Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according to a classic Crunchbase article. Mobile and web software apps may cost even less. Some VC firms are bogged down by their own weight.

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MARCH 29, 2019

MiLA Capital , the venture capital firm that is behind the Make In LA hardware accelerator, says it has raised its first official venture capital fund, officially closing its first fundraise. Size of the fund was not announced. Source of the funding for the new venture capital fund was not announced.

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OCTOBER 19, 2021

A new, Santa Monica-based venture fund, UP.Partners, said on Monday afternoon that it has raised a $230M, early stage venture capital fund focused on transportation and logistics.

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OCTOBER 5, 2017

A new, Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, Bonfire Ventures --founded by venture veterans Jim Andelman and Mark Mullen, and assisted by Leah Volger--has made its first public announcement of an investment, after stealthily making investments in the region over the last few months. READ MORE>>.

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OCTOBER 28, 2020

Two, Los Angeles-area venture capital investment funds have gotten backing from PayPal , as part of a new effort by PayPal to support Black and Latinx-led venture capital funds. led by Austin Clements and Ajay Relan; and VamosVentures , led by Marcos C. READ MORE>>.

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MAY 3, 2021

Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm which has offices in Los Angeles, has co-led a $14M, funding round in real estate startup Avenue 8, Avenue 8 said on Monday. The $14M funding round was co-led by Threshold Ventures and Craft Ventures.

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MARCH 20, 2020

Venice, California-based Robin Games , a startup that is developing mobile games aimed at women, has raised $7M in a seed funding round, the company said on Thursday. The startup, led by Jill Wilson, says it is developing "lifestyle gaming" titles, which run on such platforms as Apple's iOS and Google Android.

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JANUARY 6, 2023

Los Angeles-based Product Science said this week that it has raised $18M in a seed funding round. The funding came from Slow Ventures, Coatue, K5 Global, Mantis Ventures, plus angels Peter Fenton (Benchmark), Jerry Murdock (Insight Partners), and executives at Snap.

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JUNE 12, 2014

Santa Monica-based Mobile Majority , which offers up premium, mobile brand advertising, said this week that it has raised $8M in a Series B funding round. Mobile Majority is led by Rob Emrich. The company says that it is looking to address the "inherent fraud" present in the current mobile ad market. READ MORE>>.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. You want a VC who will spar with you but then STFU and let you get on with things.

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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!).

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

This was the first episode where Jason wasn’t on the show, which gave me the chance to have another VC on the show to discuss deals. Rustic Canyon is an LA-based, but geography-agnostic VC that is currently investing from a $200 million fund. VC Financings: 1. 15mm in Series A.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. Especially when he’s surrounded by Danny Rimer (who funded Skype, MySQL, Last.FM PLUS RELATED FUNDING …. Stitcher - San Francisco-based service that lets users customize talk radio programming on their mobile devices.

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APRIL 3, 2012

Laguna Hills-based Ayannah , a developer of mobile payment products for emerging markets, has scored a round of funding, according to investor Siemer Ventures. Ayannah also has offices in the Philippines and Hong Kong, and offers a number of mobile payment services operating in the Philippines.

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JANUARY 2, 2014

Santa Monica-based venture capital investor Siemer Ventures is one of the backers of a new, Japanese mobile video entertainment startup, Breaker. According to Breaker, it has raised $2M in a seed funding round, to help bolster its efforts to produce and distribute mobile video entertainment in Japan.

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JUNE 28, 2021

Santa Monica-based Tapcart, a startup focused on helping Shopify-powered e-commerce brands with mobile apps, has raised $50M in a Series B funding round, the company announed Monday afternoon.

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AUGUST 21, 2019

Santa Monica-based Tala , the fintech startup led by CEO Shivani Siroya, has raised $110M more in a Series D funding round, the company said this morning. The funding was led by RPS Ventures, and also included GGV Capital, IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, Data Collective VC, ThomVest Ventures, and PayPal.

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MARCH 20, 2020

Venice, California-based Robin Games , a startup that is developing mobile lifestyle games aimed at women and others, has raised $7M in a seed funding round, the company said on Thursday. The startup, led by Jill Wilson, says it is developing "lifestyle gaming" titles, which run on such platforms as Apple's iOS and Google Android.

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TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 15, 2021

The company’s mobile application lets users take a photo of any bill and then its artificial intelligence-powered “bill-understanding technology” makes sure it gets paid (after a user has provided payment details, of course). has been an anomaly, with only 3% of bills being paid by a mobile device. In this respect, the U.S.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. Individual angel investors and crowdfunding have been adding to the momentum, some say exceeding VCs in total amount invested.

