Wednesday, February 5, 2014TradeYa Gets $1.1MSanta Monica-based TradeYa said Wednesday that it has raised $1.1M in a venture capital funding, to launch its social platform for trading goods and services. The funding came from angel investors, including Chris Hameetman (Tech Coast Angels) and Joe Addiego (Alsop Louie Partners). The startup is led by Jared Krause. TradeYa's platform focuses on letting users trade electronics, gift cards, sporting equipment, vacation homes, as well as services like cooking, web design, medical care, and more.
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Rubicon's IPO Filing: Who's Next?The IPO filing by Rubicon Project is not only notable for one of Southern California's's fast growing Internet advertising companies: it looks to be the the first IPO filing by a venture-backed, technology startup since 2012. Although the region has had a number of IPOs in the last year, most of them have been on the biotechnology and medical devices side, with a notable drought in IPOs from the high technology side of the market here--a big contrast to the huge debuts in Silicon Valley of such (More info...)
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TigerText Taps Symantec, LinkedIn For Engineering ExecutivesSanta Monica-based enterprise, real time messaging services and software provider TigerText is bolstering its engineering ranks, saying Wednesday that it has snagged software and development veterans from both Symantec and LinkedIn as new VPs. TigerText--whose real-time messaging software is heavily used by healthcare and other businesses to replace insecure, text messaging--said it has hired Deepak Kothule as its new Vice President of Engineering, and Johnathan Podemsky as its new Vice Presiden (More info...)
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Rightside Looks To Bring .DANCE, .DEMOCRAT To MarketRightside, the domain name service company which is in the process of being spun out of Santa Monica-based Demand Media, said today that it has inked a deal to bring to new domains to the market: .DANCE and .DEMOCRAT. The new, global top-level domains (gTLDs) are among hundreds of new domain extensions which are hoping to gain a share of the domain name market, currently dominated by the more common .COM, .NET, .ORG and other top level domains. Rightside said it has begun early registration of . (More info...)
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DogVacay Appoints Marketing, Product VPsSanta Monica-based online petsitting marketplace DogVacay has bolstered its marketing and product team, saying this morning that it has named Kerry Bennett as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Jeanne Anderson as Senior Vice President of Product. Bennett joins from HauteLook, where she was SVP of Marketing, and Anderson joins from Futuredontics, where she was VP of Product Management. DogVacay said the move will help it bolster its growth efforts. DogVacay operates a service which connects d (More info...)
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LA Names Chief Innovation Technology OfficerIn a move that further bolster's Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti's reputation as LA's "tech mayor", Garcetti has announced that he has appointed Peter Marx as the city's first Chief Innovation Technology Officer yesterday, to help oversee the implementation of technology across LA's city government. Garcetti said that Marx will aim to help city government work better with residents using new technology, and also partner with the LA technology industry to deploy technology and promote local job c (More info...)
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Inogen Sets IPO RangeGoleta-based medical equipment maker Inogen has set the pricing range for its IPO, saying in a filing with the SEC that it expects its stock to price at between $16.00 and $18.00 per share. The company is offering up 3,529,411 shares of its stock, and plans to trade on the NASDAQ Global Market as INGN. Inogen is a maker of oxygen concentrators and equipment used by patients with COPD and other respiratory ailments. Inogen's portable oxygen concentrators are used as an alternative to bulky and in (More info...)
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Rubicon Project Files For IPOLos Angeles-based online advertising technology developer Rubicon Project has filed for an IPO, saying in a filing with the SEC that it is looking to sell up to $100M in its stock in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it is looking to trade under the symbol RUBI. The company's IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Sachs, & Co., RBC Capital Markets, Needham & Company, Oppenheimer & Co, and Luma Securities. Rubicon is venture backed by Clearstone Ventures, News (More info...)
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NewEgg Takes On Amazon PrimeCity of Industry-based NewEgg, the unsung, billion dollar e-commerce giant which is among the largest online businesses in Southern California, is taking on Amazon Prime with a new program it launched this morning--NewEgg Premier. NewEgg began offering the new program to its customers this morning, saying that customers can get free expedited shipping, exclusive deals, free returns, and dedicated customer service by joining the $49.99 per year program. The program looks to be a parallel to Amazo (More info...)
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Saatchi Looks To Elevate Animated GIFs To ArtIn an interesting move, Saatchi Gallery, Saatchi Art, and Google+ said they are running a new prize competition to encourage the creation of "motion photography" -- better known to you and I as animated GIFs. According to the three, they are launching the Motion Photography Prize, which will encourage photographers to participate in the "new creative art form." Winners will receive a showcase of their works on Saatchi Art, which is an online art gallery, as well as an actual exhibition at the S (More info...)
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Swagbucks Hits $50M In Revenues, Expands Executive TeamLos Angeles-based Prodege, the company which runs the Swagbucks rewards site, reported today that the firm passed $50M in revenue in 2013, is profitable, and has expanded its executive team to include a new Executive Chairman, Chuck Davis, the former CEO of Shopzilla and Fandango; a new CFO, Brad Kates; and a new CTO, Shane O'Neill. Kates was CFO of both Shopzilla.com and Bizrate.com, and O'Neill was CTo of Fandango and the Synapse Group. Prodege, which is led by Josef Gorowitz, rewards users fo (More info...)
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Auspex Prices IPOLa Jolla-based biopharmaceuticals developer Auspex Pharmaceuticals has priced its IPO, saying it will offer up 7,000,000 shares of its common stock at $12.00 per share. The company will begin trading this morning as ASPX on the NASDAQ Global Market. Auspex is developing treatments for Huntington's and other orphan diseases. The company is venture backed by Deerfield Management Company, Thomas, McNerney and Partners, CMEA Capital, Panorama Capital, BioMed Ventures and Costa Verde Capital. The com (More info...)
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Avery, Stamps.com In PartnershipBrea-based label and packaging products firm Avery and Los Angeles electronic postage provider Stamps.com announced this morning that the two have launched a new electronic postage service for the Avery Design & Print Online service. The two said the service now allows label users to print official USPS postage on Avery's address labels, using their inkjet or laser printer. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The service matches up Avery's various label formats with pre-filled temp (More info...)
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REC Solar Shifts To Commercial Market, Sells Consumer OperationsSan Luis Obispo-based solar power installer REC Solar said Tuesday that it has shifted its operations to the commercial market, and has sold its consumer operations to Sunrun. Financial terms of the sale were not announced. REC Solar said the move comes because the commercial and residential solar businesses are built on "fundamentally different models" and have different customer bases and sources of capital. Sunrun is venture backed by Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Foundation Capital, and M (More info...)
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Amgen, Merck In Collaboration Over Melanoma TreatmentsThousand Oaks-based Amgen and fellow biopharmaceuticals firm Merck said this morning that they are in an agreement to create a combination treatment for advanced melanoma. The two said they are looking to evaluate the safety and efficacy of talimogene laherparepvec, an investigational oncolytic immunotherapy, combined with MK-3475, an investigational anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, to treat mid to late-stage melanoma. Financial details of the collaboration were not announced by the companies.
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