Thursday, January 31, 2013Report: CODA Fending Off Vendors Over Unpaid BillsUh oh. Looks like another, Southern California electric car startup is having issues. According to a report from GigaOm Thursday afternoon, Santa Monica-based electric car maker CODA Automotive is embroiled in a number of lawsuits from its vendors, over unpaid bills. According to the report, the issues all stem from a major basic problem: CODA isn't selling enough cars. CODA is not the only local electric car startup facing serious issues right now: Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive, which has a m (More info...)
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Glow Digital Media Raises $1.3M, Sets Up Shop In LAGlow Digital Media, a developer of a Facebook advertising platform, said Thursday that it has raised $1.3M in a seed funding round, and set up its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles. The UK-based company did not disclose the source of the funding. Glow said the funding will specifically go towards opening up a new, regional headquarters in Los Angeles, headed up by David Wamsley, who formerly founded GravityEight, campsix, and Adauction.com. The company said it helps direct response advertisers bu (More info...)
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TakeLessons Scores $4M More For Finding Music LessonsSan Diego-based Take Lessons, an online marketplace which helps people find local teachers for music and singing lessons, disclosed today that it has raised $4M in a Series A follow on funding. The funding was led by Triangle Peak Partners, and also included Siemer Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and SoftTech VC, among others. TakeLessons asks users for the type of music lesson and zip code, and then connects those potential students with local teachers. TakeLessons raised $6M in a funding round ba (More info...)
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Hulu Gears Up For Super Bowl Ad SeasonIt's not far from the kickoff of the Super Bowl--and best of all, the many advertisements expected to debut during the sporting event. However, fans of those advertisements can start getting their Super Bowl advertising fix now, according to Los Angeles video streaming Hulu, via the company's online Hulu AdZone. Hulu said today that it has already begun posting commercial teasers for Super Bowl, and will also be letting viewers vote on their favorite ads. Hulu's Super Bowl site this year is spon (More info...)
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Insights: Keeping Your Eyes Open For The People You'll Meet
How did a quick weekend trip (for a birthday) to Los Angeles result in the creation and funding of a startup? Eric Koester, co-founder of Zaarly, tells the fascinating story in our Insights and Opinions section today.
"Sounds great," he said. "We'll go to LA for the weekend, hang out with some friends at Startup Weekend and celebrate your birthday. It'll be a blast."
Those brief words between two friends and eventual business partners launched a whirlwind that would wind up becoming a (More info...)
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Stickam Shuts DownStickam, the live video streaming service, announced on its web site Thursday that it would be shutting down its services, effective 11:59PM PST. Reason for the shutdown was not disclosed. The Los Angeles-based company said that it "did everything we could to keep this dream alive", but was "sad to have to say goodbye." Stickam had been founded in 2005. Last August, the company had announced a VIP membership program, which charged users $39.99 a year to allow them to livestream themselves to an (More info...)
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Lyft Launches Ridesharing App In LADo you need a ride across town, but don't have a car or want to drive? Lyft, the developer of a service and mobile app which lets users find, and offer, rides across town, said it is launching today in the Los Angeles area. Lyft's app--which works with both iPhone and Android--lets users offer rides to people on-demand, at what it says is a "fraction of the cost" of a cab. The service has been only available previously in San Francisco, but said it will now start serving trips in Santa Monica, V (More info...)
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Uber Dodges Bullet In CaliforniaUber, the smartphone-driven, towncar service which is very popular with the technology crowd, has just dodged a bullet in California, saying that it has reached an agreement with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) confirming that Uber is legal in California. Uber--which serves both Los Angeles and San Diego, in addition to San Francisco and Sacramento--said the move suspends prior complaints and fines against the company. Uber said the agreement says that ride-sharing - or rides p (More info...)
