Tuesday, July 1, 2014MiTu Bolsters Exec TeamCulver City-based MiTu, the Latino media brand and multi-channel network (MCN) which recently scored $10M from such investors as upfront Ventures, The Chernin Group, Allen DeBevoise, and Advancit Capital, has hired a trio of executives to bolster its team. The company said that it has named Daniel Batista, as VP, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development; Cesar Martinez as VP, Sales & Branded Entertainment; and Jeff Mayo as SVP, Business & Revenue Operations. Batista comes from Audi (More info...)
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Communities For Cause Gets $475K For Matching Nonprofits, BusinessesHuntington Beach-based Communities For Cause, a startup helping to match nonprofits to businesses, has raised $475,000 as part of an ongoing seed funding round. The company helps businesses by associating them with nonprofits, who they can contribute a percentage of sales to as part of marketing promotions. The company's founders are gary Allhusen, Aaron Sloman, and Carlos Aguilar.
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Ambrx Withdraws IPOLa Jolla-based biotechnology developer Ambrx has withdrawn its IPO, citing "current public market conditions" in a regulatory filing this morning. Ambrx was venture backed by Tavistock, Maverick Capital, Apposite Healthcare, Versant Ventures, 5AM Ventures, Roche, and Merck. The company had set an initial estimated IPO range of between $12.00 and $14.00 per share on June 11th, but apparently did not get the reception it desired from investors in its road show. Ambrx is developing protein therapeu (More info...)
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How Vadio Is Putting The Video Into Music, With Bryce ClemmerIn today's online world, there are audio streaming sites (Spotify et al), and there are video streaming sites (Youtube, Vevo, etc.); however, those two worlds are mostly separate. However, one local startup--Vadio (www.vadio.com)--is hoping to bring those worlds together, by using technology to automatically add and synchronize video streaming to existing, audio streaming sites. We caught up with Bryce Clemmer, the co-founder and CEO of the company, to learn more. Vadio came out of LA's Amplify (More info...)
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Tinder Co-founder Sued For Sexual Harassment, SuspendedOne of the co-founders of Los Angeles-based dating app developer Tinder, Justin Mateen, has been sued by a former executive for sexual harassment, and has been suspended. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles, former Tinder Vice President of Marketing Whitney Wolfe accused Mateen of a series of incidents and harassing emails, after a romantic relationship between the two went south. Among other accusations, the lawsuit claims Mateen repeatedly ca (More info...)
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Metacloud Partners with Trace3Pasadena-based MetaCloud, the provier of OpenStack cloud deployment and management, said today that it has partnered with Trace3, a provider of IT and other services to businesses. According to the companies, MetaCloud has been selected as the "open source cloud solution of choice" by Trace3, which will help implement and recommend Metacloud's OpenStack solutions to its own customers. Metacloud is venture backed by Silicon Valley Bank, Pelion Ventures, UMC, Canaan Partners, Storm Ventures, and A (More info...)
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Newegg Starts Accepting BitcoinCity of Industry-based online electronics retailer Newegg said today that it has begun accepting Bitcoin payments, via a new partnership with BitPay. According to Newegg, it will let its customers pay for their purchases in Bitcoin, by using their digital wallet via BitPay's interface. Newegg said that its customers are among some of the earliest Bitcoin miners and supporters of the crypto currency.
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ViaSat Links With Eutelsat On Ka-Band SatellitesCarlsbad-based satellite communications company ViaSat has linked up with French satellite company Eutelsat Communications, where the two will link their high capacity, Ka-Band satellite networks, the two said today. According to the two, the agreement will allow service access on roaming on each other's high capacity satellite networks (KA-SAT and ViaSat-1). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The companies said the deal will allow their customers wider access in an area spanning No (More info...)
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