Tuesday, January 26, 2016AECOM To Build Hyperloop Test Track For SpaceXA big Los Angeles area construction and engineering firm, AECOM, said Tuesday that it has been selected to build the first, Hyperloop test track, for a competition being run by Hawthorne-based SpaceX. AECOM said it is building a six-foot diameter, steel tube track which will run nearly one mile, adjacent to SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorn, as part of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. The size of the contract was not announced. The vacuum-sealed tube--think supersized pneumatic tube--will b (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Qualcomm Ventures Loses Top ExecutiveQualcomm Ventures, the venture capital arm of San Diego-based Qualcomm, has left the company and joined Microsoft. Nagraj Kashyap, who has headed up Qualcomm's venture efforts for the last 12 years, apparently is leaving for a similar role at Microsoft Ventures, the corporate investment arm of the software giant. Kashyap's now-deleted profile on Qualcomm Ventures' page says he built Qualcomm Ventures from team of only three people in 2003, to over 140 investments and $1 billion in venture invest (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
HopSkipDrive Gets $10.2M For Kids' Ridesharing ServiceLos Angeles-based HopSkipDrive, the kids' ridesharing service which is led by Joanna McFarland, said today that it has raised $10.2M in a Series A funding. The funding was led by FirstMark Capital, and also included Greycroft Partners and Pritzker Group Venture Capital, along with prior investors Upfront Ventures, BBG Ventures and 1776. The ridesharing service--which taps screened, childcare providers to drive children around town for busy parents--also said it has named the former GM of Uber in (More info...)
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GameSalad Launches New Windows VersionGame development software provider GameSalad, which has offices in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, has launched a brand new version of its Windows tool GameSalad Creator for Windows, the company said today. GameSalad said the latest version is both more stable than its prior version and integrates Intercom.io, adding Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) capabilities to its game software. GameSalad's software makes it easy to create mobile and other games, using a drag-and-drop, and without requi (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
You Can Own Minecraft Founder Notch's Stuff (In Real Life)Wish you could live just like Minecraft founder Markus Persson (aka Notch)? Well, you can--if you are the winner of an auction of some of the contents of the $70 million house he moved into in Beverly Hills. Persson apparently is selling Bentley furnishings from the house and a custom 40-piece chandelier, being conducted by an estate sale company.
Persson bought the Beverly Hills mansion back in December of 2014, although Persson has complained rather publicly about how becoming a billionaire (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
IPO Slowdown? Not For This Market: Santa Barbara
Amid hand wringing about an IPO slowdown in 2015, there's one shining region which had a banner IPO and acquisition year last year: Santa Barbara. The city and surrounding region, which has been a long time technology hub, had a huge IPO and exit year, according to an analysis conducted by socaltech. There were five exits north of $100.0M along the Central Coast, including three IPOs. The biggest exit was the $1.5 billion acquisition of lynda.com by LinkedIn last April, and three companies--Mi (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Insights: Why Your Next Startup Doesn't Need to be in Silicon ValleyFor our Insights and Opinions section today, Erik Caso, CEO and founder of San Diego-based Entangled Media--the maker of personal media streaming platform younity, tells us why your next startup doesn't need to be in Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley, or rather the Bay Area, is the undisputed center of the tech universe. Whether it's experienced labor, capital or services, the density of these startup factors is simply unrivaled anywhere in the world. Yet there is an obvious trend of compani (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Doppels Sets Up Shop In Los AngelesDoppels, a startup which develops a mobile app to connect people with the same birthday with each other, said it has set up shop in Los Angeles. The startup--founded in London--said it decided to locate in Los Angeles, after touring New York, Austin, and Silicon Valley, looking for the right place to launch the startup. The startup's CEO is Matt Hagger, who founded a startup incubator in London called E-Man Labs; the company's co-founder is Eli Shmerler, who comes from Belgium. Doppels says it w (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
UCLA Launches New Startup Incubator Space On CampusThe UCLA Anderson School of Management has launched a new, 10,000-square-foot startup accelerator space on campus, which it says is aimed at encouraging students, faculty, and alumni to create new businesses. The new Anderson Venture Accelerator, which is being located on one floor of the Rosenfeld Library at UCLA Anderson School of Management, can house up to 45 people, and includes conference rooms, a kitchen, and meeting spaces, according to the school. UCLA said that the space will be open t (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Kumba Health Launches Healthcare MarketplaceBeverly Hills-based Kumba Health, a new healthcare startup, has recently launched a new online marketplace for healthcare services, which connects patients with physicians, labs, imaging centers, and other healthcare services. According to the startup, it is aiming at the "direct pay" segment of the marketplace, where patients are directly paying physicians for services, and neither patients nor those healthcare providers are seeking insurance reimbursement. Kumba Health's co-founders are Philip (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Peekaboo VR Plans Virtual World For ChildrenLos Angeles-based Peekaboo VR says it is launching a brand new, immersive virtual world it says is targeted at children. According to the startup, the company has launched a 360 degree space, which features content both in 3D and traditional monoscopic views, to teach children about things such as evolution and space exploration. The new space is being developed by Julian Sarmiento, who has worked on visual effects for I, Robot, The Polar Express, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and other fi (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)
Foremay Ships Encrypted SSDPasadena-based Foremay, a developer of rugged, solid state drives, said it has launched a new self-encrypting, solid-state disk drive. Foremay said its new product uses hardware encryption to encrypt every bit of data on a drive. The company is targeting users in the government, defense, financial, and medical industry with the hardware. Among other features of the drive is an "instant erase" feature, which the company says can instantaneously render all of the data on the drive useless. The enc (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016(Full story)