Monday, June 24, 2013IVP: We Love LA, So We Invested In SnapchatA lot of heads turned Monday after Venice-based Snapchat, the instant-photo messaging service known for its self destructing chats, announced a huge, $60M round at a huge valuation. Why did lead investor IVP invest in what most local investors shied away from? Among the reasons given in a blog post from IVP, defending its investment in Snapchat: the firm loves LA. In its post, giving a number of its reasons for the investment, IVP said that "We Love LA", citing the success of LA's JAMDAT Mobile, (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
SpaceX Adds Satellite For TurkmenistanHawthorne-based SpaceX, the commercial rocket and spacecraft firm headed by Elon Musk, said over the weekend that it has signed a deal with Thales Alenia Space, to launch a satellite for Turkmenistan. Financial impact of the win was not announced. SpaceX said the geostationary transfer orbit satellite will be Turkmenistan's first, and will be used for communications. SpaceX is backed by Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners.
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Demand Media Buys E-Commerce Marketplace Society6 For $94MSanta Monica-based Demand Media has acquired Society6, an online e-commerce marketplace centered around artists, the company announced Monday afternoon, as part of an effort to expand its content and media platform. According to Demand Media, it paid $94M for Society6, including $75M in cash and approximately $19M in its common stock. Demand Media said that Society6 had revenues of approximately $15M for the twelve months ended December 31, 2012, with $4M in oerating income. Society6 offers up (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Report: Machinima Looking For A Mega Funding RoundIs Los Angeles-based YouTube network Machinima looking for a big round of funding? A report from AllThingsD says so, saying that Machinima is looking for an investment of more than $70M. Machinima has not said anything about its fundraising plans in public. Machinima last raised funding in May of last year, raising $35M from such backers as Google, Redpoint Ventures, and MK Capital. Fellow YouTube network Fullscreen raised its own big funding round in April.
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Sonendo Finds $18M For Dental TechnologyLaguna Hills-based Sonendo said Monday that it has raised $18M in a funding round, the second tranche of an equity financing announced last year. The firm, which develops technology used in root canal therapy, said the funding was led by Orbimed Advisors, and also included Themes Investment Partners, Fjord ventuers, and NeooMed Management. The company said the funding will go towards technology development, clinical studies, and commercialize its system for cleaning root canals using ultrasound. (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013 (More)(Full story)
Snapchat Announces $60M FundingLos Angeles-based Snapchat has officially announced its Series B funding, raising $60M in a round led by Institutional Venture Partners. The funding also included General Catalyst, Benchmark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and SV Angel. The company said its users are sharing about 200 million chats every day on the service. Snapchat said the funding will go towards building a bigger engineering team, and also to "figure out how to pay our server bills." Michael Lynton has joined the compan (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013 (More)(Full story)
BOOM! Studios Acquires Comics PublisherLos Angeles-based BOOM! Studios, a venture-backed comic book and graphic novel publisher, has acquired a fellow comics firm, Archaia Entertainment, the firms said today. Boom! is venture backed by DFJ Frontier partners, and offers up a diversified media production and publishing business which also has connections into Hollywood; the firm's first feature film, 2 Guns, is coming later this year from Universal, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. DFJ Frontier's Scott Lenet sits on the bo (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Bitcoin Foundation Gets Warning From California
The Bitcoin Foundation, the nonprofit group which helps maintain the Bitcoin standard, the protocol behind the open, electronic currency which is not tied to any country or governing authority, has received a warning from the State of California's Department of Financial Institutions. The letter--widely released to the media--warns the nonprofit group that it has "engaged in the business of money transmission" without obtaining a license from California, and that it must cease and desist from (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Flikdate Debuts New Features, Takes On Mobile DatingVenice-based starutp Flikdate, a developer of mobile dating applications, said today that it has debuted a new set of features. Flikdate said its live, video dating app lets users flip through Facebook profile users of other users, and then request a contact--allowing users to instantly connect via live video. Users can then chat for as long as they like to get to know each other, or not. The app runs on both iOS and Android. The startup is headed by Nick Bicanic, and says it is being advised by (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Western Digital Buys sTecIrvine-based Western Digital and Santa Ana-based sTec, the developer of solid state data storage devices, announced this morning that the two companies are in a merger agreement. According to the two, sTEC is being acquired by HGST, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital, for approximately $340M in cash. The companies said the deal is worth $207M in enterprise value net of sTEC's cash position as of March 31st. The companies said the deal will augment HGST's existing solid state s (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Yardi Adds Social Media Marketing FeaturesSanta Barbara-based apartment leasing software suite developer Yardi has expanded its software to handle social media marketing, according to the firm. Yardi said it has expanded its Yardi Marketing Suite to now handle social media marketing, including a Facebook application and links to Twitter. Yardi said the tools allow possible renters to check availability and lease apartments directly from Facebook. Yardi's software is used for real estate investment management and property management, han (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
SOA Software Targets Life Sciences IndustryLos Angeles-based SOA Software, which provides application middleware used to manage enterprise services and APIs, reported today that it has started delivering products for use in the life sciences and biopharma industry. The firm said that its Semantics Manager has been optimized for use in processing data managed by life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. As part of that move, SOA Software said its Semantics Manager Product has been chosen by the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consor (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)
Everbridge Wins New England UtilityGlendale-based Everbridge, the provider of emergency communications and mass notification services, reported a win today with Northeast Utilities, which it says is New England's largest utility system. Everbridge said that the utility is using its system for emergency and dialy incident management communications. financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Northeast Utilities serves more than 3.6 million electric and natural gas customers in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
posted on Monday, June 24, 2013(Full story)