Monday, May 7, 2018San Diego Airport Aims At Startups With New AcceleratorIn an unusual move, the San Diego International Airport is hoping to make it easier for startup and innovators to figure out how well their services work in an airport setting, with a new Innovation Lab, the airpot said on Monday. According to the airport, the new accelerator program hopes to help startups and others bypass what normally has been an "arduous and lengthy" RFP process which typically occurs when companies want to try to implement their services at airports, which can take up to 2 (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 7, 2018(Full story)
Snap Shuffles CFO, Snags Amazon Vet For PositionVenice, California-based Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is shuffling its Chief Financial Officer, saying that its current CFO, Andrew Vollero has agreed to depart the company. Reason for the shuffle was not announced, however, Snap did say that it will name Tim Stone as its new Chief Financial Officer. Stone was previously Vice President of Finance and Vice President of Physical Stores at Amazon since August of 2017 until February of 2018; he has been at Amazon since 1998.
posted on Monday, May 7, 2018(Full story)
SpaceX Targets Next Satellite Launch For May 10thIt seems like a week doesn't go by with another SpaceX launch or landing, and this week is no different. SpaceX said on Monday afternoon that it is targeting launch of the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 on May 10 from Pad 39A in Florida, at Cape Canaveral. The launch comes only a few days after the return of a SpaceX Dragon from the international Space Station (ISS) over the weekend, after a successful splashdown in the Pacific on Saturday.
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Champion Technology Gets Investment From R9BSanta Monica-based Champion Technology, which develops an artificial intelligence-powered software product for the cybersecurity area, to help improve cyber security analysis, has received a strategic investment from R9B (root9B, LLC), a provider of cybersecurity products and services. Size of the investment was not announced. According to the two, the investment deal came as a result of a strategic partnership and alliance between the companies. The companies said R9B is integrating Champion Te (More info...)
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Interview with Lidia Yan, NEXT TruckingHow do you get top tier venture capitalists interested in your startup? Our interview this morning is with Lidia Yan, the founder of NEXT Trucking (www.nexttrucking.com), a venture-backed startup which operates an online marketplace for freight shipping. Yan tells us how the company's revenues, growth, and profits--even in the early days--drove $21M in funding from Sequoia for the company.
Explain what NEXT Trucking is all about?
Lidia Yan: We call ourselves a digital marketplace for shi (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 7, 2018(Full story)
Rival Raises $30M for Ticketing StartupLos Angeles-based Rival, a new startup founded by former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard, has raised $30M in funding, the company disclosed over the weekend. The funding came from Andreessen Horowitz, Upfront Ventures, Dick Costolo (Twitter), April Underwood (Slack), and Patrick and John Collison (founders of Stripe). Andreessenn Horowitz's Alex Rampell, and Upfront's Greg Bettinelli have joined Rival's board as a result of the funding.
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Is Elon Musk The Next Willy Wonka?Elon Musk, the Los Angeles technology mogul who is behind such companies as SpaceX (rockets), Tesla (cars, solar panels), and The Boring Company (tunneling machines and "flame throwers"), joked over the weekend that he is starting a candy company. The remarks, on Twitter, apparently are related to back and forth between Musk and Warren Buffett. It's unclear if Musk--known for his sometimes geeky humor--is serious about "starting a candy company". Musk's few last jokes--about selling hats to fund (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 7, 2018(Full story)
Second Sight Medical Raises $10M Via PIPELos Angeles-based Second Sight Medical Products, which is developing implantable visual prosthetics, said this morning that it has raised $10M in a private placement. The publicly held company, which trades on the NASDAQ as EYES, said the funding came from entities related to Gregg Williams, the Chairman of the company's board of directors. The company said the new funding will go towards supporting several key near-term initiatives.
posted on Monday, May 7, 2018(Full story)