Wednesday, August 23, 2017


Mucker Capital Backs Fraud Prevention Provider Emailage
Santa Monica-based venture investor Mucker Capital is one of the investors in a developer of fraud prevention and identity verification software, which uses email address scoring. Arizona-based Emailage said on Wednesday that it had raised $10M in a growth equity investment. The funding was led by Anthos Capital, and also included Radian Capital, Wipro Ventures, Mucker Capital and Tallwave Capital. Mucker Capital first made an investment in Emailage back in 2016.
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Open Listings Expands Home Buying Service To Seattle
Open Listings, a venture-backed startup which helps people find, tour, and buy homes, which has offices in both San Diego and San Francisco, said Wednesday that it had launched its service in Seattle. The move is aimed directly at competing with online real estate brokerage site Redfin, which is based in Seattle. Open Listings is backed by Y Combinator, Soma Capital, ChinaRock Capital, I/O Ventures, Joe Montana & Liquid 2 Ventures, along with other angels.
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Tinder's Parent Firm, Match Group, Spurned By Bumble, Say Reports
Match Group, the parent company of dating app developer Tinder, reportedly was spurned by dating app developer Bumble, according to multiple reports on Wednesday morning. According to those reports, Bumble turned down a $450M acquisition offer from Match Group in the last two months. Match Group owns Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, and a number of other dating sites. Bumble was founded by former Tinder executive Whitney Wolfe, who left Tinder in 2012 she alleged sexual harassment by one of Tinder's (More info...)
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HelloTech Behind New Samsung Galaxy Note 8's In Home Support
Los Angeles-based HelloTech, the in-home, technical support service started by Richard Wolpert, is providing the support for the launch of Samsung's new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone, in a major win for HelloTech. According to Samsung, it will offer up 60 days free Samsung Premium Care service to purchasers of its new smartphone. Samsung is charging $11.99 a month for its Premium Care service, after that 60 days. Wolpert, a longtime Southern California technology veteran, is involved in the AmplifyLA (More info...)
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CALIENT Acquired By Chunxing
Santa Barbara-based CALIENT, the developer of optical MEMs switching technology, has been acquired by Chinese company Suzhou Chunxing Precision Mechanical Co., Ltd., the two said this morning. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to the two, Chunxing buys a controlling stake in the company, and will also provide manufacturing services to CALIENT as part of the acquisition. CALIENT said it will remain in Goleta. CALIENT manufactures 3D, microelectromechanical systems ( (More info...)
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Net Data Centers Acquired By ANEXIO
Los Angeles-based datacenter operator Net Data Centers, which has two facilities in Los Angeles, has been acquired by another data center operator, Anexio. Financial terms of the asset acquisition deal were not announced. ANEXIO said it will add almost 200 customers, 3 megawatts of critical data center power capacity, and two Los Angeles facilities to its offerings. Net Data Centers had provided cloud and data center solutions for businesses, including many in the media and entertainment industr (More info...)
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LA's New Wave Of Companies From Serial Entrepreneurs
LA's technology startup industry has saw a surge in new companies and efforts from its serial entrepreneurs in the last few months. Serial entrepreneurs--those who have started and successfully sold or exited startups in the past--have been outsized contributors to the local technology industry, due to the experience they had in their prior companies. Here's a quick look at just a few of the new companies who are led by serial entrepreneurs from the LA ecosystem. Entering Startup image courtes (More info...)
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Elon Musk Shows Off First SpaceX Spacesuit
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based SpaceX, has released the first photo of a SpaceX designed spacesuit. Musk posted a photo of what he said is a working spacesuit to Instagram on Tuesday, saying it was "incredibly hard to balance esthetics and function" in the design, and that the spacesuit was working and tested to "double vacuum pressure." SpaceX has been working with NASA on launching astronauts into space on its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft.
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ID Analytics Names Chief Science Officer
San Diego-based ID Analytics, which develops consumer risk management and analytics tools for fraud prevention, said on Tuesday that it has named Sameer Chopra as the company's Chief Analytics and Science Officer. Chopra was most recently Chief Analytics Officer at GoDaddy, and also had served in that role at Orbitz, in addition to positions at Intuit and eBay. ID Analytics said Chopra will take over the role from Dr. Stephen Coggeshall, who retired last month from the company.
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MabVax Raises $1.3M, Hires Investment Banker To Sell Company
San Diego-based MabVax Therapeutics, a biotechnology developer developing antibody-based treatments for cancer, said on Tuesday that it has raised $1.3M in a Series J Convertible Preferred Stock financing, and has engaged an investment banking firm to "explore strategic alternatives" for the company. The publicly held company, which trades on the Nasdaq at MBVX, said the new funding will go toward working capital and general corporate purposes. Sorce of the new funding was not announced. MabVax (More info...)
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Axial Biotherapeutics Names New Executives
Pasadena- and Boston-based Axial Biotherapeutics, which is developing treatments for neurological diseases, said on Tuesday that it has named Srinivas G. Rao, M.D., Ph.D. as its Chief Medical Officer, Ryan Barrett as Vice President, Corporate Development and Intellectual Property, and Bridget M. Cole, Ph.D. as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. Rao was most recently CMO at DepoMed, and also served at Kyalin Biosciences, and was involved with Avalon Ventures, among other experience. Barrett (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2017(Full story)