Tuesday, April 21, 2015Upfront Ventures Re-Ups On Appointment Booking Site MyTimeLos Angeles-based venture investor Upfront Ventures has lead another round in San Francisco-based online appointment booking site MyTime, as part of a $9.25M Series B. MyTime said that the funding round was led by Upfront Ventures, and also included Khosla Ventures, Daher Capital, Accelerator Ventures, and Westfield Corp. MyTime offers up an online marketplace, which lets consumers book appointments across a huge swath of consumer services, and also provides tools for managing appointments and (More info...)
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Kareo Rolls Out Updated SoftwareIrvine-based medical practice management software developer Kareo, led by Dan Rodrigues, said Tuesday that it has launched the next generation of its cloud-based software for outsourced billing. The company said its Kareo Medical Billing now supports both web and mobile applications, adds customized reports, includes secure messaging, and many other features. Pricing on the new product was not announced. Kareo's investors include Greenspring Associates, OpenView Venture Partners, Silicon Valley (More info...)
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Twigtale Finds $1M For Personalized, Therapeutic BooksLos Angeles-based startup Twigtale, a service which helps parents create personalized books to help kids through everything from giving up a pacifier to moving to a new home, said today that it has raised $1M in a seed funding round. The funding was led by HBS Angels and the Tech Coast Angels, and also included Larry Paige and Lucy Southworth, Anne Wojcicki, Wendi Murdoch and Ivanka Trump. Twigtale's service uses expertly crafted, personalized books which the company says "make each child the he (More info...)
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CallFire Shifts ExecsSanta Monica-based CallFire, which offers up cloud-based text and voice communications services, said today that it has shifted the roles of two of its founders. The company said that TJ Thinakaran, Co-Founder and COO, has become Chief Services Officer for the company, and that Punit Shah, Co-Founder and CIO, will become Chief Product Officer. The company said the changes will allow Thinakaran to increase his focus on partner relationships, and will allow Shah to expand beyond his current role i (More info...)
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Disney Accelerator Connects Robot Startup, New Star Wars MovieIn one of the first concrete examples of the benefit of participating in the local Disney Accelerator, one of the first companies to participate in the Techstars driven program in Los Angeles--Sphero--is apparently behind the cool, rolling robot, BB-8, which is heavily featured in the upcoming Star Wars movie. According to Fortune, Sphero's robot was discovered by Bob Iger when he was mentoring Sphero as part of the first Disney Accelerator class. Sphero has actually been working on its rolling (More info...)
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Campus Steps Gets $3MSanta Monica-based Campus Steps, a new startup aimed at college counseling, said this morning that it has raised $3M in a funding round. The funding included $2M in a strategic investment and $1M in a venture commitment, according to the company. Names of those investors were not announced. Campus Steps was founded by Mark Eastwood, who was the former Head of Product at Rent.com/eBay. The company's Chief Technology Officer is Dave Meyer (Free Credit Report, eNeighborhoods), and its Chief Produc (More info...)
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Get Your Own (Model) SpaceShipOneMojave-based RutanRC, a new space startup formed by one of the engineers who worked on the SpaceShipOne and White Knight, as well as the designer of the Air Hogs toys, said it has launched a new effort to develop radio controlled models of the two spaceships. According to RutanRC, it has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of radio controlled models of the SpaceShipOne and White Knight, the designs created by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan. The startup said it was cr (More info...)
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Linksys: We've Sold More Than 100 Million RoutersIrvine-based Linksys said today that it has now sold more than 100 million of its wired and wireless routers, since it shipped its first router back in December of 1999. Linksys--which says it now has more than 60 different routers--said that, as part of a celebration of hitting that 100 million milestone, the company is launching a social media and effort to work with the U.S. State Department to make it legal to distribute its wireless routers in Cuba, in a campaign it calls "Link Your World", (More info...)
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Northrop Grumman Provides $17.5M To Caltech For Space Power EffortNorthrop Grumman Corporation said yesterday that it will be providing up to $17.5M to Caltech, as part of an effort to develop space-based, solar power systems. According to Northrop, the funding goes towards the Space Solar Power Initiative (SSPI), an effort to capture solar power in space, and to send that power back to earth. Northrop said the project aims to generate electric power at cost parity with grid-connected fossil fuel power plants. The research effort is being led by Professors Har (More info...)
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