Thursday, February 16, 2017Maven Teams With The City of LA On EV Sharing EffortMaven, the car sharing service run by GM, and the City of Los Angeles said this morning at an event downtown, that the firm will be placing 100 of its GM Bolt electric vehicles into the area to help get people out of their cars. Those vehicles will cost $12 an hour to borrow, with free charging provided through EV fast charging provider EVgo. Maven launched its service in Downtown LA in October. The new initiative was announced at Union Station this morning by Maven CEO Julia Steyn, Seleta Reyno (More info...)
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Shippabo Snags $1.8M For Global Freight Shipping SoftwareLos Angeles-based Shippabo, a developer of software used to help importers manage freight and shipping, including comparing quotes from freight forwarders, filing government paperwork, and other related functions, has raised $1.8M in a funding round. The funding, announced on Thursday, came from TenOneTen Ventures, Double M Partners, Slow Ventures, angel investor Joanne Wilson and others. Wilson and Wonder Ventures' Dustin Rosen both join the company's board with the funding. Shippabo is led by (More info...)
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Tinder Buys WheelLos Angeles-based mobile dating app developer Tinder has acquired another, Los Angeles mobile app firm, Wheel, the companies disclosed this morning. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. Wheel's founders, Paul Boukadakis and Chris Shaheen have both joined Tinder as executives. Wheel was backed by Mark Suster and Allen DeBevoise, along with other angels.
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Report: Amazon Launching New Game Studio In San DiegoAmazon.com is launching a new game studio in San Diego, according to reports, in an effort being led by former Sony Online Entertainment chief John Smedley. The new studio apparently is looking to hire on many of the game developers who were at SOE. Smedley had been at Sony Online Entertainment for 20 years, up until July of 2015. The new arm of Amazon is apparently recruiting developers in Orange County, among other locations, to bolster the new game studio. Southern California is already home (More info...)
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Snap Sets Initial Estimated IPO Range, Seeks Up To $3.6 Billion In IPOVenice, California-based Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has set its estimated initial IPO pricing, saying this morning in a filing that it estimates its initial public offering price at betwen $14.00 and $16.00 per share. Snap said it is planning to sell as many as 230,000,000 shares of its stock, which would net it around $3.68 billion on the public markets. Snap has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange as SNAP. The IPO would value Snap at nearly $18.5 billion, if the comp (More info...)
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OzoBot Raises $3M For Educational RobotsRedondo Beach-based Ozobot, which develops educational robots used for teaching software coding, has raised $3M in a Series A funding round, the company said late Wednesday. The funding was led by Tribeca Venture Partners. Ozobot said the new funding goes towards product development of its products. Nader Hamda is the founder and CEO of Ozobot. Ozobot says its robot is now in 3,000 classrooms, and is being used to teach such subjects as art, English, history, science and more.
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Orreco Finds $2M For Sports Science, Opens Office In LAOrreco, an Irish company developing machine intelligence and data collection tools to improve professional sports performance, has raised $2M, and is opening up an office in Los Angeles, the company said on Wednesday. The Series A funding came from True Ventures. Orreco said the funding will go towards expansion in the United State and Europe, and to further develop its product for sports science and data, and specifically to open that new office here. Orreco was founded in 2010 in Ireland. The (More info...)
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Exactuals Adds $10.6M In Series B, A Week After Series ALos Angeles-based Exactuals, the developer of a software-as-a-service product used to track complex payments such as residuals and royalties, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $10.6M in a Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $21.5M. The announcement comes only a week after it revealed an earlier, $10M funding round. The new funding came from Entertainment Partners (EP), City National, and TTV Capital. Darren Seidel, Chief Finance Officer of Entertainment Partners, joins the com (More info...)
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Skyworks Aims At Chinese LTE Market With New ModulesIrvine-based Skyworks Solutions, which develops analog semiconductors, is targeting the Chinese LTE market with a new set of RF modules. According to SkyWorks its new SkyOne RF front end solutions include the ability to use the same, printed circuit board across multiple smartphone platforms, and ability to customize those modules for M2M and automotive applications. Skyworks is specifically aiming at Internet of Things applications requiring full LTE connectivity.
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