Tuesday, April 23, 2013


Nativo Gets $3.5M For Native Advertising Technology
Los Angeles-based Nativo, the online advertising technology firm led by Justin Choi, has raised $3.5M in a Series A funding round, the firm announced Tuesday. The funding was led by Greycroft Partners, and also included e.ventures and Signia Venture Partners. Nativo was formerly known as PostRelease, and had raised $1.8M in seed funding from Signia and angels. Nativo's technology revolves around inserting sponsored content into the site of publishers automatically. Sponsored content/native adver (More info...)
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TasteMade Aims To Be The Next Food Network, But Online
It's increasing a world where online video distribution channels (YouTube, Hulu) are more important than the old-fashioned broadcast and cable television -- and where online video channels are helping to pave and define a new way of reaching audiences and pioneering content. Another player in the space has recently emerged in Los Angeles, TasteMade--this time, targeting food. The startup said recently that it now has over 100 food channels, covering food, travel, cooking, and more across the A (More info...)
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Fisker Automotive Misses Federal Loan Payment
In the latest in the very long running saga of the troubles for Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive, the U.S. Department of Energy reported Monday that the hybrid auto maker failed to make a $10 million payment on a government loan. According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the payments were due to pay down about $192M borrowed under the DOE's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The DOE said last week that it had already recouped $21M in reserve account funds from Fisker (More info...)
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TenOneTen Ventures Emerges As SoCal's Newest Venture Capital Firm
Despite the level of venture capital activity in Southern California, the region--according to informal discussions with venture capitalists over the years--continues to suffer from a dearth of local, indigenous capital--at least, compared with the hundreds of investors along Sand Hill Road. Because of that, the local high tech industry here has welcomed any and all new capital. The newest venture capital firm in Southern California looks to be TenOneTen Ventures, a new venture firm headed by Gi (More info...)
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SRCH2 Raises Funding, Targets Enterprise Search
The world of search technology is constantly evolving, with new features like autosuggestion, "instant search", autocorrect, mobile support, and more constantly showing up in such services like Google. But, if you're not one of the giants in search, how do you keep up with the constantly evolving features in search? SRCH2 announced today that it has raised a round of funding, and launched its efforts to provide those next-generation search capabilities to enterprises. To do that, it has snagged (More info...)
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Changing The Business Of Media Through Online Video, With Cenk Uygur
The world of media is in the midst of a major transition, where radio and television are no longer the powers they used to be--and there's a clear shift towards some unknown future online. One of the folks in media who has been helping to define that shift is Cenk Uygur, the head of Culver City-based The Young Turks (www.tytnetwork.com), and online news and politics show. We caught up with Uygur--who has had his own show on Sirius Satellite Radio, hosted MSNBC Live, and currently has his own sho (More info...)
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MarketShare Finds $38M More
Los Angeles-based MarketShare, the developer of predictive analytics software for the marketing industry, has raised a big, $38M funding round, the firm said Monday. The funding was led by FTV Capital, and also included Elevation Partners and others. MarketShare, which is co-led by Wes Nichols and Jon Vein, said the financing will go towards its technology platform and accelerate growth in markets worldwide. MarketShare develops technology used to help with understanding the payoff of investment (More info...)
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uSamp: 65 Percent of Companies Allow Working Remotely
Encino -based uSamp, which provides technology to enable market research and survey panels, has tapped into its stable of survey respondents to figure out how many companies now allow employees to work remotely. The company said its new study finds that 65 percent of companies now allow employees to work remotely, versus 35 percent that do not. The issue of whether or not to allow remote workers has come to the forefront after a highly publicized effort by Yahoo's new CEO, Marissa Meyer, to forc (More info...)
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THQ Auctions Off Additional Games
Bankrupt videogame maker THQ said Monday afternoon that it has received $6.55M in the sale of six additional lots of its intellectual property, from three buyers. The firm said it received $4.9M from Nordic Games Licing AB for its titles Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs ATV, other owned software (includes Destroy all Humans!, Summoner and more), and other licensed software (includes Marvel Super Hero Squad, Supreme Commander and more); $1.35M from Gearbox SOftware for its title Homeworld; and $0.3 (More info...)
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Illumina Hires New General Counsel
San Diego-based life sciences equipment firm Illumina said Monday that it has appointed Charles Dadswell as its new Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Dadswell was most recently VP, GEnreal COunsel for North and Latin America, and Corporate Director of Global Intellectual Property at bioMerieux. He also has served at BioDelivery Sciences International, Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline. Dadswell replaces Christian Cabou, who the firm said has retired.
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