm run by tech mogul Elon Musk, has scored $75M from NASA as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) effort, NASA said Monday. According to NASA, the funding is part of a set of funds going to a set of companies to work on commercial crew space transportation system concepts. NASA's CCDev2 effort is aimed at accelerating the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation to space, as the agency reti (More info...)
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RightScale, Zend Tie On PHP PlatformSanta Barbara-based RightScale, the cloud management software developer backed by Tenaya Capital, DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, and Presidio Ventures, and PHP developer Zend Technologies, said today that they have launched a jointly developed solution for deploying and managing PHP applications. The firms said that the new, RightScale Zend PHP Solution Pack will provide a pre-configured, open Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to help for faster launch and management of web applicat (More info...)
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Conexant Acquisition CompletesThe acquisition of Newport Beach-based semiconductor firm Conexant by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital has completed, the firm said today. The acquisition takes Conexant private, with the firm no longer trading on the NASDAQ Global Market. Conexant was acquired by Golden Gate Capital after a bidding war with Standard Microsystems (SMC) in February. The deal was worth $2.40 per share in cash, or approximately $282M.
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MindJolt Buys Two FirmsLos Angeles- and San Francisco-based online gaming service MindJolt, which is run by MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, has acquired two companies, according to a report today. According to the New York Times, MindJolt has acquired Hallpass Media, an online game portal, and Social Gaming Network, a developer of iPhone and Android games. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. MindJolt--formerly known as Platform G--is venture backed by Austin Ventures. The firm had raised around $22M in (More info...)
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Vokle Ups Funding To $767KSanta Monica-based Vokle, the developer of an online service to show live, streamed events, has now raised $767,000 in its latest seed round of funding, according to a regulatory filing by the firm yesterday. The funds include capital from the Tech Coast Angels, the Sierra Angels, and others. Vokle has been working on its lateset funding round since January, and includes funding from the Tech Coast Angels' Angel Capital Entrepreneurial (ACE) Fund 1. The firm indicates in its filing that it has a (More info...)
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TreatFeed Lands $5.4MLos Angeles-based TreatFeed, a new startup focused on word-of-mouth, social marketing, said today that it has raised $5.4M in a Series A funding round. The firm, founded by Brett Markinson and Konstantin Glasmacher, said the funding was led by Norwest Venture Partners. Norwest's Josh Goldman and Tim Chang have both joined the company's board of directors. Markinson and Glasmacher are both from Lagovent Group, and were involved in founding Hautelook. TreatFeed said its online shopping application (More info...)
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Woo Media Launches Group Video Chat ServiceLos Angeles-based Woo Media, the firm behind video speed dating site WooMe, said today that it has launched a new, group video communications service called MonsterChat. The firm said the new service allows users to conect in live chats and in group chat rooms, with up to 24 people in a simultaneous chat session. The new chat service shows multiple, live web camera streams in a single window, and allows them to connect with friends and other people with similar interests. WooMe is headed by Step (More info...)
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Savings.com Looks To Filter Deal DelugeLos Angeles-based Savings.com, which operates an online deal and shopping site, said today that it has launched a new, personalized online shopping feature on its site. According to the firm, shoppers on the site can now create a profile which will filter out only the most useful and relevant deals for users. Savings.com, run by Loren Bendele, is looking to help online shoppers sort out the best deals from the flood of offers they are now receiving. Savings.com said the new personalized shopping (More info...)
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Awarepoint Acquires CompetitorSan Diego-based Awarepoint, the developer of real time location systems for hospitals, said this morning that it has acquired Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS). Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. PCTS, based in Charlotte, N.C., also develops patient tracking systems for hospitals. According to Awarepoint, PCTS currently serves 60 hospitals with its systems, while it has 93 hospitals using its products. Awarepoint said that its corporate headquarters remain in San Diego, (More info...)
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LiveOffice Claims Revenue GrowthTorrance-based LiveOffice, the cloud-based email archiving and compliance software firm headed by Nick Mehta, is claiming another record quarter. The privately held firm, which did not disclose actual financials, claimed it had 111 percent sales growth, year-over-year, from first quarter of 2010. The firm said Q1 was another consecutive quarter of record revenue for the company. LiveOffice attributed the growth to its growing global partner program. LiveOffice is backed by private equity firm Su (More info...)
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Mindspeed Loses CFONewport Beach-based semiconductor maker Mindspeed Technologies announced this morning that it Chief Financial officer, Bret W. Johnsen, has resigned. According to the firm, Kristen M. Schmidt, currently Executive Director, Finance, has been appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer. Mindspeed said that Johnsen is leaving the firm to become CFO of a private company outside of the semiconductor industry. Johnsen had been at the firm since July of 2008.
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