Thursday, May 25, 2017


Vinny Smith's Toba Capital Gets Exit At Codenvy
Toba Capital, the venture capital investment firm founded by Quest Software's Vinny Smith, has scored another exit, this time at San Francisco-based cloud applications tool developer Codenvy. Red Hat said this morning that it has acquired Codenvy, but did not disclosed financial details of the acquisition. Codenvy was backed by both Auriga Partners and Toba Capital, and had raised less than $10M in funding since it was founded in 2013. Vinny Smith founded Toba Capital in Aliso Viejo, after selli (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Chef'D Gets $10M From Campbell's Soup For Meal Kits
El Segundo-based Chef'D, which provides over 500 different meal kits for delivery to consumers, without a subscription, has raised $10M in a Series B funding, the company disclosed this week. The funding came from m Campbell's Soup Co. and FreshDirect. Chef'D send personalized recommendations on meals, based on a questionnaire and personal needs, and sends those ingredients pre-portioned in an insulated box to users for cooking at home.
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Faraday Future Seeking $1 Billion
Los Angeles-based electric vehicle maker Faraday Future is looking to raise $1 billion in new capital, as its main backer--billionaire Jia Yueting--apparently has run out of capital to invest in the company, according to a report from Bloomberg today. The report says Faraday Future has been talking with sovereign wealth funds in hopes of raising that billion dollars, as Yueting, the founder of troubled television maker LeEco, has run into a major cash crunch. Yueting reportedly has invested more (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Rocket Lab Reaches Space
Huntington Beach-basd Rocket Lab, a startup developing small satellite launch vehicles, says it successfully launched its first Electron rocket into space. The company said it reached space a 16:23 New Zeland time, after a launch from a location on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand. Rocket Labs, led by CEO and co-founder Peter Beck, has been building a small rocket specifically for use as a private orbital launch vehicle. Rocket Lab is now officially the second, private space rocket startup in (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Inseego's Novatel Wireless Sales Saga Continues
San Diego-based Inseego, which develops telematics and fleet management products, gave an update to its sale of Novatel Wireless to Chinese company Jade Ocean Global Limited, a subsidiary of T.C.L. Industries Holdings (H.K.) Limited this morning, with more news of delays in getting the deal approved. Inseego said that the parties in the transaction were informed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United State (CFIUS) that the 30-day review period has been extended into an investigatio (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Wemo To Connect To Apple HomeKit
Playa Vista-based Wemo, the smart home products brand which is owned by Belkin International, announced this morning that it will be connecting its products to Apple's HomeKit. The connection allows Wemo users to control their systems using Siri on their iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. According to Belkin, the new connection will come via the Wemo Bridge for HomeKit, which it says will ship in the fall. The new device connects to any home Wi-fi router via an Ethernet cable, and provides HomeKit in (More info...)
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)

Maxwell Shuffles Board Chair
an Diego-based Maxwell Technologies, which develops capacitive energy storage and other related products, said that its Chairman, David Schlotterbeck, has decided to resign. The company said Scholtterbeck resigned "for personal reasons", and the Chairman role has been given to Steven Bilodeau.
posted on Thursday, May 25, 2017(Full story)