socalTECH

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

Lawrence Ng , the co-founder of Oversee.net, said this morning that it has launched a new, startup fund called the OnRamp Fund , a $10M, international incubation fund that invests in early stage startups. The company said one of its first investments is bridal retailer SimplyBridal.

Oversee.net 100

Oversee.net Incubator Startup Funding 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2013

I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). We love all of LA and fund all regions.

Funding 343

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Startup 343

socalTECH

MAY 4, 2011

La Jolla-based NeuroVigil , a firm developing non-invasive wireless brain recording technology and advanced computational analysis techniques, has raised a first round of funding, the firm said this week. Amount of the funding, and source, was not disclosed. The firm was founded by Dr. Philip Low.

Funding 133

Funding Zone Ventures Draper Seed Funding 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on the skills I’ve developed in my career. To some extent Keith Rabois agreed with me about domain knowledge and argued that most of his investments are in the consumer Internet space as a result. Always have been.

Invest 284

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 284

socalTECH

JULY 21, 2010

Santa Monica-based SolarReserve has now pulled in $110M of a committed, $140M Series B funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. READ MORE>>.

Funding 150

Funding Santa Monica Venture Capital Capital 150

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2013

Despite the increase in startup activity in Southern California, local venture capital funds are still few and far between, and a large chunk of the funding here is still from Sand Hill Road. The firm just announced that new fund, and a new name, Upfront Ventures (www.upfront.com). Tell us about the new fund?

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

Recently the firms two founding partners (and also Managing Partners) —  Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham  — decided to transition management of the firm to Andy Weissman (who joined in 2012) and Albert Wenger (joined in 2008 and writes one of the most thoughtful blogs in our industry ).

Venture Capital 161

Venture Capital Funding Capital Startup 161

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

And so it happened that between 2000-2008 I was the biggest buzz kill at dinner parties. They have marked-up paper gains propped up by an over excited venture capital market that has validated their investments. Logic tells me the following: It is hard to make money angel investing. It was an investment management class.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2015

Venice, California-base CrossCut Ventures , one of the region's earliest believers in the potential of Silicon Beach startups, has raised a new, $75M fund, the firm announced this morning. Managing Directors of the new fund are Rick Smith, Brett Brewer, and Brian Garrett, along with new addition Clinton Foy. READ MORE>>.

Funding 100

Funding Seed Funding Venice Mobile 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2012

The San Diego chapter of the Tech Coast Angels , the largest angel investment group in Southern California, as well as the United States, said today that it has established a new, memorial fund, the John G. The fund has been started by a $1M gift from the family of John G. He also served at Vestar Inc. and Galagen Inc.,

Tech Coast Angels 159

Tech Coast Angels San Diego Angel Funding 159

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2010

I’m writing this post to explain to entrepreneurs what you should be thinking about in terms of the VC’s you approach and the size and stage of their funds. VC’s often talk about this term as in the total amount of funds EVER raised by that VC. What is a VC fund? What is total assets under management? -

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Funding Invest GRP Partners 269

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

Santa Monica-based March Capital Partners (www.marchcp.com) has just announced a brand new, $240M venture investment fund, led by longtime venture investing veterans Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery. What is the investment focus for this fund?

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

Imagine that you funded Larry & Sergey, Chad Hurley & Steve Chen, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Pincus or Evan Williams. I’m obviously only naming a small fraction of their investments since I don’t feel inclined to research them all and many other great venture firms have this kind of access.

Invest 280

Invest Angel Venture Capital Yahoo 280

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2009

The Tech Coast Angels is reporting this morning that its members have now invested a total of $100M in Southern California companies, since it started in 1997. In addition to the lifetime total, the TCA released stats on its recent investing activity, and said it invested in 15 first-time financing and 16 follow-on funding rounds in 2008.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Invest Angel Southern California 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2009

San Diego-based Semtek , a developer of security technology for protecting magnetic stripe data on credit cards, has announced more details of the firm's Series B funding round. VeriFone and Semtek have bee working together on a VeriFone branded product since April of 2008. of the fully diluted shares of Semtek. READ MORE>>.

Funding 145

Funding San Diego Venture Capital Invest 145

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2009

Arcadia-based Siimpel Corporation , which is developing MEMs-based components for mobile cameras, announced Monday afternoon that the firm has raised an additional round of investment from LG Innotek. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. Siimpel was formerly known as SiWave, and is backed by DOCOMO Capital Inc.,

Arcadia 124

Arcadia Invest Zone Ventures Draper 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2010

Beverly Hills-based Hydra Media , the cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, has new funding in hand and legal issues behind it, and is now looking upmarket, the firm told socalTECH in an interview Thursday. How does the firm hope to attract more large brand advertisers?

Beverly Hills 165

Beverly Hills Funding Advertising SoCalTech 165

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I’d rather be Roger Ehrenberg with a thesis around data-centric companies and base my investment decisions on my background. I should say that I agree that naive optimism in entrepreneurs can produce higher beta (upside or flops) and that’s good from an investment standpoint if you’re looking for big returns.

