Thursday, April 21, 2016Acorns Gets $30M From PayPal, Rakuten For Investing AppNewport Beach-based Acorns, the developer of a mobile app which turns your spare change into investments in an exchange traded fund (ETF), has raised $30M in a new funding round from PayPal and Rakuten, the company disclosed today. The startup, led by Walter and Jeff Cruttenden, takes spare change from a user's debit and credit card purchases--rounding up those purchases to a whole dollar amount--and invests those into an ETF for the user. The company has now raised $62M in funding. Acorns previ (More info...)
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UTA Backs Captiv8 For YouTube Influencer MarketingThe United Talent Agency (UTA) is one of the backers in a new, software-driven influencer marketing startup called Captiv8, which announced a funding round this morning. Captiv8 said this morning that it had raised $2M in a funding round, from Social Capital, United Talent Agency (UTA), Subtraction Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Social Starts, Lone Wolf, and Jason Calacanis' LAUNCH Fund. UTA's investment in Captiv8 was led by Robyn Ward. Captiv8 says it uses artificial intelligence to programatical (More info...)
posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016(Full story)
TigerText Offers Secure Messaging To U.S. CellularSanta Monica-based secure messaging provider TigerText said earlier this week that it has begun offering up its secure, enterprise messaging technology to customers of U.S. Cellular. According to TigerText, the secure messaging allows those customers to meet security and confidentiality required by legal and regulatory standards, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In what looks like the first, direct billed move for TigerText, the two said that TigerText's s (More info...)
posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016(Full story)
GoGuardian Takes On Chromebook Management For SchoolsEl Segundo-based GoGuardian, a developer of digital learning software, said today that it has launched a new product to help schools manage their deployment of Chromebooks. GoGuardian said its new product, GoGuardian Fleet, is aimed at helping educators manage large numbers of Chromebooks, and allowing administrators to manage what content students can access, and other aspects of those devices. Pricing on the new tool was not announced. GoGuardian said it expects the tool to be available to th (More info...)
posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016(Full story)
Flipagram Rolls Out New, Streamlined Camera FeatureLos Angeles-based Flipagram, which develops mobile apps which let users set their photos to their favorite music, has launched a new, in-app camera feature, the company said today. The new feature lets users film and shoot quick videos and photos, directly from the app. The new feature creates a more spontaneous aspect to the app, which previously used photos and videos that were already residing on a user's phone. Flipagram said that those "ephemeral" videos and photos are automatically deleted (More info...)
posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016(Full story)
Microsemi Gets Early Approval On DivestmentAliso Viejo-based Microsemi reports this morning that it has received an early termination of the waiting period of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act, of its $300M divestment of its board level systems and packacing business. Microsemi is selling that business to Mercury Systems, Inc., for $300M in cash. Microsemi said the deal still is subject to other, closing conditions.
posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016(Full story)