Wednesday, March 1, 2017Snap's Big Winners: Spiegel, Murphy, Lasky, Benchmark, LightspeedWho are the big winners after the IPO pricing of Venice, California-based Snap Inc. on Wednesday afternoon? Obviously, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy both have instantly been catapulted into the ranks of billionaires, with a net worth of $3.58 billion each in SNAP's publicly traded stock. Other big winners are venture investors Benchmark Capital, and General Partner Mitch Lasky, with just over $2.0 billion in stock after the IPO plus Lightspeed Partners with $1.39 billion in stock. Of (More info...)
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Snap Prices IPO, Debuts On NYSE TomorrowVenice, California-based Snap, Inc. has officially priced its IPO, saying on Wednesday afternoon that it will sell 200M shares of its common stock at $17.00 per share. The IPO will raise $3.4 billion for Snap, the company behind Snapchat, valuing the company at approximately $24 billion. The IPO is Southern California's largest, technology IPO in history, and makes founder Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy each instantly worth $3.58 billion each. Snap will begin trading at SNAP on the NYSE tomorrow. (More info...)
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inVia Robotics Rolls Out Warehouse Automation SystemLos Angeles-based inVia Robotics has rolled out a new robotics system, aimed at warehouse automation, specifically aimed at e-commerce retailers and fulfillment providers. According to inVia, its new inVia Dynamic Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) is designed to deliver toes, trays, and others to pickers, packers, and replenishers in warehouses, to help lower human travel time and liability in warehouse aisles. Pricing on the new system was not announced. inVia's systems are similar (More info...)
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Illumina's GRAIL Raises $900M In Funding RoundGRAIL, the cancer detection spinout of San Diego's Illumina, said this morning that it has raised $900M in a first close of a planned, $1 billion funding round. The Series B funding was led by Arch Venture Partners, and included Johnson and Johnson Innovation, Amazon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, McKesson Ventures, Merck, Tencent Holdings, and Varian Medical Systems. Illumina spun out GRAIL last year. GRAIL is based in Silicon Valley.
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The Annenberg Foundation Seeks To Spur Philanthropy From LA's Tech CommunityThe Annenberg Foundation is announcing a new effort this morning, to spur more philanthropic moves by LA's growing technology sector, called AnnenbergTech. According to the charitable foundation, the leaders of LA's technology community today are "the philanthropists of tomorrow", and it is hoping its new effort will serve as a hub for that next generation. The Foundation said it already has been organizing roundtables and dinners with executives from tech companies like Snap, Riot Games, Mitu, (More info...)
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A Chat With Jamie Montgomery On How LA's Tech Ecosystem Has Grown
Next week is the Montgomery Summit (www.montgomerysummit.com), one of the longest running technology conferences held in Los Angeles. The conference is run by Jamie Montgomery, one of the local industry's pioneers in venture capital and investment. We sat down with Jamie—who has been part of LA's technology industry, either as an investor or advisor since its very early days--to get his perspective on where we are today, especially as it relates to all of the companies he's worked with over (More info...)
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Hyperloop One Eyes IndiaLos Angeles-based Hyperloop One, the Hyperloop developer led by Rob Lloyd and Shervin Pishevar, is lobbying for deployment of its technology in India, in a widely publicized meeting with Indian transportation officials on Tuesday. The Hyperloop One "Vision For India" event claimed its technology could be used to "reinvent and transform transportation in India", by connecting its cities faster than air travel. India's rail systems are notoriously overloaded and crowded, with many photos of passen (More info...)
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Report: Snap Working On Drone TechnologyFirst, sunglasses. Next, a selfie drone? A report in the New York Times on Tuesday says that Snap has been working on drone technology, to take overhead videos and photographs of its users. The NYT cited "three people briefed on the project" in its report, which comes on the eve of pricing on Snap's IPO. Snap, in its IPO filing, now calls itself a "camera company". The company rolled out its Snap Spectacles last year to let users record video clips and post them to Snapchat.
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Chrome River Wins Coca-Cola HBCLos Angeles-based Chrome River, which develops expense management and supplier invoice management software, said today that it has signed up Coca-Cola HBC, AG, the largest bottler of The Coca-Cola Company, as a customer. According to Chrome River, its software will be used for global expense management across more than 25 countries. Financial impact of the win was not announced. Chrome River said Coca-Cola HBC has more than 33,000 employees and revenues in excess of 6 billion euros. Chrome River (More info...)
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Iteris Expands BoardSanta Ana-based Iteris, which develops software used in transportation management, specifically for the agriculture market, said on Tuesday afternoon that it has named Scott Deeter to its board of directors. Deeter is the President and CEO of Ventria, a company commercializing recombinant proteins from plants. Deeter also previously served at CyberCrop, ran and led a joint venture between Cargill and F. Hoffmann-La Roche, and also had been at Salomon Brothers. Iteris--which looks to have underg (More info...)
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SimpliPhi Power Rolls Out Residential Energy Storage ProductOjai-based SimpliPhi Power, along with solar equipment distributor CivicSolar, announced today that SimpliPhi has rolled out a new, energy storage solution aimed at the residential solar market. According to the two, AccESS is an all-in-one, energy storage system aimed for use in the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) in California. SimpliPhi's system is based on lithium ferrous phosphate batteries, which SimpliPhi says avoids the potential thermal runaway issues behind cobalt-based lithi (More info...)
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Aerie Pharmaceuticals Resubmits NDAIrvine-based pharmaceuticals developer Aerie Pharmaceuticals said today that it has resubmitted an NDA (New Drug Application) for its Rhopressa (netarsudil ophthalmic solution) for treating glaucoma, to the FDA. The company said its earlier submission had been withdrawn in October of 2016, due to issues with its contract drug product manufacturer. Aerie said that its vendor's Tampa, Florida facility is now ready for pre-approval inspection by the FDA, the issue which had caused it to withdraw it (More info...)
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