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AUGUST 25, 2020

Los Angeles-based Wrapbook , a startup developing payroll, compliance, and insurance software for the entertainment industry, said it has raised $3.6M in a seed funding round. The funding came from Equal Ventures, Uncork Capital, Steve Sarowitz (founder of Paylocity), and 4S Bay Partners. According to Wrapbook, its software platform handles the labor-intensive process of onboarding, paying and insuring film and production crews.

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AUGUST 25, 2020

Los Angeles-based Songtradr , a developer of a music rights and licensing marketplace, said on Monday that it has raised $30M in a Series C funding round. The funding was led by the St. Baker Australian family office, as well as other un-named, Australia family offices and existing investors. Songtradr said the new funding round values the company at $165M.

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AUGUST 25, 2020

The remarkably long lived Napster brand--which was founded during the Dot Com boom as a peer-to-peer music swapping startup in Los Angeles in 1999--continues on, and has been sold to virtual reality experience company MelodyVR , in a deal worth $70M. The acquisition of the brand is not the first for Napster, which was acquired by RealNetworks/Rhapsody Networks in 2011; Rhapsody Networks renamed itself to Napster in 2016.

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JULY 20, 2020

Perforce , a developer of tools used for source code control and product development management, which is backed by Santa Monica-based Clearlake Capital and Francisco Partners, has acquired Methodics , a developer of product lifecycle management software for the semiconductor industry. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to the companies, the acquisition will allow Perforce to grow its platform.

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JUNE 2, 2020

Santa Monica-based on-demand scooter company Bird has shut down its operations in the Middle East, according to reports, shutting down Circ, which it had acquired in January, and laid off all of its employees. Bird had only just acquired Circ in January, shortly before the world was hobbled by the pandemic. According to those reports, as many as 10,000 of Circ's scooters have been sent for recycling, and around 100 employees laid off.

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020

San Diego-based Calidi Biotherapeutics , which is developing oncolytic virus-based immunotherapies for cancer, has expanded its Scientific and Medical Advisory board, saying this morning that it has added COL (retired) George E. Peoples, MD, FACS to its list of advisors. Peoples is Founder of the military Cancer Vaccine Development Program (CVDP) and the oncology-focused clinical research organization, Cancer Insight, LLC, according to Calidi Biotherapeutics, and now serves as Professor of Surge

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Santa Monica-based Catasys announced this morning that it is expanding its artificial intelligence and technology-enabled healthcare products with a "leading national health plan" into Colorado, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Louisiana. Name of that national health plan and financial impact was not announced. Catasys said the expansion of its OnTrak-A solution makes the product available in 28 states, as well as Washington, D.C.

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Irvine-based Allied Esports , which provides e-sports programming and content, says it will not proceed with an offering of its common stock, which it had announced just a month ago. The company--which trades on the NASDAQ as AESE--had said on January 29th that it was seeking to raise up to $15.0M in its public offering. According to Allied Esports, its Chairman, Lyle Berman, has committed to purchase $2.0M in newly issued shares of its common stock, instead.

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FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Los Angeles-based ringDNA , the venture-backed startup which is developing artificial intelligence tools to help sales teams, says it has acquired a popular podcast focused on sales. According to the company, it has acquired the sales podcast "Accelerate!", which is run by Andy Paul, and will appoint Paul as its new Head of Revenue Performance Evangelism.

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DECEMBER 9, 2019

Los Angeles-based on-demand, dog walking service Wag has bought back its stake from Softbank, and is now seeking a sale, according to CNBC. The sale comes less than two years after SoftBank invested $300M in Wag , via the SoftBank Vision Fund. According to a memo leaked from Wag's new CEO, Garrett Smallwood, the company is also laying of a number of employees as it loks to have a capital base that is "right-sized to the needs of our business and strategy".

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NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Los Angeles-based Wave --which was until recently known as TheWaveVR--has connected its virtual reality technology into the world of live concerts, the company said on Thursday. According to Wave, it has launched a new, mulkti-channel virtual entertainment platform, specifically allowing artists to perform live for fans in online games, social networks, live-streaming channels, or entertainment networks.

