Thursday, January 12, 2017


RadPad Acquired By LandlordStation
Los Angeles-based apartment rental marketplace RadPad, which was founded by Jonathan Eppers, has been acquired by LandlordStation. RadPad had offered up a place to search for apartment rentals, which were shown on a map and also let users search by feature, price, and other details. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. RadPad had been venture backed by Altpoint Ventures, Goldcrest Investments and AmplifyLA.
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Correlation Ventures Raises $200M In New Investment Fund
Correlation Ventures, a venture capital investment firm with offices in San Diego, Palo Alto, and New York City, said this week that it has raised $200M in a new investment fund. The company said the second fund was oversubscribed, and brings its total assets under management to $366M. Limited partners in the new fund included endowments, pensions, funds of funds and family offices, according to the firm. Correlation's co-founders and Managing Directors are David Coats and Trevor Kienzle. The co (More info...)
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General Assembly Opening New Location In Little Tokyo
Technical training and education provider General Assembly is opening up a new location in Los Angeles, its second, in Little Tokyo, the company said on Thursday. According to General Assembly, the new location--at 2nd Street and S. Central Ave. in Little Tokyo--will allow people located in the "heart of LA" to access its services. General Assembly currently has a campus in Santa Monica and one in Irvine. The company offers up classes around coding, design, marketing, and other topics of interes (More info...)
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SpaceX Edges Closer To Weekend Launch
Hawthorne-based SpaceX is edging closer to a planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 this weekend at Vandenberg Air Force based, after successfully loading the Iridium satellite payload to its Falcon 9 on Thursday, according to Iridium. SpaceX's next window for launch of the payload is on Saturday the 14th, at 9:54 a.m. PST. The launch comes after forecasts for rain and high wind--from this week's series of storms in California--moved the launch for an earlier, planned launch date on Monday, Januar (More info...)
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Snapchat Sued Over Electronic Messaging Patents
Venice, California-based Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has been sued in a patent infringement suit, by a company called Vaporstream. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Ninth Circuit of the California Central District Court (Vaporstream Inc v. Snap Inc), and cites a number of patents which were granted to Vaporstream in July of 2005 for Vaporstream's secure messaging products. Vaporstream says it develops "secure, ephemeral and compliant messaging" for the financial industry. O (More info...)
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Techstars LA Names Managing Director
Techstars, the startup accelerator operator which has been ramping up its efforts in Los Angeles, said on Wednesday that it has name Anna Barber as the new Managing Director of its Techstars LA program. In a post, "Why LA is the Future of Startups", Barber said the post is her "dream gig". Barber--who has been in LA for 17 years--previously was GM and VP at Fingerprint Digital, and was founder and CEO of Scribble Press, and also served at McKinsey & Co., and was a corporate lawyer. Barber also s (More info...)
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Report: Crosscut Ventures Launching Fourth Venture Investment Fund
Los Angeles-based venture capital investor Crosscut Ventures has reportedly started approaching limited partners (LPs) for investments in a new fund, its fourth. Crosscut's last fund, Crosscut Ventures 3, was worth $75M. The report, from the Pro Rata newsletter, said there's "a chance" that the new fund will be double in size of the last fund. Crosscut has not yet filed regulatory details on the new fund. Crosscut Ventures is managed by Rick Smith, Brian Garrett, Brett Brewer, and Clinton Foy. T (More info...)
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MSC Software In Play
Newport Beach-based CAD/CAM software maker MSC Software is reportedly in play, with current private equity owners Elliott Associates and Symphony Technology Group potentially selling the company to CVC Capital Partners, according to a report. Reuters quoted "people familiar with the matter" in its report, saying the deal could be worth more than $800M. MSC Software went private back in 2008.
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Honest Co. Hit By Recall
Los Angeles-based online natural baby and home products Honest Co., which was founded by Jessica Alba and serial entrepreneur Brian Lee, has voluntarily recalled its house branded "Organic Baby Powder". Honest Co. said the powder is being recalled for due to possible contamination with microorganisms, including some species associated with skin infections or eye infections, and present a possible health risk. Honest Co. said no other products were affected by the recall, and that it would be off (More info...)
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Inland Empire Startup J2 Innovations Joins Wells Fargo Incubator
Chino, California-based J2 Innovations, a startup developing building automation and operating systems for connecting and controlling devices, is one of ten early stage companies that are joining a clean tech startup incubator run by Wells Fargo. Well Fargo said that J2 Innovations is one of ten startupss who are each receive up to $250,000 in cash, and in-kind technical assistance to advance their technologies, plus access to Well Fargo's real estate for beta tests. Wells Fargo said the effort (More info...)
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Wpromote Joins Corporate Philanthropy Group
El Segundo-based Wpromote, the digital marketing firm led by Mike Mothner, announced today that it has joined the Pledge 1% movement, which pledges 1 percent of the company's employee time towards working with local non-profits. Wpromote said it will expand its focus on helping non-profits through the initiative. Wpromote already has been active in supporting non-profits, by helping to train those nonprofits on online and digital marketing. Pledge 1% was created by Atlassian, Salesforce.org, and (More info...)
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ConsumerTrack Expands In El Segundo, Ramps Hiring
Los Angeles-based ConsumerTrack, the operator of GoBankingRates.com and other personal finance content and lead generation sites, said today that it is expanding its headquarters in El Segundo. According to ConsumerTrack, it has moved into a new office wich has room for over 100 employees, and which also includes a custom gym and video studio to expand its production facilities. ConsumerTrack did not detail how large the new space is or where it is moving in El Segundo, but did say it expects to (More info...)
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Lytx Powers Driver Safety For Organic Food Distributor
San Diego-based driver safety systems developer Lytx said this morning that natural and organic food distributor KeHe Distributors has been using its DriveCam video safety service. According to Lytx, KeHe is using its DriveCam video safety system to help its drivers stay engaged on driving, and has been since 2013, to cover its nearly 595 drivers and 489 vehicle fleet. Lytx did not detail how much the contract with KeHe Distributors is worth to the company. The company said its DriveCam video sa (More info...)
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Carbonics Launches First Product
Marina Del Rey-based Carbonics said on Wednesday that it has launched its first product, a carbon-on-silicon wafer aimed at helping advanced radio frequency (RF) semiconductor development. The company said its ZEBRA carbon-on-wafer helps with the dvelopment of next-generation, semiconductor devices using semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT), which will allow for densities exceeding both GaAs pHEMT (gallium arsenide metamorphic high electron mobility transistor) and current silicon (More info...)
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