Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. Taken together these “mega rounds” represent nearly half of the funding in 2018. We’re in a new tech bubble!”

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2020

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) says that Q1 2020 venture capital investments had a "strong showing" in Q1, however, it expects that the impending economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic will slow activity through the rest of the year. According to the NVCA, and its PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, there was $34.2

Venture Capital 113

Venture Capital Capital Report Invest 113

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2020

Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures has just kicked off an effort to raise a new, $280M venture capital fund, Upfront VII, L.P. According to the filing, there have not been any commitments to the fund yet. Upfront--as is expected--has not announced any details on the new fund yet. READ MORE>>.

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GRP Partners Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles 113

Xconomy

APRIL 8, 2019

If you’ve been following venture capital trends, what you expected to happen in the first quarter of 2019 did: More money is being invested in fewer deals, and women founders still are getting less of it than men. Venture firms sent $32.6 Venture firms sent $32.6 Companies raised only $9.66 billion through 1,648 deals.

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Venture Capital Capital Invest Startup 109

socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2020

The Tech Coast Angels says it has launched a new, annual fund, and is continuing to invest--despite the pandemic. The angel group, the largest in the nation, said it invested over $19M in 2019, in part due to a similar fund created by its San Diego chapter, the TCA-San Diego, last year.

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Tech Coast Angels Technical Review Los Angeles Angel 113

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 5, 2019

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 -- How to Raise Capital for your Start Up. This will be an opportunity to learn about the fundraising process from our expert panel and to learn about their real life experiences starting and funding their companies. Are you a Founder or Entrepreneur looking to raise money for your startup?

Startup 100

Startup Capital Networking Entrepreneur 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 6, 2021

Electric truck maker Rivian--which has operations in Southern California, despite being based in Michigan--is apparently in the midst of yet another funding, and is raising a round valuing the company at $25 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company just raised $2.5M over the summer from a number of investment companies, along with Amazon.

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Southern California Funding Invest Company 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

While 2018 was all about better understanding the SoCal opportunity, 2019 was about honing our focus and defining our core programs. We believe there is growing momentum in big exits that will both validate the region but also inject more risk capital/risk mindset into the region. See the recent pitch book article for more details.

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SoCal Southern California Startup Venture Capital 140

socalTECH

JANUARY 24, 2020

The company said the funding was led by Boston Millenia Partners, and also included existing investor Upfront Ventures. Reveleer said that in 2019, it had more than $10M in revenues; the company is led by CEO Jay Ackerman. READ MORE>>.

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Funding Software Review Glendale Organization 113

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2019

in new funding, according to a report from CNBC Thursday, which said part, if not all, of that investment came from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. According to CNBC, the funding came at $214 per share, and will bring the total raised by SpaceX in 2019 to $1.33 Hawthorne-based SpaceX has raised $314.2M

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SpaceX Report Funding Hawthorne 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Los Angeles-based Orca Security, a cloud-based security provider, has raised a big, $550M Series C funding round, with a valuation of $1.8 The company--led by CEO Avi Shua--said the new funding was led by Temasek. Orca Security was founded in 2019. billion, the company said this morning.

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Redpoint Los Angeles Capital Funding 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Here's Marc Averitt of Okapi Venture Capital (www.okapivc.com). The biggest news this year for Okapi, Southern Californias original seed stage venture capital fund, is that we ramped up the deployment of our 3rd fund and saw its portfolio grow by another 10 companies! What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

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Venture Capital Capital Southern California News 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. These sites often sponsor pitch contests with small cash prizes for funding, as well as other valuable services to support entrepreneurs.

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Funding Startup Outsource Development Satisfaction 141

Xconomy

JULY 31, 2019

We at Xconomy are excited to announce that we are honoring Mark Levin, co-founder and partner at Third Rock Ventures, with our 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in Boston. The award recognizes Levin’s extensive contributions to the biotech industry and to the Boston life sciences ecosystem.

Venture Capital 97

Venture Capital Capital Entrepreneur Help 97

socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2019

The USC Viterbi Startup Garage , the startup accelerator that is part of the University of Southern California, has scored backing from the Amazon Alexa Fund , the venture investment arm of Amazon that invests in startups using Amazon Alexa. Financial details of the investment by the Amazon Alexa Fund were not announced.

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Marina Del Rey USC Southern California Funding 124

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 15, 2020

Bourgeois bunker jokes aside, this new redistribution of investors could create some interesting — and perhaps more inclusive — changes in the way venture-backed businesses are funded. If the wealthy are no longer a quick drive from San Francisco, are they more open to doing remote investments?

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Invest Funding Los Angeles Venture Capital 161

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Westlake Village BioPartners , a brand new venture capital fund focused on the life sciences, said on Wednesday that it has launched a new, $320 investment fund aimed at early stage companies. According to the new venture fund, it was founded by Beth Seidenberg, M.D., executive vice president and head of R&D at Amgen.

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Westlake Village Funding Venture Capital Research 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2019

As we close out our contributions for the end of 2018, we have a contribution from investor and investment banker Peter Cowen of Sutton Capital Partners. More in-person contact is one of my 2019 goals. We expect some big things in 2019. What was the biggest news for your company in 2018?

