TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 25, 2022

The startup has received €50 million (just under $57 million at today’s rates) from the European Investment Bank, the funding arm of the European Union. It is not disclosing its valuation with this investment, but Alastair Westgarth said that this doesn’t rule out raising further funding from investors.

Invest

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2017

This morning, we have a contribution from investor and investment banker Peter Cowen of Sutton Capital Partners. Sutton Capital Partners is a technology investment banking firm and we are, investors in local SaaS/subscription companies and is well known as the host of the annual Recurring Revenue Conference.

Capital

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2017

Our third fund made some intriguing investments during the year (Postie, Nordsense, LiftIgniter and Qordoba) and we're now out of our investment phase. What was the biggest personal lesson you learned from 2017? Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software, that particularly caught your eye in 2017?

Santa Barbara

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2019

The fund--managed by Arjan Schutte and Kathleen Utecht--invests in financial technology companies, and counts such portfolio companise as Fair , Honest Dollar (acquired), CoverHound , Mirador (acquired), Nerdwallet , Ripple , Tio (acquired), and many others. As expected, the company has not detailed any information on the new fund.

Invest

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2018

Venice, California-based venture capital investor Fifth Wall says it has made a $135M investment in San Francisco-based real estate sales startup Opendoor , as part of a combined equity and debt funding. The funding came as part of Opendoor's Series D funding round. The funding came as part of Opendoor's Series D funding round.

Invest

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Hyundai Motor Group said it will jointly develop an electric vehicle platform with Los Angeles-based startup Canoo, the latest startup tapped by the automaker as part of an $87 billion push to invest in electrification and other future technologies. Hyundai Motor Group has committed to invest $87 billion over the next five years.

Startup

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2019

According to NetDocuments, it has received a "significant" new equity investment from another private equity investor, Cove Hill Partners. Size and terms of that investment was not announced by the companies. Clearlake acquired NetDocuments in 2017. READ MORE>>.

Invest

L.A. Business Journal

MARCH 13, 2018

OpenX, a Pasadena-based programmatic advertising technology company, announced $172 million in 2017 revenue in a March 13 report. In addition, OpenX invested $50 million into research and development this past year.

OpenX

socalTECH

OCTOBER 13, 2021

The former CEO and founder of Los Angeles-based advertising exchange Rubicon Project, Frank Addante, has launched a new, startup investment fund, he announced on Wednesday, saying that after a brief foray into retirement he decided to launch TinkerBarn Ventures, a new startup studio and early stage investment fund.

Invest

L.A. Business Journal

MARCH 13, 2018

OpenX reports over $170 Million in 2017 revenue; Wpromote lands investment from Shamrock Capital; and Allison Checchi named COO of Atom Tickets.

OpenX

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2017

In the latest fund in an unprecedented boom in local investment funds, Los Angeles-based Pontifax AgTech Management announced this morning that it has closed on its first fund, a $105M fund calld the Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund. Pontifax AgTech was co-founded and is led by Ben Belldegrun and Phil Erlanger.

Invest

socalTECH

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Burbank-based Disney has made a $15M investment in Norwegian educational and learning games developer Kahoot , Kahoot said Friday, in a deal which grows Disney's stake in the company. Kahoot--which was part of the Disney Accelerator in Burbank back in 2017--revolves around user-created quizzes, which people set up and share with other users.

Burbank

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. invested across 71 deals in Q2 of 2017 in LA and Orange County, and $202.37M invested in San Diego for the quarter across 32 deals.

Venture Capital

SoCal Tech Calendar

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

Thursday, November 30, 2017 -- Global LAVA: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Investing. Speakers: Sheri Kaiserman, Head of Advanced Securities at Wedbush; Brad Bulent Yarar, Co-Founder Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC); Adam Ettinger, Shephard Mullin; Heidi Pease, Co-Founder of UCLA and Los Angeles Blockchain Labs. See [link] (more)

LAVA

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Kevin sold his last company, Santa Barbara-based Graphiq, in July of 2017 to Amazon, but has a long history of successful companies, including founding DoubleClick.

Venture Capital

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?

Invest

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. Upfront Ventures , a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, has filed paperwork with the U.S.

Venture Capital

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 22, 2019

The Los Angeles-based company’s public offering should be a nice windfall for the Chicago-based investors DNS Capital, an investment firm managing the private wealth of the Pritzker family, and Cleveland Avenue, founded by former McDonald’s executive Don Thompson; as well as the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Obvious Ventures.

