Monday, September 26, 2016


Who's Next For IPO, Acquisition In Southern California?
It's been a banner year for acquisitions and IPOs in Southern California--with such acquisitions as the $2 billion acquisition of Vizio in June; the acquisition of Dollar Shave Club in February; and the IPO of The Trade Desk last week. Who else is on the possible exit list? We've looked through our list and highlighted some of the companies who have been rumored or confirmed they are looking for an IPO or exit. Image courtesy N StJerna via Flickr. 1. The Honest Company - The green and eco (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Report: Blackline Filing For IPO
A report on Monday says that Calabasas-based Blackline Systems has filed for a confidential IPO, with an IPO coming as soon as next month. According to Reuters, citing "people familiar with the matter", said that Goldman Sachs is leading the IPO effort, which could value Blackline Systems at more than $1 billion. Blackline is led by Therese Tucker. Blackline has been rumored to be looking at an IPO since last year. Blackline develops accounting software, used by companies for reconciling account (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

LeisureLink Suspends Service, Stops Accepting Reservations
LeisureLink, which develops vacation travel booking software and technology, and was started in the Los Angeles area, appears to have halted its service, telling its partners on Friday that it has suspended accepting new reservations as well as modifying existing reservations. The company--which is still backed by a number of Southern California investors, including the Tech Coast Angels--had merged with VacationRoost.com back in 2013, and moved its headquarters to Utah. Emails and phone calls t (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Report: Disney Eyes Twitter Buy
Glendale-based Walt Disney Co. is looking at a possible acquisition of Twitter, according to reports. Twitter had been rumored to be looking to sell itself to Salesforce.com on Friday. Walt Disney apparently is working with an un-named investment bank to evaluate the deal. TechCrunch says the deal is "much lower" than an earlier rumor of a $30 billion deal, which had been speculated in the Salesforce.com rumors on Friday.
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Snapchat Becomes Snap, Inc., Rolls Out Camera Sunglasses
Venice-based Snapchat said over the weekend that it has renamed itself to Snap Inc., as it rolled out a new, wireless camera integrated with sunglasses called Spectacles. According to a post by Evan Spiegel, the company decided to drop the "chat" portion of its name so that it can expand on the number of different products that it is developing. Spiegel also alluded to the public markets, saying that by changing the name users can search for information and "leave Snap Inc. for the Wall Street (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Estify Raises $6.3M For Auto Body Shop Estimate Software
Agoura Hills-based Estify, a developer of software to help auto body shops creates estimates on repair for auto insurers, has raised $6.3M in a Series A funding, the company disclosed today. The funding came from Romulus Capital along with ff Venture Capital. Estify was founded by Jordan Furniss. The company had raised $1.5M in seed funding in 2014, and was part of the AmplifyLA startup accelerator.
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

SpaceX Test Fires Mars Engines
Hawthorne-based SpaceX has test fired the "Raptor" rocket engines it intends to use to take humans to Mars, according to a tweet from Elon Musk over the weekend. SpaceX has not detailed all of the specs on the new engine, which is intended to propel its spacecraft to Mars, as part of SpaceX's longer term goal of getting humans to the red planet.
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

InstaMed Raises $50M
Newport Beach- and Philadelphia-based InstaMed, which operates a healthcare payment network, says it has raised $50M in an investment form Carrick Capital Partners. The company said the funding goes to accelerate its go-to-market strategy and to its healthcare payments technology. Carrick Capital's Jim Madden will join the company's board as part of the funding, and VP Chris Wenner will become an observer. InstaMed was advised by Cowen and Company in the deal.
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

CarLabs Gets Funding For Car Shopping Bots
Los Angeles-based CarLabs, a new startup developing conversational "bots" to guide users through car shopping, has scored an angel funding, the company said late last week. The ange funding came from Mitch Glub (former founder of Cars.com); Tom McAlear (former COO of DaimlerChrysler Services); and Kevin Keegan (former President, InsWeb, and SVP at JD Power). CarLabs said it has been developing conversational software which helps simplify the car purchasing process. The company's founders are Mar (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Capricor Therapeutics Gets $2.4M In DoD Grant
Los Angeles-based biotechnology developer Capricor Therapeutics says this morning that it has received $2.4M in a grant from the U.S. Dpart of Defense. The company said the award goes towards establishing a scalable process to manufacture its CAP-2003 (Cardiosphere-Derived Cell Exosomes) product. Capricor is currently targeting the compound for treatment of cardiac conditions, including those associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)

Verengo Solar Sells Assets In Bankruptcy Sale
Torrance-based residential solar installer Verengo Solar announced late Friday that it has sold substantially all of its assets to Crius Solar Fulfillment LLC, which is a subsidiary of Crius Energy Corporation. Financial details of the sale were not announced. Crius Energy Corporation is a provider of electricity, natural gas and solar products to residential and commercial customers. As part of the deal, Verengo said that Crius will provide "debtor-in-possessoin" financing which will enable to (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 26, 2016(Full story)