socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2017

What was the big news for your company this year? Our third fund made some intriguing investments during the year (Postie, Nordsense, LiftIgniter and Qordoba) and we're now out of our investment phase. It's nice to be able to solely focus on nurturing our portfolio companies.

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Santa Barbara SaaS Southern California Course 113

Tech.Co

JULY 12, 2017

What you might not realize is that the adorable droid was the brain child of Sphero, a robotics and digital technology company and an alumni to the Disney Accelerator program. This corporate partnership has proven well for these startups in helping them launch their products and services into another galaxy.

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Artificial Inteligence Startup Entertainment Press 108

TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

The Los Angeles ecosystem is $76 million stronger today as Fika Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, announces its sophomore investment fund. Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies.

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Funding Startup Seed Funding Los Angeles 218

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Today's contribution is from Alon Goren , the co-founder of Crowd Invest Summit and 805 Startups. Alon Goren: This year, my partners, Josef Holm (Krowdster), Darren Marble (CrowdfundX) and I started Crowd Invest Summit. Finally, what do you think will have the biggest impact on the technology industry in 2017?

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Invest Startup Southern California Conference 124

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

One startup that aims to help make the process simpler, cheaper and less stressful by helping people manage the home renovation process has raised $6 million to help it grow even faster. Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar Renovating a home is an exciting, yet often fraught-filled, endeavor.

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Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Tech.Co

JUNE 29, 2021

You know what a startup is, right? Or at least you have an idea of what a startup is like to work in? That is, of course, until the small, ambitious startup is acquired by a larger, more traditional company in its sector, or the small startup goes public with angry shareholders and regulators asking difficult questions.

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Startup Course Coach Demand 175

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

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Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Tech.Co

JUNE 28, 2021

Startup tech businesses used to land on the scene with big ideas about how their tech could change the world. However, in recent years, there have been precious few startups with such grand ambitions from an early stage. But the trend for world-changing mission statements is waning in the startup sphere.

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Startup Ideas Venture Capital Course 104

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Riot Ventures , the Los Angeles-based, early-stage and deep technology investment firm is going out to market to raise a $75 million second fund to finance the development of startups in LA and beyond, according to fundraising documents viewed by TechCrunch. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

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Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E financing that values the company at $3.15 Advisors Douglas Merritt, CEO of Splunk, and Mike Scarpelli, CFO of Snowflake, also made individual investments as angels.

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Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 16, 2020

Over their longtime personal and professional relationship, the two Los Angeles-based serial entrepreneurs have invested in each other’s companies and investment firms, but never worked together until now. We’re seeing a lot more companies that are starting up now as a result of a [the pandemic],” said Norton.

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Funding Southern California Los Angeles Invest 230

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 26, 2017

While a good idea can thrust you into the limelight and the right connections can boost your chances of success, startups need funding to survive. Thanks to data from Crunchbase , we can bask in the glory of the five highest funding rounds in 2017 so far. The post 5 Largest Funding Rounds Raised in 2017 appeared first on Tech.co.

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Funding Equity News Platform 70

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2017

billion in venture capital dollars were invested in the Southern California region in Q1, according to the latest MoneyTree Report , issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and CB Insights. The report tallied up $926.4M Investments in LA/OC were up slightly from the $898.3M Nationally, investors invested $13.9

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Venture Capital Southern California Orange County Invest 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

Venice, California-based early stage, pre-seed investment fund and accelerator Amplify.LA pointed at all of the companies in Los Angeles that came out of the demise of MySpace, and argues that the growth of Snap is about to trigger another wave of startups in the market. billion, with so far 9 of its companies acquired.

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Snapchat Venice Los Angeles Report 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 3, 2019

Securities and Exchange Commission to raise its third growth-stage investment fund. Though the firm typically invests at the seed and Series A, capital from Upfront Growth III will be used for follow-on or late-stage deals. Last year, companies headquartered in LA raised more than $60 billion.

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Venture Capital Funding Los Angeles Invest 193

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

Instead, he’s launched a new delivery service that has just raised $3 million from Casa Verde Capital , the $45 million venture firm founded by hip hop impresario Snoop Dogg, and Kevin Durant’s Durant Company — among others — to take advantage of the growing demand for marijuana delivery. ”

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Services Venture Capital Startup Los Angeles 259

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. But it’s here in the (other) Valley’s southernmost edge that investors have found a startup they consider to be the next potential billion-dollar “unicorn” that will come out of Los Angeles.

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Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

The fund is a boost from the firm's last fund, which closed in January of 2017 at $63M. Bonfire says it plans to invest in 25 to 30 companies over a three year investment period, focused on the seed stage of investing. READ MORE>>.

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Funding Invest Research Los Angeles 113

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Our interview this morning with an entrepreneur is with Anthony Citrano , the founder of Los Angeles-based Acquicent (www.acquicent.com), a startup which wants to make it as easy for you to invest in museum-grade collectibles such as classic cars and art, without having to invest millions of dollars in those assets.