Pricing

L.A. Business Journal

APRIL 20, 2017

While venture capital investment in L.A. startups rose slightly in the first quarter of 2017, seed-stage investments went in the other direction.

Seed Funding

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.

Funding

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. These opportunities are creating an opening for Watertower Ventures in markets far beyond the Hollywood hills.

Funding

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.

Los Angeles

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 30, 2019

The company’s financing troubles began in 2017 but a new crisis emerged last year after a fallout with Evergrande. The Chinese real estate giant backed out of a proposed $2 billion investment deal with Faraday at the end of 2018 following an extended dispute over terms. Faraday has since sought alternative investment.

Invest

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2017

Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. If you watch the short video below you’ll have a great sense on what is uniquely LA in 2017 — hearing from Mayor Garcetti, Kobe Bryant, Tyra Banks, Baron Davis and so many great advocates for the uniqueness of our city and some of our key stats.

Funding

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

He started Dutchie in 2017 (and yes, it is named after the song ) in 2017 from Bend and has been slowly and steadily growing the business. ” That mantra of scalability was apparently what attracted Casa Verde, which took only two months to decide to lead the investment round into Lipson’s new venture. ”

Services

socalTECH

APRIL 11, 2018

Seed stage investments in Los Angeles area startups was up, year-to-year, according to the Q1 2018 LA Seed Deal Report from investor Amplify LA. percent from Q1 of 2017. According to the report from Amplify, 23 LA startups raised a total of $52.9M in seed funding in Q1, which was up 2.5 READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 26, 2017

Thanks to data from Crunchbase , we can bask in the glory of the five highest funding rounds in 2017 so far. Didi Chixing, the Chinese ride-sharing giant, has had the largest funding round of 2017, with a $5.5 “[The funds] will probably have invested in at least 1,000 companies within 10 years.”

Funding

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

Venice, California-based early stage, pre-seed investment fund and accelerator Amplify.LA has released its latest report on the state of the Los Angeles technology scene, saying that the city had a "landmark year".

Snapchat

socalTECH

OCTOBER 26, 2016

Collectively, across all those programs, we've invested in a bit over 900 startups around the world. Cody Simms: Applications will open in January, on January 17th, 2017, and they will close April 9th, 2017. The program itself will start roughly July 17th, 2017, give or take a day or two. billion combined.

Startup

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2017

Irvine-based angel investment group Tech Coast Angels said this morning that it has had it's best Q1 ever, both in terms of dollars and total deals. According to the TCA, it invested $3.8M in total across 17 deals, for the quarter ending March 31st, 2017. InvestED, Mobilize Solutions, OnRamp, and Tot Squad.

Tech Coast Angels

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Los Angeles-based 3Rodeo , a brand venture capital investment firm led by former Hulu executive Noah Heller, says it is targeting investments in startups in Los Angeles. 2017 has been a banner year for new startup funds in Los Angeles as well as Southern California as a whole. Size of the new fund was not announced.

Venture Capital

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2019

The funding was led by PowerPlant Ventures, and also included NRV and Western Technology Investment. PowerPlant Ventures acquired the majority ownership of Beanfields back in 2017. Size of the funding was not announced. Beanfields' CEO is Arnulfo Ventura. READ MORE>>.

Ventura

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

So how did a company that provides storage grow so fast (we’ll exit 2017 with 10’s of millions in recurring revenue), why is it so defensible and is it really a tech startup? We’ve invested heavily in inventory management software so we can track every bin and every item of your stuff and know where it is at all times.

Technical Review

socalTECH

OCTOBER 22, 2018

However, the abrupt departure comes after Virgin Hyperloop One reportedly had lost a major investment deal with Saudi Arabia, after Branson publicly critized the country for the high profile disappearance (and likely murder) of journalist Jamal Ahman Kashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate. READ MORE>>.

Report

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

Venice, California-based Snapchat has begun discussing an IPO with bankers, but has yet to select an investment bank to lead the effort, according to a report on Wednesday. Snapchat reportedly is looking at an IPO towards the end of this year or in early 2017.

Snapchat

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2017

The company said it anticipates treating patients in Canada in the first quarter of 2017. Axonics is venture backed by Advent Life Sciences, Cormorant Asset Management, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, NeoMed Management, Legend Capital, The Alfred E.

Marketing

socalTECH

MARCH 13, 2018

Los Angeles-based advertising exchange and technology developer OpenX said on Tuesday that its net revenues rose to $172M in 2017, as it saw 20 percent growth in its revenues for the fourth quarter. The company said it invested over $50M in R&D efforts towards its technology an product in 2017. READ MORE>>.

OpenX