Friday, October 9, 2015FilmTrack Finds $10M In Debt FundingStudio City-based FilmTrack, which develops rights and content management software for the entertainment industry, has raised $10M in a debt funding round, the company said this week. The funding comes fom Wellington Financial and Silicon Valley Bank. FilmTrack's investors include Insight Venture Partners and the Sandberg-Goldenberg Trust. According to the company, its customers now include CBS, HBO, DreamWorks Animation, Endemol, National Geographic, eOne and Miramax. FilmTrack is led by Jason (More info...)
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Amgen Gets Exit At Adheron TherapeuticsThousand Oaks-based Amgen has seen an exit out of its startup investment portfolio, and activities of its Amgen Ventures venture capital arm, at Berkeley-based Adheron Therapeutics this morning. Adheron said that it has been acquired by Roche, in a deal worth $105M upfront and up to $475M in additional milestone payments. Adheron is developing technology that disrupts immune cell adhesion, which is being applied to treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthrit (More info...)
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Interview with Michael Abrams, the Disney AcceleratorEarlier this week, the Disney Accelerator held the demo day for its second class. The Disney Accelerator takes ten, startup companies, and pairs them with mentors from The Walt Disney Company and elsewhere, to provide technical assistance, guidance, business advice, and other resources--and also helps those company link up with internal Disney resources that might help those companies succeed. We caught up with Michael Abrams, Senior Vice President, Innovation at The Walt Disney Company, to talk (More info...)
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SendGrid Rolls Out New Triggered Email ServiceSendGrid, the email infrastructure and delivery provider which has a big development office in Orange County, said Thursday that it has launched a new service that helps marketers send out emails to their customers, based on their activities and actions. The new service, Threads by SendGrid, allows marketers to craft how emails are send to users, based on what websites they view, what features they are using, mobile app activity, and more. Pricing on the new tool was not announced. SendGrid says (More info...)
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Ciphrex Appoints CFOSan Diego-based crytocurrency and blockchain startup Ciphrex has appointed a new CFO, according to the company. Ciphrex said that Carrie McQueen has joined the company as CFO, having previously served as CFO for such companies as Social Reality, LifeVantage and Mast Therapeutics, and also served at Websense and Qualcomm. Ciphrex is working on Bitcoin wallet software.
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FaceFirst Names Sales VPWestlake Village-based ,a href="http://www.facefirst.com">FaceFirst, which develops facial recognition technology, said Thursday that it has named Tom Melzl as its new Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Melzl joins the company from StackIQ, where he was Vice President of Sales, and also has also served at Inquira. FaceFirst says it is developing facial recognition systems targeted for use by retail clients, international airports, law enforcement, gaming and commercial customers.
posted on Friday, October 9, 2015(Full story)