Thursday, October 30, 2014


MakerBot Rolls Out Hello Kitty In 3D In LA
Fans of Hello Kitty have been flocking to downtown Los Angeles over the last few weeks for the big Hello Kitty-themed display at JANM, the Japanese American National Museum, and associated Hello Kitty convention-Hello Kitty Con--being held next door at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art) today through Sunday. As part of all of that Hello Kitty craziness, MakerBot, the 3D printer maker, said today at the conference that it will start offering up 3D printable Hello Kit (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)

uBeam Gets $10M For Wireless Charging
Los Angeles-based uBeam, a developer of wireless charging technology which uses ultrasound to transmit energy, has raised $10M in a Series A funding round, the company said Thursday. The funding was led by Upfront Ventures, and also included Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, CrunchFund, Ludlow Ventures, as well as angels Marissa Mayer, Tony Hsieh, Troy Carter, Shawn Fanning, and Mark Cuban. Upfront's investment was led by Mark Suster, who also joins the company's board. uBeam is led by Meredit (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014 (More)(Full story)

Topera, Started in San Diego, Acquired By Abbott For $250M Plus
Topera, a developer of medical devices used to treat atrial fibrillation, has been acquired by Abott in a $250M. Topera, until recently, was based in San Diego, but apparently moved to San Mateo in the last year or so. Abbott said it will pay $250M upfront, plus unspecified earnout for Topera this morning. Topera was venture backed by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), which led a $25M Series C financing for the company back in April of 2013, when the company was still based in San Diego.
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)

TigerText Poaches Oracle VP As Sales Chief
Santa Monica-based secure texting and messaging provider TigerText has bolstered its enterprise sales expertise, saying this morning that it has hired Justin Nelson, most recently a VP at Oracle, as its new Chief Sales Officer. According to TigerText--whose enterprise products are used by health care providers and others for secure, regulation compliant instant text messaging--Nelson was mosst recently Vice President of Oracle's Service Cloud, overseeing its Healthcare and Life Sciences division (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)

Hovelstay.com: Connecting The Adventurous Traveler With Cheap, Unique Rooms
Are you tired of booking that "luxury room" on your favorite vacation rental site, and finding it's really a dump? The founders of hovelstay.com (www.hovelstay.com) got tired of helping to list lots of "luxury properties" on vacation rental sites--which were anything but luxury--and decided to create their own marketplace which calls a spade a spade. The company has created a marketplace which focuses on "anti-luxury" vacation rentals--many of which can be called rather "unique". We caught up wi (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)

Global Eagle Entertainment Links With Satellite Operator SES
Los Angeles-based Global Eagle Entertainment, the developer of in-flight wireless and entertainment systems for airlines, said today that it has linked up with satellite operator SES, to bring Ku-band satellite bandwith to the company's systems. Financial details of the link were not announced by the companies. The two said they will offer up globall, KU-band satellite connectivity using SES's worlwide satellite network. SES has more than 50 satellites in its constellation, with five more in the (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)

Kurion Names VP
Irvine-based nuclear and hazardous waste management technology developer Kurion said today that it has promoted its current Country Director for Japan, Yohei Iwasaki, to the role of Vice President. According to Kurion, Iwasaki has been overseeing projects for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), as part of Kurion's extensive role in the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Iwasaki previously was co-founder of mOasis, and also served at Nishimura & Asahi and the Uchida & Samejim (More info...)
posted on Thursday, October 30, 2014(Full story)