Tuesday, February 21, 2017


Skurt Snags $10M For On Demand Car Rentals
Los Angeles-based Skurt, which operates a service that delivers a car to you on-demand when you need it for the day, and then retrieves it when you are done, has raised $10M in a funding round, the company disclosed on Tuesday. The funding was led by Upfront Ventures, and also included BMW, Cross Culture Ventures, Expansion VC, Greycroft Partners, and Magic Johnson. Skurt's app runs on iOS and Android. The company is tapping into underutilized vehicle fleet operators for its vehicles, and operat (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Burner Launches Hostbot To Help Airbnb Hosts Field Text Messages
Los Angeles-based Burner, the startup which lets users easily create their own "burner" phone numbers from a mobile app, has launched a new "bot" specifically geared at helping Airbnb hosts manage the flood of inquiries they get via phone. According to Burner, the new Hostbot can automatically respond to repetitive queries from guests--for example, "what's the Wi-Fi password" and "is there a laundry room"--so that hosts don't have to respond to every single inquiry from guests. The new app rolls (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Snap IPO Attracts Interest Of Non-Tech Wealth Managers, Service Providers
The upcoming IPO of Venice-based Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is spurring a lot of local real estate agents, money managers, and luxury goods retailers excited to get a piece of the action, according to an article in the New York Times. Although Los Angeles has long had a healthy technology industry -- and a very long list of established service providers who support the industry -- the high visibility of Snap's IPO has apparently been attracting providers more familiar with Hollywood m (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Media Temple Swizzles WordPress Hosting Plans
Los Angeles-based cloud hosting provider Media Temple has swizzled the arrangement of its managed WordPress offerings, saying today that it haas boosted solid state storage, added new content delivery network (CDN) delivery, and added other extra features and functionality to its plans. The company said its new Personal Pro, Elite, and a new Extended plan increases SSD storage from 30GB to 50GB for its Personal, and increases its Pro plan from 100GB to 200GB of SSD. The company is also now bundl (More info...)
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Jukin Media In Content Partnership With Japanese MCN On New Site
Culver City-based Jukin Media, which licenses and distributes viral, user-generated content for the TV, web, and other platforms, has inked a new content deal with Japanese MCN UUUM, the two announced this morning. According to Jukin, it is partnering with UUUM to create a new, UGC-based social video brand tailored for Japanese audiences. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The company said they will launch a site called Video Pizza, specifically aimed at Japanese audiences, and wh (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Snap Starts Selling Spectacles Online
Tired of chasing after the latest sighting of a Snap v129ending machine for your own pair of Spectacles, the company's sunglasses, which can be used to automatically post to Snapchat? Snap started selling its signature sunglasses online over the weekend, offering up the popular glasses for $129.99, for delivery in 2-4 weeks. The Spectacles had previously only been available through limited time, one day appearances of the "Snapbot"--an automated vending machine which was being placed randomly ac (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

SpaceX Delivers Another Payload To ISS
Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX successfully launched another payload to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, launching the tenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-10) mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The successful launch came after a delay on Saturday just a few seconds before launch, to correct a last minute anomaly detected in the rocket's steering system. The rocket is delivering more than 5,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS.
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Resonant Gets $7.5M Private Placement
Goleta-based RF filter developer Resonant announced this morning that it has raised $7.5M in a private placement for the publicly traded company. The funding came from Longboard Capital Advisors, LLC, which is an existing stockholder of the company. Resonant said Longboard also had provided it with financing in Spetember of 2016. Resonant trades on the NASDAQ as RESN.
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)

Illumina Names New Board Member
San Diego-based Illumina announced this morning that it ha added John W. Thompson to the company's board of directors. Thompson previously was CEO of Symantec and Virtual Instruments, and also has served at IBM. He currently is Chairman of the Board of Microsoft, and also has serve on the boards of Symantec, NIPSCO (Northern Indiana Public Service Company), Fortune Brands, Seagate Technologies, and United Parcel Service (UPS).
posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2017(Full story)