Invest 152

Invest Angel Venture Capital Startup 152

socalTECH

APRIL 2, 2009

According to numbers derived from socalTECH's venture database, there was $717.96M invested in Southern California in the first quarter, up from only $465M in Q4 of 2008. However, venture funding totals were still well off the first quarter of 2008's nearly $1.2 billion in funding. billion in funding.

Southern California 113

Southern California SoCal Invest SoCalTech 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2015

LNG said that Ng is incubating a number of startups and selectively invests in early stage startups and funds. It's unclear how much the relationship will result in investments by Metamorphic Ventures in Los Angeles area startups. READ MORE>>.

Oversee.net 100

Oversee.net Southern California Incubator Venture Capital 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 17, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008 -- Funding Clean Tech Venture. Panel providing the latest information about where Cleantech investors are making investments and the relative state of the market compared with recent periods. Market conditions have changed since the heyday of the first half of 2007 but funding in this sector continues.

Funding 100

Funding LAVA Invest Marketing 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. I’m not a doomsday guy, but just believe that we won’t see a V shaped recovery, which could make VC funding more difficult for tech start-ups (don’t shoot the messenger!).

Venture Capital 269

Venture Capital Startup Funding Technical Review 269

socalTECH

MAY 26, 2009

Last week's angel investment report by the Angel Capital Association reported that investments by angel investors dropped nine percent in 2008, with a hefty percentage of angel investors--40 percent--expecting this year will be a down year. Tags: angel investment capital venture.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Tech Coast Angels Invest Westlake Village 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 2, 2011

According to multiple sources , the firm is dissolving the company, after failing to find federal matching funds for its efforts. Aptera had been backed by Esenjay Investments, Google, Idealab, The Beall Family Trust, and The Simons Family.

Idealab 185

Idealab Technical Review Google Funding 185

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2015

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based CrossCut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) announced its third, venture capital fund--a continuation of an investment theme very much centered around the growth of Southern California, and in particular, the Silicon Beach startup ecosystem. Tell us about your new fund?

Southern California 100

Southern California Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. That company was Invoca, which just announced a $20 million fund raise led by Accel. So I think it’s now fair to rate me at 9/10 on follow-on fundings. 5 years ago.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

socalTECH

OCTOBER 20, 2008

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association released their Q3 2008 venture capital numbers over the weekend, finding that Southern California companies raised nearly $751 in funding during the quarter. invested. in investments. do not expect venture funding to dry up.

Southern California 113

Southern California Orange County Funding Report 113

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

early stage fund, Domain Partners VIII. billion in the second quarter--a 13 year low--as only 25 funds were able to find capital through their fundraising efforts. The amount was down significantly from both last quarter -- when 49 funds raised $4.6B, and Q2 of 2008, when $9.28B was raised by 82 funds. was raised.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Funding San Diego Capital 100

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

The days of being able to trust that there will be an investor or lender on the other end of a call or email whenever needed ended with the 2000 and 2008 bursts of those respective bubbles. It’s entirely possible that Amazon could not be created and funded today with its planned seven years until profitability.

Startup 209

Startup Email Invest Capital 209

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 24, 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008 -- "Funding Growth in an Uncertain Market" Technology Council of Southern California. What can you do to be better prepared to get funding? What about after the funding? Financing Options available to Southern California Technology Companies have changed.

Southern California 100

Southern California Technology Council Marketing Funding 100

socalTECH

JULY 19, 2011

in funding, and San Diego $198.18M in investments. Quarter to quarter, investments were up from Q1, when $585M was invested in the region. Investments were slightly down from Q2 of 2010, when the region saw $856M in funding. Nationally, venture capitalists invested $7.5M raised for the quarter.

Southern California 167

Southern California Venture Capital Orange County Rustic Canyon 167

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2012

in a Series A investment, the firm said today. PromoJam was founded in 2008 by brother and sister Matt and Amanda MacNaughton. Sara Weinheimer of Golden Seeds joins the company's board of directors as part of the funding. Los Angeles-based PromoJam , a developer of enterprise, social marketing tools, has raised $1.2M

Social Network 183

Social Network Los Angeles Tool Software 183

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008.

Funding 57

Funding Startup Activity Custom 57

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The rise of “micro VCs” or seed-stage funds. The rise of alternative sources of capital (crowd funding and the like). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. ” Stated simply – if you seed funded Uber at $4.5m Why is this?

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2010

Los Angeles-based Burstly , the mobile ad management firm run by Evan Rifkin, said this week that it has added SoftBank Capital and Founder Collective to its Series A funding round. Size of the additional investment was not disclosed. investment from Rincon Venture Partners and GRP Partners. Burstly recently announced a $1.8M

GRP Partners 169

GRP Partners Venture Capital Mobile Advertising 169

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2010

The IPO is being undewritten by UBS Investment Bank, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Gevo is venture backed backed by Khosla Ventures, Virgin Green Fund, Total Energy Ventures, Burrill Life Sciences Capital Fund, and the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. and Piper Jaffray.

CalTech 210

CalTech UCLA Technical Review SoCalTech 210

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. However, they have been sending VCs far more investment checks in the last ten years than they’ve gotten back as distributions.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150