Tuesday, August 21, 2012Aperio Acquired By German FirmVista-based Aperio, the developer of digital pathology equipment, is being acquired by German company Leica Biosystems, the companies said today. Financial details of the buy were not announced by the companies. The two said the move will help the companies to grow and expand into the global Life Science and Healthcare market. Aperio is venture backed by HLM Venture Partners, Galen Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners and BlackRock Alternative Advisors.
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Path.To Opens Job Matching Service In Los AngelesPath.To, which operates a service to match up companies with software engineers, interactive designers, and other IT professionals by matching personalities, skills, and social graph, said Tuesday that it has expanded support into the Los Angeles area. The firm--which pitches itself as the "eHarmony for Jobs"--pointed to the rise of technology venture capital in Los Angeles for the expansion into the market. The company uses its own proprietary algorithms to match employers with prospective empl (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
Insights and Opinions: How We Raised Our First $100KThink fundraising for your startup is easy? Think you just pitch investors, and get a check? Think again. Miron Lulic, one of the co-founders of Swagsy learned all about the difficulties of getting angels and investors to invest in your firm, and shares his experience and advice here on our Insights and Opinions section.
I think a lot of would be entrepreneurs have a glorified view of venture capital fundraising. That you come up with a great idea and somehow go into a meeting, pitch, and (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
Swagsy Raises $100KSwagsy, an online, celebrity-focused service which it tying together celebrities and e-commerce, has raised $100,000, in a convertible note, angel funding round. Name of the investor was not disclosed. The Los Angeles startup was founded by Jamie Freed, Miron Lulic, and Grant Cohen. Swagsy is looking to create a service which allows fans of celebrities to follow their favorite celebrities, and receive special offers on products endorsed by those celebrities. The company said in a blog post that (More info...)
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Inktank Opens Office In Silicon ValleyLos Angeles-based Inktank, the company which is providing enterprise level support for the open source, Ceph distributed storage system, announced today that it has opened up a new office in Sunnyvale, as it continues to hire and expand. Ceph said the new branch office will work with the company's Los Angeles headquarters to help develop and support the Ceph storage software. Ceph is an open source, distributed storage system which is integrated with the Linux kernel. The firm said the new offic (More info...)
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Anatomy of a Successful Pitch: DogVacay At Vator Splash LAAre you a startup wondering what makes a successful pitch to investors? If you're interested in figuring that out what kind of pitch attracts investors, you might want to view the video of the winning pitch from the recent Vator Splash LA event, from Los Angeles-based DogVacay. Vator just posted the successful pitch video from Aaron Hirschhorn, co-founder of DogVacay, at the event. DogVacay scored the top position out of over 100 companies who competed in May at Vator Splash LA. DogVacay is vent (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
Wittlebee Taps Into FamilyFinds' Mailing List With OfferLos Angeles-based WittleBee, the subscription, children's clothing site backed by Science Inc., Rincon Ventures, SoftTech VC, Google Ventures, Matt Coffin, CrossLink, and Morado Ventures, looks to be ramping its marketing efforts, and has tapped into the mailing list of FamilyFinds in a promotional offer today. FamilyFinds--also backed by Matt Coffin--sent out a 50 percent-off offer for the first, monthly delivery on Wittlebee's clothing to its mailing list this morning. The subscription clothin (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
OCTANe LaunchPad Firms Raise More Than $25MOCTANe, the Orange County-based organization helping to bolster the high tech industry and entrepreneurs, reported this morning that in the first half of 2012, companies participating in its startup accelerator have raised a total of $26.8M in funding. The organization's LaunchPAD programs help early stage technology companies with mentoring and othe resources, as well as access to investment capital. According to OCTANe, investments in firms included 7.75M for OncoSec Medical, $2M for MelRoK, $ (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
Boingo Wireless Extends Deal With Google OffersWi-fi network provider Boingo has extended a sponsorship deal it has with Google Offers, the daily deals business of Google, to an additional 24 locations across the country. According to Los Angeles-based Boingo, the deal now includes a total of more than 250 locations which will be available for free thanks to Google. Financial details of the deal were not announced. Boingo said the deal calls for Google Offers to sponsor free and discounted Wi-Fi at eight malls and 16 airports, including loca (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
BUZZMEDIA Names Hansen PresidentLos Angeles-based BUZZMEDIA, the digital media publisher behind Celebuzz, Sterogum, Idolator, and a host of other music-focused blogs, said Monday that it has named Stephen Hansen as President of the firm. Hansen was most recently President and COO of TrueCar. Hansen also served at such companies as GeoCities, WePlay, and KPMG. Hansen was COO of GeoCities at the time it was acquired by Yahoo.
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
MediciNova Raises $20MPublicly held biopharmaceuticals firm MediciNova, which is based in San Diego, said last night that it has raised $20M in funding in a deal with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC. Medicinova said that Aspire will purchase the $20M in common stock at market prices. The company explained that the financing deal will provide it with "timely access to cash" to further advance its development programs. The company is working on a wide range of small molecule therapeutic products.
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)
Quest Software Rolls Out New IT Management SoftwareAliso Viejo-based Quest Software, the developer of IT management software, announced a new software package yesterday focused on managing unstructured data. Quest said its new Quest One Identity Manager Data Governance Edition is focused on allowing enterprises manage unstructured data -- documents, images, spreadsheets, videos, and more -- specifically helping business managers to approve access requests for unstructured files, rather than relying on IT employees. The package starts at $35 per (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012(Full story)