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Startup Invest Class Marketing 189

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2020

In response to VCs’ sudden rush to invest in more Black founders , Black venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have penned a bunch of advice on the best way to tap into talent. Team up with Black firms already doing the work. Among the strategies? Joining the donor circle is the best way to get involved in HBCUvc.

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Equity Technical Review Venture Capital Blogging 220

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 22, 2019

Beyond Meat , the meat replacement company whose packages of Beyond Burgers line grocery store aisles across America, has priced its initial public offering. The company is looking to raise roughly $200 million in the stock sale for its portfolio of burger, chicken and sausage replacements, selling 8.75 in 2017 alone.

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Pricing Los Angeles Venture Capital Study 236

Xconomy

JANUARY 9, 2018

million into 61 companies during the last three months of 2017, according to Venture Monitor data released Tuesday. The strength of fourth-quarter deals, lifted by a $125 million financing in November for the molecular diagnostics company Progenity, brought total venture investments in San Diego to nearly $1.92

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San Diego Venture Capital Activity Funding 64

socalTECH

AUGUST 10, 2018

San Diego-based Qualcomm has negotiated a settlement in Taiwan, which will reverse most of a giant $774M fine levied against the company in 2017, reducing that fine to just $93M. Qualcomm paid $93M to Taiwan in July after an antitrust dispute with the country. READ MORE>>.

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San Diego Startup Invest Mobile 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Los Angeles and San Diego are among the metro areas with the highest startup activity, based on a new report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman Foundation says its 2017 Startup Activity Index is an index measure of a broad range of startup activity in the United States across national, state, and metropolitan-area levels.

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San Diego Los Angeles Report Angel 113

socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2020

San Diego-based startup Trust & Will , which offers up online estate planning, says it has hit 100,000 members to its service. According to the company, the recent pandemic doubled the volume of individuals seeking its estate planning services.

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Tech Coast Angels San Diego Seed Funding Competition 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Yet as we enter February 2017 the VC funding markets are booming, Snap, Inc has filed for its IPO, AppDynamics was just purchased for $3.7 But the reality is that “global warming” massively blunted the effects of winter and my prognosis for VC fundings of entrepreneurs in 2017–2018 is now very sunny indeed.

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Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 150

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 15, 2018

Daniel Kim and Jay Lee, the two founders of AuditBoard , a Los Angeles-based provider of a risk and compliance software service for large businesses, grew up middle school friends in Cerritos, Calif. He thought there had to be a better way for companies to manage their audit and compliance processes.

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Startup Cerritos Los Angeles IBM 155

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

Joining Initialized in the round is the serial entrepreneur Moise Emquies, whose previous clothing lines, Ella Moss and Splendid, were acquired by the fashion holding company VFC in 2017. The company’s first product is a hand soap, Keeper. Emquies is also joining the company as its chief brand officer.

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Incubator Develop Development Los Angeles 184

socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. If there are burnout or communication problems on a founding team those problems can hijack a company's progress.

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Startup Press Commerce Southern California 124

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

The company, which offers up its technology to venues such as major stadiums and convention centers, said the growth was fueled by the investment in the company in 2016 by Shamrock Capital Advisors. Appetize says it has seen over 100 perent annual growth since it started, and expects the same in 2017.

Startup 113

Startup Sales Invest Technology 113

Frank Addante

OCTOBER 12, 2021

That’s what my wife said to me back in June after I had been “retired” since 2017. They asked me what my company did and I said “Good question! Well, after months of soul searching and talking to 100 people (one of my key rules before starting any business or product) — I figured it out! Help build many companies!

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Startup Case Study Ideas Invest 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2017

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Rose, according to his latest book, “ Angel Investing.”

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Startup Angel Funding .Net 76

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

We started March Capital in late 2013. We did our first close in the summer of 2014, and over the first nine months we raised our fund and started investing. Fund I was fully deployed by June 30th of 2017, and we went out to raised Fund II, which was a wet close, where you invest as you close.

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Funding Capital Artificial Inteligence Startup 160

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2017

In my activities as an angel investor, and my work with new ventures seeking investment, I find the “due diligence” stage to be fraught with the most risk. Usually this stage only really starts after an investor has expressed serious interest, or already informally agreed to invest. Be prepared to follow-up as required.

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Invest Startup Doc Slides 59

Xconomy

DECEMBER 28, 2017

presidential election—has prompted some to question the utopian promise of innovation, especially when it comes to Web companies and cybersecurity. Guengerich moved to North Texas in 2017 after years in the Austin tech community, where he co-founded Appconomy, a China-focused e-commerce startup, among other initiatives.

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Social Media Commerce Web Media 65

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

Los Angeles-based NantCell , one of the biotech companies run by billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, has raissed another $30M from Celgene , according to the two companies. The new investment was made on December 19th. percent ownership of the company. According to NantCell, Celgene now has 2.8 READ MORE>>.

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Invest Los Angeles Startup Product 113

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202