Monday, September 15, 2014Agent Ace: Using Algorithms To Help You Find A Real Estate Agent
In the age old world of real estate, it's often referrals, friends, door to door visits, and sometimes shopping carts which help connect home buyers and sellers with local real estate agents. However, Los Angeles-based Agent Ace (www.agentace.com) thinks is has a much better way to find the best real estate agent for you: software algorithms. We spoke with Mazen Fawaz, founder and CEO of the startup, to learn why the company thinks it can do a much better job of finding you a real estate agent (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
JibJab Buys Make Believe StudiosLos Angeles-based JibJab, the online greeting card company led by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, has acquired Make Believe Studios, which runs a service called Hello Santa, which lets kids have live video calls with Santa Claus. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Hello Santa's service---which runs only during the Christmas holiday--features Santa Claus talking with children via the Internet.
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
Sidecar Finds $15M More To Expand Ridesharing FightIt looks like the peer-to-peer marketplace for rides in Los Angeles is about to get a lot hotter, as one of the companies competing in the market--Sidecar said this morning that it has raised $15M more in funding. The company--which competes against such companies as Uber, Lyft, Flywheel, Taxi Magic, and others in region--said the funding came from Avalon Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and new investor Sir Richard Branson. Avalon Ventures is also based in San Diego. The company said it would u (More info...)
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Mobolize's New App Reduces Data Plan CostsLos Angeles-based Mobolize, a startup developing software which caches data on your phone to reduce the amount of data transfer on your cell phones--reducing data plan costs--has released a new app for Android. According to the company, its app reduces mobile data usage by as much as 20 percent, helping users to avoid overage charges and data costs. The startup is led by Philip Mustain (FrontBridge Technologies), David Cohen (Vantage Media), and William Chow (Stamps.com, Troika Networks). Moboli (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
Qualcomm Acquires EuvisionSan Diego-based Qualcomm has acquired European company Euvision, a developer of image recognition software, according to Euvision today. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Euvision was based in The Netherlands. The deal was announced by Qualcomm Ventures on Twitter last week. Euvision's technology automatically sorts photos based on their content, and was spun off from the University of Amsterdam. Euvision was one of the winners of Qualcomm's annual QPrize competition.
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
socalTECH: Nominations Open For The socalTECH 50!Reminder: We're now taking nominations for the socalTECH 50, our annual list of the top 50, up-and-coming individuals in Southern California's technology!
We're looking to identify the individuals here in the technology industry, across all sectors, who are most likely to create the next big thing, produce the next big exit or to influence the industry in a significant way. If you'd like to nominate an individual (not company) for this award, we've just started collecting your nominations onlin (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
Boulder Electric Vehicles Shuts LA FacilityBoulder Electric Vehicles, a startup developing electric powered trucks, has shut down its production facility in Chatsworth, as the company looks for a buyer. The move was originally reported by The Daily News. The DailY News reports that the family laid off around 50 people at the Chatsworth plant as a result of the shutdown, as the company has "mothballed" its operations. Boulder Electric Vehicles had been developing medium- and light-duty electric trucks, aimed at the corporate and municipal (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
NantBioScience Ties With University of ColoradoLos Angeles-based NantBioScience, one of the companies out of the NantWorks family of companies founded by billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said this morning that it has tied with the University of Colorado on developing a protein cancer fighting drug. According to NantBioScience, it is in a research collaboration and an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the University of Colorado for the development and commercialization of anti-cancer agents. Financial details of the deal were n (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
Sotera Wireless Names Sales, Marketing VPSan Diego-based Sotera Wireless, which develops wireless vital signs monitoring devices, said today that it has named Charlie Alvarez as thec ompany's new Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Alvarez was most recently EVP of Sales and Marketing at SleepMed, and also has served at Watermark, PSS/World Medical (now McKesson Corporation), and CardioNet.
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)
Broadcom Rolls New 100GbE PHYsIrvine-based Broadcom said today that it has rolled out a new family of multi-rate 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) gearbox physical layer transceiver (PHY) chips, specifically for cloud data centers. According to the company, the new chips reduce power consumption by up to 30 percent, and doubles the density of existing products. Broadcom's chips are used in designs by manufacturer of 100GbE equipment, such as switches and routers. The company said the chips are now sampling.
posted on Monday, September 15, 2014(Full story)