Friday, July 15, 2016Sonos Opens First Retail Storefront, In New York CitySanta Barbara-based Sonos, which makes a line of very user friendly, whole home music systems--said this week that it has opened its first, retail storefront, in New York City, which includes seven "listening rooms" designed to look like a living room, and which are enclosed so that users can get the full effect of listening to music using its systems. Sonos--which has dabbled in retail with its "acoustic gallery" along La Brea in Los Angeles-said the company used thousands of pounds of sheetroc (More info...)
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)
Mindbody Links With Zenrez For Last Minute BookingSan Luis Obispo-based MINDBODY has linked up a new startup, ZenRez, offering up last minute booking for yoga and fitness classes, ZenRez said on Thursday afternoon. According to Zenrez--which just announced $2M in a funding round from ARTIS Ventures, Summit Action Fund and Precursor Ventures--it is in a strategic partnership with MINDBODY, where its software integrates directly with MINDBODY's software. Details on that partnership were not announced. ZenRez, which is based in San Francisco, says (More info...)
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)
Quest Software Founder Smith Backs Data Firm GrowVinny Smith, the founder of Orange County's Quest Software, has put his backing behind a new data integration sofware startup, Grow. Grow said this week that it has raised $11M in a Series A funding, which came from Toba Capital, the investment funding company run by Smith. Vinny Smith also joins the company's board as part of the funding. Grow is based in Utah. Vinny Smith sold Quest Sofware to Dell in 2012 for $2.4 billion.
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016 (More)(Full story)
Southern California Companies Raise $2.49 Billion In VC In Q2Southern California companies raised $2.49 billion in venture capital in Q2 of 2016, according to the latest numbers from the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association, and Thomson Reuters. The number for the quarter is the biggest amount raised in the region since the dot com boom, and a major bump over Q1's $957M. The boost in funding came despite a lower overall deal count, with 89 funding deals in Q2, versus 97 in Q1. The big numbers were directly (More info...)
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)
DJI Taps AirMap For Drone Geofencing, Wildfire AvoidanceDrone maker DJI and Santa Monica-based drone mapping information provider AirMap said Thursday that the two are in a partnership, where DJI will use information from AirMap to help drone operators avoid wildfires. AirMap said it is now obtaining wildfire information directly from the U.S. Department of Interior, and pushes that out through its API and web apps--to reduce drone interference to firefighters. Drones flying around wildfires has been a big issue for firefighters over the last few yea (More info...)
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)
Glaukos CFO Plans RetirementLaguna Hills-based Glaukos, which develops medical products for treating glaucoma, said late Thursday that its CFO, Richard L. Harrison, is planning to retire. The company said it has initiated a search to replace Mr. Harrison, who will depart the company sometime in 2017. The company said Harrison is retiring to dedicate more time to family and personal interests. Harrison has been the CFO of Glaukos since 2008, starting from when it was still a small startup.
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)
IDrive Rolls Out Hybrid Backup ApplianceLos Angeles-based online backup provider IDrive Online Backup has launched a new product, a hybrid, backup alliance aimed at the business market. According to IDrive, its 4TB, hybrid backup product both backs up data locally, as well as backs up that same data to the cloud, in case of a disaster. IDrive said it will charge $1000 per year for the device, which includes 4TB of cloud backup space to match the local storage.
posted on Friday, July 15, 2016(Full story)