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TruTouch Technologies Ups Series B-1 To $4.3MRiverside, California- and Albuquerque, New Mexico-based TruTouch Technologies, which develops biometric, alcohol detection systems, said today that it has raised $4.3M in its Series B-1 funding round. The funding came from iTulip Community and Launchpad Venture Group. According to TruTouch, the funding will go towards bringing the company to profitability. TruTouch is led by Richard D. Gill, and offers up a system which noninvasively measures a user's alcohol level by using a biometric touchpad (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: Turbo-charging your CTOWhat are some of the key steps that CEOs ought to do to communicate with their CTOs? For our Insights and Opinions section today, we share an article by John Shiple, who provides technology consulting to CEOs, helps outline some of the key things startup (and other) CEOs ought to know in dealing with their CTO.
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Ivantis Gets $27M For Glaucoma TreatmentsIvantis, an Irvine-based developer of treatments for glaucoma, said today that it has raised $27.0M in a Series B funding round. According to Ivantis, the round was led by Ascension Health Ventures, and also included prior investors New Enterprise Associates, Delphi Ventures, and new investors, including MemorialCare Innovation Fund. Ivantis said the new funding round will go towards four randomized trials it is running across the world. Ivantis develops a minimally invasive, medical device used (More info...)
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Capturing The Entrepreneurial Energy At StartEngine's Demo Day
It was standing room only at StartEngine's Demo Day Wednesday afternoon, held at Santa Monica's Cross Campus, as the startup accelerator launched eight of its latest startups into the world, after a 90 day process of mentoring, honing their business model, and heads down development.
In a way, the event--like the Demo Days from the other accelerators around town--seems to have focused the startup community and prospective startup community on the possibilities inherent in a new startup. Sta (More info...)
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GRP Partners Gets Exit At mFoundryLos Angeles-based venture capital investor GRP Partners has scored an exit at one of its firms this morning, mobile banking and payment provider mFoundry. According to mobile financial services firm FIS, it is paying approximately $120 million in cash to acquire the remaining 78 percent ownership interest in mFoundry it did not already own. mFoundry has been founded in 2004, and was venture backed by Apax Partners, Bank of America, GRP Partners, Ignition Partners, Intel Capital, MasterCard, Moto (More info...)
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OpenX Partners For Mobile TargetingLos Angeles-based OpenX Software, the provider of Internet advertising technology, said Wednesday that it has connected with AdTruth to provide mobile targeting capabilities to its OpenX Market. OpenX Market is the company's real-time-bidding platform for online and mobile advertising. The two said the link will provide more effective mobile ad inventory to advertisers. The new mobile targeting will debut in the second quarter. No details of the business deal between the two companies was announ (More info...)
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DTS Wins Panasonic TV DesignsCalabasas-based audio technology developer DTS said Wednesday evening that its audio decoding technology will be used in a line of new televisions from Panasonic. DTS said that Panasonic will integrate DTS decoding capability into its ZT60, VT60, ST60, S60, X60 series PDP TVs and WT60, DT60, ET60, E60, EM60 series LCD TVs in North America. Financial details of the win were not disclosed. The two said that the Panasonic TVs featuring DTS decoding will ship in Q1 of this year. DTS is a developer o (More info...)
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ShoeDazzle Brings Back Subscription ModelLos Angeles-based shoe and fashion site ShoeDazzle is back to the subscription model, after an overhaul of the company by co-founder Brian Lee. The firm has launched a new, $9.95 a month "VIP membership" service, which gives special discounts and services to women, and is a return to the site's original model of subscriptions for its users. The return to subscriptions comes after a significant amount of turmoil at ShoeDazzle, which resulted in Lee taking over the site three months ago.
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Qualcomm CFO RetiresSan Diego-based wireless giant Qualcomm said last night that its CFO, William (Bill) Keitel, has decided to retire, and will be replaced by George S. Davis, the current EVP and CFO of Applied Materials. Keitel has served as CFO of Qualcomm for the past 11 years. Davis has been CFO of Applied Materials for more than six years, and also served in Corporate Business Development roles at that company. The firm said the move will be effective March 11th.
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