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JULY 18, 2019

Oxnard-based SimpliPhi Power , a manufacturer of Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) batteries, says that it is ramping up its manufacturing efforts, and providing discounts to consumers in California who are being affected by wildfire "Public Safety Power Shutoffs". According to the manufacturer, its is increasing storage capacity of its units to 3.8 kWh and 2.9 kWh, and also lowering prices, to encourage purchase of its batteries, which it claims are the safest lithium-based battery technology on th

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JULY 18, 2019

Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand , which provides cloud-based learning and talent management tools, has linked up with a sales training company, Sandler Training, on a new sales training subscription, the two said today. According to the companies, the link will help companies build and hone their sales skills with short, digestible e-learning content.

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JULY 18, 2019

The Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator , the new, space-themed startup accelerator run by Techstars in Los Angeles, has announced its inagural class, naming ten companies that will participate over the next three months in its startup accelerator program. The startup accelerator is being supported by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, SAIC, Israel Aerospace Industries North America, and the U.S.

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JULY 18, 2019

For today's video interview, we talked with Scott Alderton , of Stubbs, Alderton, and Markiles LLP, about the firm's startup incubator, the Preccelerator. (Stubbs Alderton is a longtime supporter and sponsor of socaltech!). The program recently had a "Demo Day" for some of the recent companies in the incubator. Scott gives some advice to startups on how to be successful.

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JULY 18, 2019

Carlsbad-based ViaSat , which develops satellite communications and other wireless networking technology, has been awarded $49.3M in a lawsuit against Acacia Communications. ViaSat said the award came from a jury in the Superior Court for San Diego County, after that jury found that Acacia Communications had violated intellectual property law by misusing Viasat's proprietary technology.

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JULY 18, 2019

San Diego-based Kumquat Biosciences , a new, stealth-mode biotechnology startup, has raised $47.0M in what appears to be the company's first funding round, with a target of $55M for the equity funding, according to a regulatory filing from the firm this week. No details on the funding have been announced by the company, which appears to not yet have a website.

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JULY 19, 2019

Irvine-based CoreLogic , a provider of property information and data analytics, says that it estimates a total of between $500M and $900M in losses from Hurricane Barry, including both residential and commercial flood and wind losses. CoreLogic said it estimates flood loss for residential and commercial properties in Louisiana is estimated to be between $200 million and $400 million which includes both storm surge and inland flooding, with total insured flood and wind losses--excluding National

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JULY 19, 2019

Los Angeles-based HyreCar , a publicly listed, carsharing marketplace operator (Nasdaq: HYRE), says it has priced an offering of 3.5M shares of its common stock, at $3.00 per share. The stock offering will provide the company gross proceeds of $10.5M, which it says it will use to expand sales and marketing, customer support, and technology investments to continue to grow its platform.

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JULY 19, 2019

Too busy at work to spend time with your dog or cat? Does your dog get separation anxiety? Maybe a robot can help--at least, that's the thought of Los Angeles-based VARRAM , which announced this week that it has launched a "pet fitness robot". Varram said its robot is "specially designed to keep dogs and cats mentally and physically engaged", by automatically interacting with your pets while you are away.

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JULY 19, 2019

Santa Monica-based Fair , the automotive startup which offers up subscription-based access to vehicles with much more flexibility than a traditional lease, is expanding its partnership with Uber , saying that eligible "Uber Pro" drivers can earn "Fair Credits" to help cover their weekly Fair vehicle payments. Uber Pro is Uber's program for rewarding the most consistent and higher rated drivers on its platform.

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JULY 19, 2019

Los Angeles-based ZEFR has sold its rights management and content-flagging assets--RightsID and ChannelID--to Vobile Group , a provider of video content protection, measurement, and monetization, in a deal worth $90M, the two companies annoucned late Thursday. According to Vobile, it will open up a new office in Los Angeles as a result of the acquisition, with approximately 100 employees.

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JULY 19, 2019

San Diego-based medical technology startup CARLSMED has merged with Seattle-based Precisive Surgical , the two said this week, to combine their efforts to develop a personalized surgical workflow platform for spine deformity intervention. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. CARLSMED is part of the EvoNexus technology incubator; Precisive Surgical is a spinout from IntuitiveX, a life sciences technology incubator.

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JULY 19, 2019

Welcome to socaltech interviews, where we talk to the startup entrepreneurs, investors, and others in Southern California's technology industry. Today, we talk with Jeff Coleman, the CEo and co-founder of BrainLeap technologies , a software company focused on using games to improve the attention skils of individuals with autism and ADHD. READ MORE>>.

