Thursday, February 28, 2013X PRIZE Foundation Launches New Prize Around LiteracyThe X PRIZE Foundation, the group which has been putting together large, multi-million dollar purses to spur innovation in a number of important areas of benefit to humankind, has announced a new award, this time around literacy. The group said Thursday that it has launched a new, $10M Global Literacy X PRIZE, which will look to help educate what the group says are over 60 million children who are not receiving primary education. The competition is being chaired by MIT Professor Nicholas Negropo (More info...)
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Tech Coast Angels Looks To Shorten Funding CycleThe Tech Coast Angels, Southern California's most active, organized angel investment group, has a goal: cut down the time it takes to fund a startup presenting to the organization. The angel group--which in the past, has been criticized for taking a long time to make an investment decision in a company--said this week that it has launched a program called Screening2Deal to shortcut investment decisions in startups in Los Angeles, to 30 days or less.
According to the group, a key part of the p (More info...)
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Scopely Signs Five Independent Mobile Game StudiosLos Angeles-based Scopely, the mobile monetization service headed by Walter Driver, has signed on five mobile games developers today, saying it has added Double Fine Productions, Big Cave Games, High Line Games, Rocket Jump Games, and Zupcat Games to its new Developer Network. Scopely's Developer Network was announced in December, and helps independent game developers leverage Scopely's infrastructure to gain distribution and monetization for their games. Scopely is venture backed by Anthem Vent (More info...)
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Earbits' New Service Trades On-Demand Music Access For Social ActionsEarbits, the online radio and music marketing startup headed by Joey Flores, announced today a brand new service, which lets fans of musicians access their favorite music from artists on-demand, and for free, in exchange for social actions. The Los Angeles startup said that it has launched Groovies, a social currency which rewards users with unlimited music and rewards for social sharing and other actions. According to Flores, the new service lets fans of the artists on the site access their fav (More info...)
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EdgeCast Doubles Revenues, Tops 225 EmployeesSanta Monica-based content delivery network (CDN) provider EdgeCast said this morning that it doubled its revenues in 2012, and now has more than 225 employees. The privately held firm did not disclose its revenues, however, the firm has previously been reported to have had revenues of between $50-100M in revenues in 2011, and $15-20M in revenues in 2009. The firm provides edge network services to help deliver content from such customers as Twitter, Pinterest, Sony, and Hulu to end users. The f (More info...)
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Ignyta Raises $1M In Venture DebtSan Diego-based personalized medicine developer Ignyta has raised $1M in funding, via a capital term loan from Silicon Valley Bank, the company disclosed this morning. The firm--which is focusing on treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus and other autoimmune diseases, said the new $1M capital term loan facility comes on top of an existing, $500K facility it has with SVB. Financial details of that term loan were not disclosed. Ignyta is venture backed by Colt Ventures, City Hill Ventures, and (More info...)
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Viddy Extends Videos, Adds Effects In New iOS ReleaseViddy, the developer of the mobile, social video sharing application of the same name, said Wednesday that it has launched version 2.0 of the firm's application for iOS. The app adds such features as longer videos--now up to 30 seconds long--as well as a host of Instagram-like video effects, which change and modify a user's video. Viddy also added new music tracks, better brightness/contrast controls, and more. Venice-based Viddy said its second generation of its app is aimed at providing the be (More info...)
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Kurion Snags Exec From DOEIrvine-based nuclear waste processing technology developer Kurion announced today that it has named David Brockman as its Deputy Chief Operating Officer. According to Kurion, Brockman will lead operations at its Technology Development Center in Richland, Washington, which is working on vitrification technology for encapsulating nuclear waste. Brockman joins from the Department of Energy, where he had been responsible for the clean up at Hanford, the contaminated former nuclear bomb and reactor s (More info...)
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Rentech Chops 65, Shuts Alternative Energy R&D UnitLos Angeles-based Rentech, a developer of clean energy and synthetic fuels technology, said this morning that it will eliminate 65 employees and contractors as its alternative energy segment, close its R&D unit in Commerce City, CO, and attempt to sell its facilities there along with land in Natchez, MS. Rentech said the move comes as it seeks to focus on more immediate growth opportunities in the energy industry which do not rely on new technology. The firm's units had been focused on biomass g (More info...)
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Ixia Ties With Security Software ProviderCalabasas-based network testing products developer Ixia said Wednesday that it has linked with log and security information and event analysis provider LogRhythm, to develop a network security incident remediation product. According to Ixia, the new product uses automatic capture of network packets, to help detect and respond to network anomalies and threats. LogRhythm develops software which uses logging data to analyze security threats; Ixia makes network analyzers and testing equipment device (More info...)
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Conexant Systems Files For Chapter 11 BankruptcyNewport Beach-based semiconductor developer Conexant said this morning that it has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and is in a financial restructuring, which it says will significantly reduce its debt and improve its capital structure. The firm said the deal with its equity sponsors and secured lender, QP SFM Capital Holdings Limited (managed by Soros Fund Management), will exchange $195M of secured debt into equity. QFM will also received $76M in unsecured notes. In addition, Conexant will rec (More info...)
posted on Thursday, February 28, 2013(Full story)