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NOVEMBER 8, 2013

San Diego-based Mobile Learning Networks , which is developing tablet-based apps to help students work with tutors, has raised $350,000 in a funding round, the company announced Thursday. Source of the funding was not announced. mobile learning networks tablet tutoring tutor venture capital angel funding'

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DECEMBER 15, 2021

Los Angeles-based Papaya, a fintech startup developing a mobile bill payment application, says it has raised $50M in a Series B funding. The funding was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and also included Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime, and Sound Ventures.

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APRIL 13, 2016

Los Angeles-based mPulse Mobile , which develops mobile healthcare software, has upped its recent funding round to $13M. The company--which announced the first tranche of a Series A in January, worth $10M--said the new funding came from Cambia Health Solutions and Rincon Venture Partners. READ MORE>>.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. If you need funding for these early stage activities, I have some suggestions on better strategies to follow. Thus the best entrepreneur strategy for funding is to build solutions, not technology.

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NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Santa Monica- and Helsinki-based Seriously , a developer of mobile games, has raised $5M in additional funding, according to the company. The funding came from Upfront Ventures, Sunstone Capital, and Daher Capital. The company said it has now raised its total funding to $10M. READ MORE>>.

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FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Glendale-based startup incubator, accelerator, and investment fund VoiVoda is one of the investors in mobile optimization firm Leanplum , Leanplum said today. Leanplum announced it raised $825,000 in an angel funding round, which came from TechStars, Kima Ventures, VoiVoda Ventures, and other angels.

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JULY 26, 2011

Culver City-based ThinkNear , a new startup focused on helping local merchants reach consumers with mobile, location-based ads, said today that it has raised $1.6M in a seed funding round. READ MORE>>.

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OCTOBER 10, 2013

San Diego-based Qualcomm is backing mobile security software maker Lookout , as part of a big, $55M funding round for Lookout which was announced Thursday. Lookout develops mobile device and network security technology. qualcomm lookout venture capital mobile security software' READ MORE>>.

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OCTOBER 21, 2021

Culver City-based Embrace, a new startup focused on helping companies manage the mobile data they are collecting, has raised $45M in a funding round. According to the company, the Series B funding was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and also included Greycroft, AV8, and Eniac.

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TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 4, 2018

As you might expect from the name, Freeletics operates its mobile fitness coaching app on a freemium model, with tiered pricing beginning at $11.99 for one month or $74.99 for a year-long membership. “We want to be there for people who want a long-term athletic lifestyle,” Sobhani told TechCrunch.

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FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Los Angeles-based SoLo Funds, a startup which operates an online crowd-lending marketplace, letting users lend and borrow funds from each other, has raised $10M in a Series A round. The funding was led by ACME Capital, and also included Impact America Fund, Techstars, Endeavor Catalyst, CEAS Investments and others.

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OCTOBER 7, 2014

Los Angeles-based TenOneTen Ventures , the venture capital firm run by David Waxman and Gil Elbaz, is one of the investors in a mobile app developer which helps consumers order products and pick the up at the curbside of local retailers like Target. Curbside is based in Palo Alto. READ MORE>>.

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NOVEMBER 14, 2022

The company said the funding came from angel investors, including Chang Kim (CEO of Tapas Media), Thor Chan (CEO of AAX), Changsu Lee (CEO of Allganize), Jay Lee (CEO of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce), K2G Tech Fund, and Primer Sazze Venture Capital Partners. in a pre-seed fundraising round.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I Know Everybody Told You to Send Your Fund-Raising Decks as a Link. Here’s Why You Should Just Send the Deck I know you have your document sending tool to send your fund-raising deck to VCs and track who read your deck, which pages they read and how much time they spend on each page. A deck is a deck. Just send it.

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SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Glendora-based eGood , a startup developing a social giving platform, said today that it has raised $3M in a seed funding round. The funding came from Wolfgang Buehler, and angel investor. According to eGood, it is using the funding to develop its mobile and in-store check-in platform. The startup is led by Zack Swire.

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OCTOBER 9, 2020

in a funding, and launched a new, mobile fitness app which combines live instruction with real time sensing of motion and metrics. The fitness app developer says its software allows trainers to see users remotely through the front-facing camera of a mobile device, so that trainers can provide feedback on workouts and their form.

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APRIL 4, 2019

Los Angeles-based eTailPet , a new startup which helps pet store owners create online e-commerce sites, has received a round of seed funding, the company said this week. Size of the funding was not announced. The funding was led by Moonshots Capital.

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