Thursday, November 20, 2014eHarmony Completes IT Infrastructure RefreshSanta Monica-based eHarmony--which has been in the midst of a major refresh of its externally facing design, apps, and business to cater to the new, mobile user base--said this week that it has also completed a major, IT infrastructure refresh on the back of its services. According to eHarmony, it completed the first phase of a refresh and a new architecture, which it says will help it handle more subscribers, more traffic from mobile users, and more engagement and communications between its mat (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
Milk Takes Grocery Coupons MobileWish you could use your mobile phone to get some savings on your grocery shopping? Milk, a new app developed by Los Angeles-based Honey, is looking to help in that quest, by helping users more easily tap into grocery coupons using their mobile phone. According to Honey, it launched its free Milk grocery coupon app in the App Store Thursday, with the intent to take the hassle out of using grocery coupons. Honey said that Milk supports coupons from Safeway, Kroger, Ralph's, Vons and 15 other major (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
Flywheel Picks Up $12M, And A New CEOMobile on-demand taxi app developer Flywheel, which has been attempting to leverage the existing taxi and transportation infrastructure in Los Angeles to go head-to-head against Uber, said Thursday that it has raised $12.0M in a Series C funding, and installed a new CEO and executive team. The new funding came from TCW, Rockport Capital, and Shasta Ventures. With the new funding, Flywheel also installed a new CEO and executive team--including both a new CTO and CFO--led by former Amazon VP Rakes (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
FastPay Finds $15MLos Angeles-based FastPay, which offers up financial products specifically aimed at advertising driven businesses, said this morning that it has raised $15M in a funding round. The company, which is led by Jed Simon, said the funding came from Oak HC/FT. FastPay offers up invoice financing and other related finance products, which helps web publishers, online game develops, mobile app develops and others better manage their cash flow. The company's financial products are useful to many media bus (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014 (More)(Full story)
Burner Rolls Out MMS Support, New AppLos Angeles-based Burner, which develops an anonymous phone number app, has rolled out new MMS capabilities and a new, iOS application this morning, saying that users can now send and receive picture messages with anyone in the US and Canada. Bruner--which allows users to create real "burner" phone numbers on the fly and link them to their cell phone--said it completely redesigned its app for iOS. The company said its app is popular with users of online marketplaces, allowing users to create tem (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
eBay Launches Local Shopping App In San DiegoeBay has launched a new, local buying and selling app called Close 5 this week in San Diego, aimed at helping users buy and sell products to other local users. eBay said the app offers up user profiles and is a safer option to traditional, anonymous classifieds. The free app runs on iPhone and Android. Close 5 is initially targeting people looking to clear clutter from their home, and is also running a launch promotion that will award a closet or garage makeover for users who submit a photo of t (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
BioNano Genomics Gets $53MSan Diego-based BioNano Genomics said this morning that it has raised $53M in a Series C funding round, for the company's genome mapping technology. The funding was co-led by Legend Capital and Novartis Venture Fund, and also included Federated Kaufmann Fund and Monashee Investment Management, along with Domain Associates, Battelle Ventures and Gund Investment Corporation. Darren Cai of Legend Capital and Campbell Murray of Novartis join the company's board as partof the funding.
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014 (More)(Full story)
YapStone Plans Big LA Expansion, HiringSilicon Valley-based payment technology provider Yapstone has big hiring plans in Los Angeles, with plans to double the size of the company's office from 35 to 70 people in the next year. According to the company, it is hiring across marketing, sales, engineering, and product. The company--which currently has offices at ROC in Santa Monica--says it is in the mist to moving to a new office in Santa Monica in order to accomodate that growth in Q1 of 2015. Yapstone develops an electronics payment p (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
Calnetix Buys VyconCerritos-based Calnetix Technologies said this morning that it has acquired VYCON, the developer off flywheel-based energy storage systems. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Calnetix--which develops and manufactures high-speed permanent magnet motor generators, power electronics and magnetic bearings--said Vycon will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. VYCON's flywheel technology has been used for storing energy in subway systems, for wind power generation, and other ar (More info...)
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)
FreeConferenceCall.com Names VPLong Beach-based free conference calling provider FreeConferenceCall.com has named a new VP, saying recently that it has named Robert Wise as the company's new Executive Vice President of Corporate Development. Wise had most recently been at Intercall and West IP Communications, having served there for 16 years. FreeConferenceCall.com said Wise will head up bnew business and corporate development strategies.
posted on Thursday, November 20, 2014(Full story)