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Capital Southern California Technical Review SaaS 113

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 16, 2019

A slew of banks are coming together to back a new roll-up strategy for the Los Angeles-based mobile gaming studio, Jam City and giving the company $145 million in new funding to carry that out. The data and analytics firm suggests that mobile gaming will capture some 60% of the overall gaming market in 2019 as well.

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Mobile Capital Los Angeles Acquisition 251

socalTECH

JANUARY 21, 2021

The funding is an extension of the company's October 2019 Series A round. The funding was led by Lux Capital and Pivotal BioVentures, and also The Column Group, DCVC Bio and other curren tinvestors.

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San Diego Capital Funding Startup 113

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2019

As we close out our contributions for the end of 2018, here's Jeb Spencer of TVC Capital. I plan to try to put both of these lessons together in 2019. 2018 was a great year for TVC Capital and we were able to get our fourth growth equity fund closed, taking our assets under management to close to $400 million. I doubt it.

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Capital Southern California El Segundo SaaS 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Santa Monica-based GumGum , which develops artificial intelligence software for the advertising and media market, has raised $22M more in a funding round, the company said on Thursday. According to the firm, the new $22M funding came from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, NewView Capital, and Upfront Ventures.

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Advertising Artificial Inteligence Software Santa Monica 145

socalTECH

JUNE 24, 2021

San Diego-based Drata, a startup working on security and compliance automation software, said it has raised $25M in its Series A funding. The funding was led by GGV Capital, and also included Okta Ventures, Silicon Valley CISO Investors (SVCI), Cowboy Ventures, and Leaders Fund. Photo: Drata's founders).

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Software Seed Funding San Diego Funding 113

socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2020

Allset also said it recently raised $8.35M in new funding, and has now raised $16.6M

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Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? They were a way to gather cheap capital.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

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. Here are a couple of concerns and possible negatives to avoid: More startups left in the funding gap.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Class 125

socalTECH

JUNE 22, 2020

in a funding round. According to the company, the new funding will go twoards development and introduction of new products. Outer was co-founded by Terry Lin and Jiake Liu, and launched on SharkTank in 2019. Santa Monica-based Outer , which makes direct-to-consume outdoor furniture, said last week that it has raised $4.3M

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Santa Monica Capital Funding Product 113

Xconomy

JANUARY 28, 2019

Venture capital firms invest in potentially disruptive technologies with the hope of profit, then keep watch for further advances that could overtake their existing portfolio companies. All this is done while they guide startups through other external challenges such as fundraising droughts and overall market downturns.

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Venture Capital Marketing Guide Invest 67

socalTECH

JUNE 24, 2020

Los Angeles-based Pipe Technologies , which is developing a subscription financing platform to help software companies finance their businesses without debt or dilution, has raised $60M in a funding round, the company said on Wednesday. The company said the new funding will go towards growth and expansion of its operations into new markets.

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SaaS Seed Funding Venture Capital Equity 113

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

billion in VC investment from January to October, already matching 2019 levels. At a national level, the United States received more VC funding for impact tech companies than any other country in the past five years, with investors pumping $35.8 times) since 2015, compared to 3.1 times in Europe as a whole. billion into U.S.

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Venture Capital Press Invest Research 357

socalTECH

OCTOBER 27, 2020

in a Series A funding. According to the company, the funding was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and also included Cisco Investments, angel investors, and prior investors Neotribe Ventures, Firebolt Ventures and WestWave Capital. As part of the funding, Lightspeed's Arif Janmohamed joins the company's board.

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Artificial Inteligence Software Santa Barbara Seed Funding 113

TechCrunch LA

MAY 25, 2019

Last week, I wrote about an alternative to venture capital called revenue-based financing and before that, I jotted down some notes on one of VCs’ favorite spaces: cannabis tech. Liquid Death has attracted nearly $2 million in funding from angel investors like Away co-founder Jen Rubio and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

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Startup Venture Capital Newsletter Tips 223

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality.

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Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2019

According to ABL Space Systems, the financing will go to advance its development and test program, including a planned integrated stage test in the second half of 2019. Size of the investment was not announced. The company is hoping to launch its first rocket sometime in 2020.

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El Segundo SpaceX Funding Invest 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Here, we have the thoughts of Jeb Spencer of TVC Capital (www.tvccapital.com), a software focused growth equity fund, and has had some great success in the market. TVC Capital has also been a big supporter and sponsor of socaltech over the years. You can see all of our holiday reflections here. Risk taking yields innovation.

Capital 113

Capital Southern California Equity San Diego 113

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 14, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 -- Los Angeles VC Panel and LAVA Annual Membership Meeting. Come meet three of the most active Venture Capital funds in Los Angeles. Find out what does it take to secure Venture Capital for your company. Meet the top VCs who are investing in Southern California.

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Venture Capital LAVA Los Angeles Angel 100

TechCrunch LA

MAY 14, 2020

” After graduating from Y Combinator in the summer of 2019, the company tested its services in the Southern California region. Now, as construction looks ready to return to a more normal schedule in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic, the company is capitalizing on increased demand to offer its services nationwide.

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Services Southern California Seed Funding Demand 217