Friday, February 5, 2016Pakedge Device and Software Acquired For $32.7M By Control4Pakedge Device & Software, a provider of home and business networking products and services, has been acquired by Control4 in a $32.7M deal, the companies said this week. Pakedge has offices in Huntington Beach. Control4 said that the acquisition will help it expand its networking, power management, and cloud-based remote management capabilities. Pakedge had approximately $18.5M in sales in 2015, and had been led by Victor Pak and Dusan Jankov. The company's offices were split between Huntington (More info...)
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Report: Honest Co. Prepping For IPO, Hires BankersA report Friday from Bloomberg says that Los Angeles-based Honest Co. is prepping for an IPO, and has hired a set of investment bankers for the effort. Bloomberg--citing "people familiar with the matter"--said Honest Co. has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to head up the IPO effort. Honest Co. is led by LA startup veteran Brian Lee, and was co-founded by Jessica Alba. The report says that Honest Co.'s latest funding round valued the company at around $1.7 billion. The report is the first (More info...)
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WiSilica Connects With $3M For Bluetooth TechnologyAliso Viejo-based WiSilica, a developer of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware and software, has raised $3.35M in a Series A funding, according to the company. The funding was led by FirstFloor Capital, and also included Anchor Asia Management, Aurotek and angels. WiSilica said it will use the funding to expand its product team, which currently includes 50 people in Southern California and India. WiSilica is led by Suresh Singamsetty.
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Wevr Finds $25M For Virtual Reality Studio, NetworkVenice, California-based Wevr has raised $25M in a funding round, for the company's virtual reality studio efforts, the company announced Friday. The funding came from strategic investors, including TC, Samsung Ventures, Evolution Media Partners, Madison Wells Media (Gigi Pritzker/Clint Kisker), Orange Digital Ventures, Digital Garage (Joi Ito), AME Cloud Ventures (Jerry Yang), Boldstart Ventures, Scott McNealy and Ross Levinsohn. WEVR is developing a content network specifically focused on virt (More info...)
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Disney Accelerator Returns For Third YearThe Walt Disney Company said Thursday that it will run its startup accelerator program, the Disney Accelerator, for the third year, with applications for the next session due on April 10th. According to Disney, the three month mentorship and investment program will run through the summer, with a Demo Day in October. The program, which is run in Burbank, includes both early and venture-backed startups in the area of media and entertainment. The biggest success so far out of earlier programs has b (More info...)
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Represent Acquired By CustomInk For Around $100MLos Angeles-based Represent, a social commerce startup which helps influencers and celebrities sell T-shirts and merchandise to their fans, has been acquired by custom T-shirt site CustomInk. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced, however, reports place the acquisition at around $100M. Represent was venture backed by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary of Sound Ventures, James Franco, and WME/IMG. The startup was lauched in May of 2014, and was founded by Bryan Baum, Leo Seigal and And (More info...)
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Make In LA Names Second Hardware Accelerator ClassMake In LA, a hardware-focused startup accelerator and mentorship program, said this week that it has selected a second class of startup for its four month accelerator program. The accelerator said it has selected Canviz (connected LCD photo canvas); Emerge (touch sensitive communications hardware); Luma Legacy (connected, smart bracelets); and Rufus Labs (wireless wrist communicator) to the program. Make In LA said the four companies were selected from a pool of 112 applications for across 24 c (More info...)
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AirMap Adds Security ExpertsSanta Monica-based AirMap, a startup developing airspace mapping services for drones, has added two security experts to the company. AirMap said it has named Jared Ablon as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), and named Lieutenant General Thomas G. McInerney (USAF Ret.) to the company's Board of Advisors. Ablon was previously at MITRE Corporation, where he worked on next generation GPS navigation systems for a number of U.S. Air Force programs, and also served at the U.S. Dapartmen (More info...)
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OpenX Touts Success At PurchLos Angeles-based advertising technology provider and marketplace operator OpenX says that it has expanded a partnership it has with publisher Purch--owner of Tom's Guide, Top Ten Reviews and ShopSavvy. According to the two, they have integrated OpenX's header bidding solution into Purch's monetization efforts and applied the efforts of OpenX yield analysts at Purch. Purch said the move has helped it see a 400 percent lift in monthly revenue from OpenX's software, due to help from OpenX's yield (More info...)
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