socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Los Angeles-baesd online lender ZestFinance said today that it has raised $150M in debt financing, from Fortress Investment Group. ZestFinance was founded by Douglas Merrill, former CIO of Google; the company is venture backed by Peter Thiel, Matrix Partners, Kensington Capital Holdings, and Eastward Capital Partners.

CIO 100

CIO Google Los Angeles Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Last year I was on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley meeting with one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the country. The VC partner, somebody I greatly respect said, “Yeah, we like Gil and what they’re doing. I’m just not sure you can build a great technology firm outside of Bay Area.&#.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

The birthplace of sponsored search (Overture), semantic search (Applied Semantics which became Google AdSense), comparison shopping (ShopZilla, PriceGrabber) and many others. ZestCash, founded by Douglas Merrill, former CIO of Google [Hollywood]. Think about venture capital.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

Funding is different – In Silicon Valley you have mega venture capital funds and many of them. They not only have gotten bigger but they have an amazing track record of funding the biggest names in the sector: Cisco, Apple, Google, Facebook. LA produced Applied Semantics that created AdSense and was bought by Google.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290