Tuesday, October 7, 2014UCSB Professor Wins Nobel Prize In PhysicsUC Santa Barbara professor Shuji Nakamura--the inventor of the blue LED--is one of the joint winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Foundation Rights Association announced Tuesday evening. Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, and Hiroshi Amano--who co-invented the blue light emitting diode--were jointly awarded the prize for having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source. The Nobel Committee called the invention a "fundamental transformation of lighting (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
Cornerstone OnDemand Buys EvolvSanta Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand said Tuesday afternoon that it has agreed to acquire Evolv, a machine learning and data science company based in San Francisco. Cornerstone will pay approximately $42.5M in cash, plus assume up to 2.0M in debt and issue Evolv's employees up to 200,000 shares of its common stock. According to Cornerstone OnDemand, it will use the buy to bolster its big data analytics and machine learning efforts. Evolv was venture backed by VantagePoint, GGV Capital, Khosl (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
Breakout Gaming Antes Up To Cryptocurrency GameBreakout Gaming, which has operations in Los Angeles but has its headquarters in Costa Rica, said Tuesday that it plans to launch a new cryptocurrency it calls Breakout Coin (BRO). The company said it is aiming the new currency specifically at the gaming space. The company said it will begin trading its own currency for Bitcoin beginning later this month, and also has been focused on sponsoring its own World Series of Poker team. The company also has major operations in Las Vegas.
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
DogVacay Tops 1 Million Nights, Snags New CFOSanta Monica-based online dog sitting marketplace DogVacay said this morning that it has just topped 1,000,000 nights booked through the service, since its launch in 2012. The startup--which is led by Aaron Hirschorn--also disclosed this morning that it has hired former Bonobos CFO Bryan Wolff to run its financial operations. Wolff also has been at McKinsey, AllianceBernstein and Luxor Capital.
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
Colony Logic: Helping The Enterprise Overcome Legacy Systems
It's not often that startups come out of the gate, backed by a private equity investor. However, Los Angeles-based Colony Logic (www.colonylogic.com) is one of the few, having gotten its initial backing from private equity firm Blackstone. The company is focused on the enterprise software area. We spoke with Andy Vogel, COO of the company, to learn more about Colony Logic and its business.
What is Colony Logic?
Andy Vogel: We're essentially answering the basic question, if technology is (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
TenOneTen Backs Curbside For Mobile Ordering, PickupLos Angeles-based TenOneTen Ventures, the venture capital firm run by David Waxman and Gil Elbaz, is one of the investors in a mobile app developer which helps consumers order products and pick the up at the curbside of local retailers like Target. Curbside announced an $8M funding round this morning, which was led by Index Ventures, and included AME Cloud Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Chicago Ventures, TenOneTen, WGI Group, along with angels. Curbside is based in (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 (More)(Full story)
TigerText Wins Hospice GroupSanta Monica-based TigerText, the secure messaging service and enterprise app developer run by Brad Brooks, reported a win with a hospice care group called Solaris Hospice. Financial impact of the win was not announced. TigerText said that the Texas hospice group is sending more than 40,000 TigerText messages per month between more than 150 physicians and nurses. TigerText's real time messaging services enables healthcare organizations to get all the benefits of texting and instant messaging, wh (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
BloomNation.com Gets $5.55M For Local Flower DeliverySanta Monica-based BloomNation.com, the online floral arrangement marketplace headed by Farbod Shoraka, has raised $5.5M in a funding round, the company said this morning. The funding came from Ron Conway, Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital, and Chicago Ventures. BloomNation lets floral designers post their designs online, and then connects customers with those designers, avoiding the cookie-cutter designs currently found on floral broker sites like FTD, 1-800-Flowers, and Teleflora. Instead, Bl (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
Beepi Gets $60M To Expand Car Buying, Selling To LABeepi, a startup which helps individuals sell and buy cars online--by taking your car and running it through a 185 point inspection process, get professional photos, and more--has raised $60M to expand into the Los Angeles area and beyond. The Silicon Valley startup said this morning it raised $60M from Foundation Capital, Sherpa Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, along with angels. Beepi said last month that it was beginning an expansion into LA, to let Los Angeles residents sell (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 (More)(Full story)
Civic Resource Group Gets $300KLos Angeles-based Civic Resource Group, which develops cloud, mobile, and other software for government and other civic organizations, has raised $300,000 in a debt funding round, the company said this morning. The funding came from Lighter Capital, and came in the form of a revenue-based, debt funding round. The company said it will use the funding to deliver new cloud offerings. Civic Resource Group is led by Gregory G. Curtin, Ph.D.
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)
DTS Wins Deal With LGCalabasas-based DTS, the developer of surround sound and other audio enhancement technology, is powering the entire home entertainment products line of LG Electronics, the two said today. The companies said they are in a worldwise strategic alliance where LG Electronics will incorporate DTS' audio technology into connected TVs, sound bars, audio-video receivers and digital media players, and other of LG's home entertainment products. Financial details of the win were not announced.
posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2014(Full story)