Thursday, May 7, 2015MamaBear Dangles Free Premium Services For Mother's DaySanta Monica-based MamaBear, the developer of a mobile app which helps mothers keep track of and manage their families, said it will offer up a free premium services to users who sign up for the service during May. MamaBear--which is led by Suzanne Horton--said the offer is part of a marketing effort it is running alongside TeamSnap, Hot Moms Club and FlipBelt. All of those firms are offering similar, premium memberships to new users with varying terms. MamaBear develops an app to help parents m (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
aTyr Pharma Debuts In IPO TodaySan Diego-based biotech developeraTyr Pharma is debuting in its IPO this morning, after pricing its IPO at $14.00 per share last night. the company will trade as LIFE on the NASDAQ Global Market starting this morning. The company raised $75M in the offering. aTyr Pharma was venture backed by Fidelity Investments, Domain Associate, Polaris Partners, Alta Partners, Cardinal Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, and others.
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
Science Gets First Exit, Sells Playhaven To RockYouLos Angeles-based startup studio and incubator Science said late Wednesday that it has seen its first exit, and has sold Playhaven to RockYou. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. Playhaven is a mobile ad network, which Science had acquired in September of 2014. RockYou said it will use the acquisition to "turbocharge" its expansion into mobile. The two companies said Playhaven serves its mobile ads to 18,000 games and 250 million monthly active users.
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
Snapchat Injects New Life Into QR CodesVenice-based Snapchat--which has been including Snapchat branded QR-codes in its apps since January--said this week that it has rolled out a new program that allows users to personalize their own Snapcodes, with downloadable vector files and branding guidelines. Snapchat has been allowing its users to add friends on the apps by simply pointing their smartphone camera at those codes and taking a picture. The new files make it easy for users to print out and include those Snapcodes in advertisemen (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
Linksys Launches MU-MIMO RouterIrvine-based Linksys, the wireless networking unit of Belkin, said today that it has rolled out a new MU-MIMO enabled wireless router. The new Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router supports the new 802.11ac Wave 2 MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple Output) technology from Qualcomm. That standard provides dedicated wireless connections to devices, which Linksys can provide up to 3x faster speeds than current Wi-Fi. Linksys said the new device retails for $279.99.
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
EdgeWave Names Former Kaspersky Exec To BoardSan Diego-based cybersecurity software developer EdgeWave has named a former Kaspersky executive to the board, the company said Wednesday. EdgeWave said it has named Steve Orenberg, most recently the President of Kaspersky Labs, to the position. Orenberg had been President at Kaspersky for the last 10 years, having founded the company's North American operations. Orenberg also served as President of Sophos, NetGuard, and Dr. Solomon's software. EdgeWave is led by Dave Maquera, and backed by TVC (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)
ShipHawk Names New Sales ExecSanta Barbara-based ShipHawk, the online marketplace for packing and shipping, said today that it has appointed Erica Deas to its sales team. Deas was previously Senior Director of Mid-Market Sales at Tapjoy. ShipHawk said Deas will take over the daily operations and development of its SaaS sales team. ShipHawk's service lets users find and compare packing and shipping rates; the company is venture backed by DN Capital, Karlin Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners.
posted on Thursday, May 7, 2015(Full story)