Tuesday, September 17, 2013


Nirvanix Shuts Down, Gives Mere Two Weeks To Customers
San Diego-based cloud storage firm Nirvanix is shutting down, and has given its customers only two weeks to move their data elsewhere, in a stunning flameout for the venture backed startup. Nirvanix apparently told some of its biggest partners and customers Monday about the shutdown, although the company has yet to release any public notice of the shutdown plans. Nirvanix had last raised funding in May of 2012, when it took $25M in funding from such backers as Khosla Ventures, Valhalla Partners, (More info...)
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FindTheBest Launches Campaign Against Patent "Troll"
Santa Barbara-based FindTheBest, the products review startup headed by former DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor, has a new mission in life: fight patent trolls. FindTheBest has launched a major lawsuit in New York, looking to take down a "patent troll" which had demanded that the startup pay the company for violating a patent. According to O'Connor, he has pledged to spend $1M -- several times the demand from patent licensing firm Lumen View -- to stop the company and others from demanding paym (More info...)
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socalTECH Jobs: Hot Technology Startups Are Now Hiring!
Looking for a job at some of the hottest Southern California high tech startups? Here are some of the positions recently posted to socalTECH's community job board, which might just be your perfect next move. Senior Frontend Engineer, Dollar Shave Club Dollar Shave Club – the largest razor subscription service – continues to grow, and we are looking for a smart, passionate, and dedicated individual to join the Dollar Shave Club Development Team. Senior IOS/Mobile Enginee (More info...)
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Ocera Cuts Site, Jobs In Quebec
San Diego-based biopharmaceuticals developer Ocera Therapeutics said today that it has closed its operations site in Sherbrooke, Quebec, as part of a restructuring. The closure means the loss of 17 employees in that location. The location was part of Transzyme, which Ocera acquired back in July. According to Ocera, the move will allow it to focus on it lead product candidate. Ocera is developing treatments for acute and chronic orphan liver diseases.
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Cool Planet Energy Systems Raises $19.4M More For Biofuels Effort
Cool Planet Energy Systems, which is developing technology to convert biomass into biofuels in a carbon-neutral way, said Tuesday that it has raised $19.4M in funding, bringing its total Series D funding to over $60M. The company--which was started in Camarillo, but has recently shifted its headquarters to Colorado--said the funding will go towards the engineering design for its first, commercial facility. Cool Planet Energy's technology converts cellulosic biomass into gasoline, along with "bio (More info...)
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OneFineStay Expands Into Los Angeles
Los Angeles, which has become a hotbed for the expansion plans of many, peer-to-peer and smartphone-enabled services in the past year, is the latest market for OneFineStay, an online marketplace for vacation rentals. Los Angeles is the second, U.S. market for the London-based startup, which also runs its marketplace in New York, London, and Paris. OneFineStay is venture backed by Index Ventures, PROfounders, as well as angels. The company differentiates itself from better known Airbnb, in that i (More info...)
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Porch Lets You Peek At Your Neighbor's Home Improvement Projects
Ever wish you could get a look at what your neighbor is doing with that expensive home remodeling product? A new, local startup, Porch, has just launched to let you peek over the fence at your neighbor's home improvement projects--and also let you see what they spent, who they used, and before and after pictures. The new startup--which is split between San Diego and Seattle--said it is looking to help organize the information about home improvement projects, plus also help homeowners to find hom (More info...)
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eSolar Raises $22M More
In a resurgence of life from Southern California's clean technology industry, Burbank-based eSolar announced this morning that it has raised $22M more in a funding round. According to the solar thermal power technology developer, the funding tranche came from Oak Investment Partners. eSolar said it will use the new funding to expand into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as development of its next generation technology. eSolar is currently working on molten salt-based, conc (More info...)
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CallFire Launches New Platform
Santa Monica-based text and voice API provider CallFire has launched a new platform, saying that it now has over 200,000 users using its platform. According to the company, which is led by Dinesh Ravishanker, the new updates include an improved UI and navigation, and new developer tools. CallFire offers up a cloud-based platform to create voice-based applications, including interactive voice response (IVR) apps, business text messaging applications, voice broadcasting, and more. Among the update (More info...)
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Vance Street Capital Acquires Lark Engineering
Los Angeles private equity investor Vance Street Capital said Monday that it has acquired Lark Engineering, a San Juan Capistrano-based designer and manufacturer of RF filters. Financial details of the buy were not announced. Vance Street Capital said it will add Lark Engineering to Secure Communication Systems, the Santa Ana-based rugged computer and information systems provider it acquired in 2009. Vance Street Capital said that Lark Engineering supplies its RF filters to the commercial, indus (More info...)
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D-Link Tops One Million Cloud Services Users
Fountain Valley-based D-Link, the manufacturer of switches, wireless routers, storage, and other products, said this morning that it has just passed one million users of its mydlink services. D-Link's cloud services include cloud accessible cameras and storage devices, which let users stream video and media over the Internet to another computer, iOS, or Android device.
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