Thursday, January 30, 2014NewsCrafted Raises $1.1MLos Angeles-based NewsCrafted, a company which provides elementary and middle schools with professionally designed, high quality newsletters -- including content, has raised $1.1M in an angel financing round, the second angel round for the company. According to the company's investors, the funding comes on top of an earlier, $1.25M in angel funding for the company. The company's investors include Broadmark Capital. NewsCrafted publishes professionally printed newsletters which combines custom co (More info...)
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Fullscreen's Pricetag For Viddy: $7.8M?Los Angeles-based YouTube content network Fullscreen, which is led by George Strompolos, disclosed Thursday that it has issued $7.8M in equity--related to a merger and acquisition, most likely the acquisition of Supernova (better known as Viddy) earlier this month. The disclosure came via a regulatory filing. Details on the equity offering have not yet been announced by the company. It's unclear if the $7.8M was raised from its investors to buy Viddy, or if those shares were issued outright to V (More info...)
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Famous Birthdays Sees Traffic GrowthFamous Birthdays, the Santa Monica-based startup which features exactly that--the details on the birthdays of famous people--said today that its traffic has now grown to over 3 million uniques and 11 million page views a month. The company--led by Evan Britton--also said that about 43 percent of its traffic is now coming from smartphones. The site focuses on offering up profiles and birthdays of famous people, including actors, musicians, politicians, authors, athletes, and more.
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Quippi Raises $2M For International Money TransfersLa Jolla-based Quippi, which sells a gift card aimed at international money transfers, has raised $2M in a funding, the company disclosed today. The funding came from Avalon Ventures. Quippi operates a service--aimed at the Mexican market--which allows people in the U.S. or Mexico to buy gift cards, and share those gift cards via a PIN number with friends or family in Mexico. Those gift cards work with specific retail partners in Mexico, including Cuesta Menos and Coppel. Quippi sells its gift c (More info...)
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Topspin In Major Layoffs, Says ReportLos Angeles-based music software startup Topspin has laid off a "significant" amount of staff, according to reports, with a majority of the company's staff getting the pink slip. The startup offered up web-based apps to help artists and labels reach their fans. Topspin is venture backed by Foundry Group and Redpoint Ventures. Topspin did not detail the reason for the layoffs, or how many employees were affected by the move. Topspin has been very quiet since Beats Electronics hired away CEO Ian R (More info...)
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AeroVironment's Turbocord: Extension Cord For Your EVAre you tired of jostling with other electric vehicle drivers for that one charging spot at work? Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment is looking to make any parking spot a charging spot, with a new product it is calling the Turbocord. According to Aerovironment, its new, portable plug-in-charger comes complete with a 20-foot cord, and supports both 120 or 240 volts -- and at 240 volts can charge a fully electric car in less than six hours. The cord handles all of the interfacing required be (More info...)
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Marlin Equity Plans Tellabs Unit SpinoutLos Angeles-based private equity investor Marlin Equity Partners said Wednesday that it is planning to spin out its Tellabs Access products as an independent business. According to Marlin Equity, it has named Mike Dagenais as President and CEO of the Tellabs Access business, which will focus on optical local area networking products. Dagenais was previously CEO of Radisys Corporation, and also had served as CEO of Continuous Computing, Optical Solutions, and Convergent Networks. The deal is expe (More info...)
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Accelrys Acquired By Dassault Systemes For $750MSan Diego-based Accelrys, the publicly held developer of software used to manage laboratories in the chemistry, biology, and materials area, is being acquired by Dassault Systems, the French 3D design software marker. According to Dassault Systemes, it will pay approximately $750M for Accelrys, paying $12.50 per share in cash for Accelrys. Dassault said the move will help it bolster its offerings in the molecular chemistry area. Accelrys counts such customers as Sanofi, Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca, (More info...)
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Lynda.com Expands In Southeast AsiaLynda.com, the online video education site which offers up a large library of video tutorials in computer software, business skills, design, and other areas, is in a big expansion today, saying that it has started offering up its products in Southeast Asia. According to the company, it has begun offering up its service to corporate and academic institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Carpinteria-based Lynda.com said it now has more than four million individ (More info...)
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AnyMeeting Debuts New Web Conferencing ProductAnyMeeting, the developer of web and video conferencing software aimed at the small business market, said today that it has launched a new, web conferencing product called AnyMeeting Company Pro. According to the company, the new tool provides set price access to its services to companies with up to 50 employees, allowing companies to purchase a plan which covers all of their employees at a fixed price. The company said those plans start at $480 per year for three employees, and up to $7,200 per (More info...)
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Intuit Launches Health Care Plan ToolIntuit--best known for its personal finance and tax software--said this morning that it is expanding into the health care arena, with a new service called Turbotax Health. The company--which develops its online software in San Diego--said the new tool allows uninsured Americans understand how the Affordable Care Act applies to their individual situation. The new tool--which is free--uses the familiar question-and-answer format of Intuit's TurboTax, to help individuals figure out exactly what the (More info...)
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Glip Ties Into Google Drive, DropboxLos Angeles-based Glip, the startup developing cloud-based tools to help teams manage projects, plans, documents, and other more, said today that it has integrated its service with Google Drive and Dropbox. The tie allows Glip customers to share their content in both of those online storage services. Glip, which is led by Peter Pezaris, offers up a social conversation platform tied into project and task management, shared calendar, document sharing, and other team features. The company has been (More info...)
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