Tuesday, July 7, 2015


Payoff Finds $250M To Fund Consumer Loans
Costa Mesa-based Payoff, the consumer finance startup led by Scott Saunders, has scored a $250M commitment from alternative asset manager Marshall Wace, to go towards the company's consumer refinancing and loans. According to Payoff, the deal covers a multi-year period, and will help consumers refinance and pay off their high-interest rate credit card balances. Marshall Wace LLP is a $22 billion alternative asset manager. Payoff is backed by investors Mohamed El-Erian(PIMCO); Joe Saunders (Visa) (More info...)
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Drawloop Technologies Acquired By Nintex
Irvine-based Drawloop, a developer of automated document creation software for Salesforce, has been acquired by Nintex, the two said Tuesday. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Nintex said it will be expanding both employees and oeprations at Drawloop's Irvine location. Drawloop was founded by Todd Mezrah and Jim Roberson in 2001, using Salesforce data to merge customer information into sales and service documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF. Those documents might in (More info...)
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Doppler Labs Snags $17M
Doppler Labs, a developer of immersive, wearable earbuds which connect to your smartphone to adjust the sound of live audio, said today that it has raised $17M in a Series B funding round. The company's R&D headquarters are in Camarillo, California, although the company says its corporate headquarters are in New York. The funding came from The Chernin Group, David Bonderman's Wildcat Capital Management and Acequia Capital, along with Live Nation Entertainment, Universal Music Group and WME. Dopp (More info...)
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Helio Back From The Dead
Helio, one of Southern California's biggest telecom startup disasters, is back from the dead, and is looking to offer up its prepaid wireless services again, according to the company's website. According to Helio, it will offer up $29 a month for unlimited talk, text, and rate limited data, as it reopens the MVNO, which originallys started in Los Angeles. Helio had burnt through more than $560M in capital as a joint venture of Earthlink and SK Telecom, before being sold in a fire sale in 2008 to (More info...)
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WhipClip Finds $40M More
Los Angeles-based WhipClip, the mobile television clip sharing app developer led by serial entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt, said today that it has raised $40M in a Series C funding round. The funding was led by Eminence Capital, and also included Institutional Venture Partners and Raine Ventures. As part of the funding, Eminence Capital gains a seat on WhipClip's board. WhipClip has also previously raised capital from William Morris Endeavor, Ziffren Brittenham, Greycroft, Ari Emanuel, Peter Gub (More info...)
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Shyp Ties With Goodwill To Pick Up Your Donations In LA
Shyp, an on-demand, shipping and delivery service which serves Los Angeles, said today that it has inked a partnership with charity Goodwill, where it will pick up items for the charity--for free--from Los Angeles users. Shyp--which is based in San Francisco--said it will pick up items from Los Angeles customers for the next month, as part of an expanded effort with the charity group. An earlier effort with Goodwill in April results in the donation of 21.5 tons of items to the group. The deal al (More info...)
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Sonos Takes Sonos Studio To London
Santa Barbara-based whole home music system developer Sonos is opening up a new, retail music space in London, called Sonos Studio London, the company said over the weekend. Sonos--which opened up its similar music listening space, Sonos Studio LA, in 2012--said the new space will offer up listening events, exhibitions, performance, workshops, artist talks and screenings. Sonos regularly features intimate, invite-only music performances at Sonos Studio LA, and also has run events in NYC, Amsterd (More info...)
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Ice Energy, NRG Partner On Energy Storage Projects
Santa Barbara-based Ice Energy, a developer of energy storage products and technology, and NRG Energy have inked a deal to deploy 1,800 of Ice Energy's units as part of a new energy storage project for Southern California Edison. According to the companies, NRG and Ice Energy have been awarded a 20 year, long term contract that uses Ice Energy's "Ice Bear" technology to provide 25.6 megawatts of energy storage. Financial details of the win were not announced. Ice Energy's products produce ice at (More info...)
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Ignyta, UCSF In Clinical Trial Deal
San Diego-based oncology products developer Ignyta said late Monday that it is in a clinical trial collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Ignysta said that UCSF will study its compound, entrectinib, in a proof-of-concept clinical trial in cancer patients with metastatic melanoma. Ignyta said it will contribute $1M towards funding of the clinical trial, plus per-patient fees.
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