Wednesday, April 19, 2017


AmplifyLA: Dramatic Drop In Seed Funding In LA In Q1
Venice, California-based startup accelerator Amplify.LA reports that seed funding in Q1 of 2017 dropped precipitously, falling 42.2 percent from Q4 of 2016, and 43.8 percent, Year-over-Year. According to AmplifyLA, the number of seed deals dropped to 27 in the quarter, down from 32 from Q4, and--making a grim quarter even worse--the average seed size declined to only $1.9M raised, from $2.8M in the prior quarter. AmplifyLA pointed out that the seed deals were in contrast to the bigger picture, w (More info...)
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Forbes' Midas List Skips SoCal VCs, Again, But Gives Nod To Snap
The annual Midas List, issued by Forbes ranking the top venture capitalists, has again skipped any ranking of a Southern California venture capital firm--but credits the huge success of LA's Snap for the high rankings of eight VCs. Forbes said that Snap's IPO drove the high rankings of Ron Conway, SV Angel (#43); Tony Florence, New Enterprise Associates (#75); Mitch Lasky, Benchmark (#40); Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners (#32); Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (#6); Dennis (More info...)
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Validated Expands In SoCal
Validated, a new startup which offers up a mobile app which lets consumers earn transportation credits for parking, ridesharing, mass transit, and more for dining and shopping at stores, is in an expansion to Southern California today. The company--which was just featured on Shark Tank last Friday--said it has launched in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Monica, as part of a nationwide expansion beyond its home market in Seattle and Portland. The startup encourages consumers to visit brick-and- (More info...)
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Jam City Plans New Snoopy, Woodstock Game
Los Angeles-based mobile game developer Jam City, and Peanuts Worldwide, the licensing firm which owns the Peanuts and Snoopy characters, have teamed up to release a new game called Snoopy Pop, the two said Wednesday morning. According to the two, the game will be released on both Android and iOS, and is based on the popular characters Snoopy and Woodstock from the popular Charles M. Schulz comic. JamCity said that Snoopy Pop revolves around Snoopy rescuing Woodstock and his flock of birds who h (More info...)
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Bonti Gets $11.7M For Aesthetic Medicine Efforts
Newport Beach-based Bonti, a biotechnology company which is developing a botulinum neurotoxin aimed at the aesthetic medicine market, has raised $11.7M in a Series B financing round. Bonti said the Series B funding was led by RBV Capital, and also included City Hill Ventures, Colt Ventures, and others, and also included a Series B expansion from JMCR Partners and HighLight Capital. RBV Capital adds Alexey Konov to the company's board as part of the funding. The company has now raised $20.6M in t (More info...)
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Ixia Now Part Of Keysight Technologies
Calabasas-based Ixia, a developer of network testing hardware and software, is now part of Keysight Technologies, Keysight said late Tuesday, after the successful close of its $1.6 billion acquisition effort. Keysight paid $19.65 per share in cash for Ixia, which no longer trades on the Nasdaq Glo bal Select Market. Ixia becomes part of Key's new Ixia Solutions Group. Ixia was founded by Errol Ginsberg and Joel Weissberger in 1997, and had its IPO in October of 2000, and was part of a surge in n (More info...)
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FloQast Rolls Out New Analytics Software
Los Angeles-based financial close management software developer FloQast announced this morning that it has launched a new Close Analytics software module, which helps chief financial officers and controllers get a better view into their month-end close process. Pricing on the new software was not announced. FloQast said the new software helps organizations better understand the historical performance of their close process, understand what deadlines are being missed, and more. FloQast's co-found (More info...)
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Pledgeling Launches Apple Pay Support
Los Angeles-based Pledgeling, which develops software-as-a-service to help brands raise money for nonprofits, said on Tuesday that it has launched support for Apple Pay, Apple's mobile payment service. Pledgeling said it is the first, US-based social enterprise and third-party platform approved by Apple to accept donations via Apple Pay. Pledgeling said it launched its Apple Pay support at a fundraiser for the American Red Cross Los Angles. Pledgeling, led by CEO James Citron, helps brands conne (More info...)
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OpenX Selected By Kiplinger
Los Angeles-based programmatic advertising marketplace operator OpenX reported a win with personal finance news publisher Kiplinger on Tuesday, saying Kiplinger will use the company's header bidding, private marketplace and real-time guaranteed deals. Financial impact of the win was not announced. OpenX said that Kiplinger sees over 4.5 million unique monthly readers.
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SupplyPro Names VP
San Diego-based SupplyPro, a developer of cloud software for inventory management, has named Justin Dass as its new Vice President of Business Development, the company said on Tuesday. Daas was previously Senior Manager of Inside Sales and Business Development at Epicor Software, leading a team of more than 80. Dass also has served at Xerox, Tyler Wholesale, and Target Corporation.
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