Wednesday, July 12, 2017


mitu Backs Effort To Increase Diversity In Digital Media
Los Angeles-based Mitu, the venture-backed online content developer focused on media and entertainment from a Latino perspective, says it is backing an effort by the Bixel Exchange, part of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce's Center for Innovation & Technology, Mayor Garcetti and Annenberg Foundation, to drive diversity in the digital media sector. According to Mitu, its ACCELERATOR program will provide hands-on training and mentorship to multicultural digital creators, teaching those cre (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Astro-Tek Industries Acquired By White Wolf Capital
Anaheim-based Astro-Tek, an aerospace manufacturer, has been acquired by private equity investor White Wolf Capital, the two said Wednesday morning. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. White Wolf Capital said it acquired the majority stake in Astro-Tek through a newly formed company, Consolidated Machine Tool Holdings, LLC. Astro-Tek develops equipment used by aerospace and defense companies to manufacture, test, maintain, and service aircraft, satellites, rockets, and missiles.
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Hyperloop One Completes Full System Test
Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One, one of the companies looking to bring Elon Musks's concept of a high-speed transportation system to life, said today that it has completed what it say is its first, full systems Hyperloop test in a vacuum environment. The company said it was able to send its vehicle across a track for 5.3 seconds using magnetic levitation, at nearly 2G of acceleration, and reaching 70 mph, on a test on May 12th. The testing was conducted in Nevada. According to Hyperloop One, it (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Ephesoft Snags $15M For Document Capture, Machine Learning Tools
Laguna Hills-based Ephesoft, a developer of document capture software, has raise $15M in a Series A funding, the company said this week. The funding came from Mercato Partners. Joe Kaiser of Mercato joins the company's board with the funding. Ephesoft develops machine learning software which is used to capture, extract, and analyze unstructured content from financial, federal, insurance, mortgage, and healthcare documents. The company was founded by Ike Kavas, and was founded in 2010.
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 (More)(Full story)

Vizio Sues LeEco Over Aborted, $2 Billion Deal
Irvine-based Vizio has filed two lawsuits against LeEco, after an aborted, $2 billion acquisition deal between the companies. The two lawsuits are looking for $110M in damages over the aborted deal, including buyer termination fees owed the company, plus damages over what Vizio says were false financial information provided to the company. The lawsuit claims that LeEco knew it was in a cash crunch, but still inked the deal to acquire Vizio anyway.
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Hutch Raises $10M Funding From Zillow
West Hollywood-based Hutch, the home interior design app developer led by Beatrice Fischel-Bock, has raised a $10M round of funding from Zillow Group, the company said this morning. Hutch, lets users take a picture of room us‌ing its mobile app, and lets users apply "filters" on how they might redecorate the space. As part of the funding, Zillow's Spencer Rascoff joins the company's board.
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Disney Accelerator Names New Class Of Companies
The Walt Disney Company has launched its fourth year of running its own accelerator program, the Disney Accelerator, saying on Tuesday afternoon that it has named eleven companies to its new class. According to Disney, the companies in this class include Ambidio (sound processing); aXiomatic (e-sports); Brit + Co (educational content for women); Epic Games (Unreal game engine); Hoodline (local news and content discovery); Kahoot (game-based learning); ProductionPro (tools for creators); ReplyYes (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

IDrive Targets Ransomware Recovery With New Feature
Los Angeles-based online backup provider IDrive Online Backup said on Tuesday that it has rolled out a new feature of its service, a new "snapshot" feature which is specifically aimed at helping with ransomware recovery. According to IDrive, the new IDrive Snapshots feature provides a historical view of user data stored in IDrive's accounts, so that users can perform point-in-time recovery of their files. The company said the new feature will help since Encryption-based ransomware might not be d (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

Arena Pharmaceuticals Looks To Raise $150M In Stock Offering
San Diego-based biopharmaceuticals developer Arena Pharmaceuticals said on Tuesday that it is looking to raise $150.0M in a public offering. The company, which is already publicly listed on the NASDAQ as ARNA, said that Citigroup, Leerink Partners, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and UBS Investment Bank are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, with JMP Securities as co-manager. Arena Pharmaceuticals is developing small molecule drugs, with its lead compoounds being aimed at treating (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)

ViaSat Adds Former Airbnb Exec As New Board Member
Carlsbad-based broadband satellite services provider ViaSat announced this morning that it has appointed former Airbnb executive Varsha Rao to its board of directors, bringing its board size to nine members. Rao is the former Head of Global Operations at Airbnb, where she was from 2013 to 2016. Rao also has served as an SVP at LivingSocial, CEO of SingTel Digital Media Ptd Ltd., and VP and GM at OldNavy.com; she also was the founder of Eve.com, in addition to working at McKinsey & Co.
posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2017(Full story)