Wednesday, May 25, 2016


Victorious Gets $25M For YouTube Celebrity Apps
Santa Monica-based Victoroius, which develops mobile apps focused on YouTube creators and celebrities, has raised $25M in a funding round, the company disclosed on Wednesday. The funding came from Marker Ventures, Dentsu Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Redpoint Ventures. Victoroius is led by Sam Rogoway, and develops apps specifically for Internet celebrities and creators. The company has created apps for the X-Men Movies; Nash Grier; Fousey Tube; Niki and Gabi; Lele Pons; Lilly Singh; Ryan Higa (More info...)
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March Capital Partners' Jim Armstrong On A New, $240M Venture Fund
Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. We caught up with Jim Armstrong to learn more about the new fund, areas of interest, his insights into what makes startups successful, and where he thinks the venture market is today. What is the investment focus for this fund? Jim Armstrong: It's broadly techn (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

Amazon Opening Another New Warehouse In Inland Empire
Amazon.com said today that it is expanding its operations in California, with two new "fulfillment centers", including one in the Inland Empire. Amazon.com said it is opening up a fulfillment center in Eastvale--which is just west of Riverside---along with another center in Northern California, in Tracy. The company said the two centers will create more than 1,500 new full time jobs. Amazon.com said the two additional fulfillment centers will increase its number of employees in California to app (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

NantHealth Sets IPO Pricing Range
Culver City-based NantHealth, one of the startups out of billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong's NantWorks portfolio, has set its IPO pricing range at between $12.50 and $15.50 per share, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The company is selling 6,500,000 shares of its common stock in the offering, which would list the company as NH on the NASDAQ Global Market. The next step in the IPO process is the company's roadshow to investors and actual pricing of an IPO. NantWorks owns 60.6% of (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

Blizzard's Overwatch Goes Live On Console, PC
Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment said that its first person shooter game, Overwatch, is now live across the globe on PC, PS4 and Xbox One consoles. The game has been in beta with more than 9.7 million players already. The new game focuses on a cast of "heroes" who battle for the control of different locations around the world using futuristic weapons.
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

OneRoof Energy Cuts Staff, Realigns Business
San Diego-based residential solar installer OneRoof Energy has cut its staff, and says it is in a major realignment of its business operations to tap into consumer services providers and partners, rather than invest in its own direct sales. Size of the cuts were not announced by the company. According to the company, it has realigned its business to focus on what it calls its "Solar 2.0" strategy, which focuses on working with major consumer services providers and a focus on non-traditional chan (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

Report: Snapchat Looks For $200M At $20 Billion Valuation
A report published this week--which heavily relies on third party assumptions, back calculations, and analysis of regulatory filings--says that Venice, California-based Snapchat is out looking for $200M in funding again, this time valuing the company around $20 billion. The report says the additional funding is an expansion of an earlier, Series F funding of $175M.
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

AssetAvenue Launches 30-Year, Residential Loans
Los Angeles-based online, real estate investment lending site AssetAvenue has launched into providing 30-year, fixed loans for real estate investors, specifically to invest in the purchase of rental properties, according to the company. AssetAvenue said its new loads are intended for use in purchasing rental properties, including single-family homes, two to four multitenant units, condos and townhomes. Unlike a traditional mortgage, AssetAvenue said the new product uses not income, but an indivi (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

GumGum Expands In-Image Ad Deal With Publisher
Santa Monica-based image advertising technology developer GumGum is in a deal, which will bring its in-image ads to publications In Touch Weekly, Life&Style, J-14, Closer Weekly, Woman’s World, Twist, and M Magazine, according to the company. The deal is part of an expanded partnership with publisher Bauer Xcel Media. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. GumGum's technology is being used to place contextually-relevant ads over the images in those online publications, including acr (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

Penske Media Names COO
Los Angeles-based Penske Media Corporation, which owns such media brands as Variety, WWD, Deadline, Indiewire, and other online and offline publications, says it has named George Grobar as its new Chief Operating Officer. Grobar was previously Executive Vice President of the company, and has been at the company since 2009, and before that, spent 13 years at The Walt Disney Company. He also previously served at Unisys Corporation. Penske Media--which is led by Jay Penske--says it is in midst of a (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)

Tipalti Takes On Accounts Payable
Tipalti, a startup with offices in Westlake Village, said it has launched a new platform which automates the entire, accounts payable workflow for businesses. The company said its cloud-based product helps companies handle invoice collection and approval, plus also managed supplier payment operations, tax compliance, global payment remittance, and payment reconciliation with ERP systems. Pricing on the new software was not announced. Tipalti's offices are split between Agoura and Palo Alto.
posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2016(Full story)