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JUNE 21, 2019

Irvine-based Digital Map Products , a developer of mapping and location tools used by enterprise and government customers, has been acquired by LightBox , a provider of real estate information products. Financial terms of the deal were not announced by the companies. The deal had been announced in May. Digital Map Products was owned by private equity investor Silversmith Capital Partners, and had over 160 employees.

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MAY 7, 2019

Los Angeles-based Exploding Kittens , the developer of the card game of the same name, has raised a huge, $20M equity funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm. Details on the fundraising effort have not yet been announced by the company, however, the developers behind the game have been crowdfunding for the new title since earlier this year.

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MAY 8, 2019

Los Angeles-based Neural Analytics , a developer of medical robotics technology being used to track and measure brain health in possible stroke victims, has raised $22M in its Series C funding, the company said this morning. The company says it has now raised approximately $66M in total. The Series C funding was led by Alpha Edison. Neural Analytics has developed a fully autonomous robotic systems used for neurovascular assessment, which uses ultrasound to non-invasively measure and display brai

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APRIL 3, 2019

Monrovia, California-based unmanned aircraft maker Aerovironment has scored a $17.4M contract award, the company aid Tuesday, with an un-named, United States ally. According to Aerovironment, the sales came via the United States Department of Defense Foreign Military Sales program. The contract is worth $17,356,084, and covers its Puma AE II small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), training, and support to the allied nation.

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APRIL 3, 2019

San Diego- and Irvine-based startup incubator EvoNexus announced today that it has started accepting applications to a new startup incubation effort it is running with high tech material company EMD Performance Materials. EMD is owned by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. According to EvoNexus and EMD, it is now seeking early stage companies with emerging technologies and use cases relevant to EMD Performance Materials' core business, which includes specialty materials and technologies used for ele

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APRIL 3, 2019

Los Angeles-based GIBLIB , which offers up a library of on-demand, medical content in 4K and 360-degree virtual reality, announced this morning that it has raised $2.5M in a seed funding round. The funding came from the Mayo Clinic, the Venture Reality Fund, Wavemaker 360, USC Marshall Venture Fund and Michelson 20MM. According to GIBLIB, it has created an extensive, high quality video and VR library of medical lectures and surgical videos, which covers medical topics and advanced surgical proce

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MARCH 26, 2019

Ventura-based programmatic advertising technology developer The Trade Desk said this morning that it has officially launched its programmatic ad buying platform in China. According to The Trade Desk, the move comes as global advertisers are looking to reach audiences in China, and because the country is a key growth market. The Trade Desk said that it has been in beta in China since late last year, and that the firm is targeting such sectors as hospitality, luxury retail, education, food and bev

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MARCH 26, 2019

San Diego-based Fairway Technologies , a provider of consulting services in the IT area, said it has acquired Los Angeles-based IT Strategists , a provider of big data and data-driven IT consulting. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to Fairway, the move will help bolster its services, adding cloud data warehousing, support for enterprise tools such as Snowflake, Databricks, and Confluent, and more.

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MARCH 18, 2019

Remember Myspace ? The onetime social networking site, founded in Los Angeles, is now owned by Meredith Corporation and is still active as an online music discovery site. However, the site has quite a bit less music now, after the site accidentally lost all of the music uploaded to the site uploaded between 2003 and 2015. The 12 years worth of music included over 50 million songs uploaded from 14 million artists.

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MARCH 18, 2019

Carlsbad-based satellite communications equipment and services provider Viasat is being used in a satellite communications effort by the Canadian Army, the company announced this morning. According to Viasat, its KOR-24A Small Tactical Terminal (STT) was selected by the Canadian Department of National Defence in September 2018 to support a project being implemented in partnership with MDA, a Maxar Technologies company.

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MARCH 18, 2019

San Diego-based Qualcomm is one of the lead investors in a big, $1.25 billion funding round for satellite communications startup OneWeb , which was announced this morning. According to Silicon Valley-based OneWeb, the $1.25 billion funding brings its total raised to $3.4 billion. The funding round was led by SoftBank Group Corp., Grupo Salinas, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., and the Government of Rwanda.

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MARCH 18, 2019

Los Angeles-based electric car startup Fisker announced a brand new vehicle today, a sub-$40,000 SUV, promising that it will start shipping to customers in the second half of 2021. Fisker, run by auto designer Henrik Fisker, said the new vehicle will have close to 300 miles of range and start below $40,000, but is not expected to have a driveable prototype of the vehicle until the end of this year.

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FEBRUARY 1, 2019

Los Angeles-based shipping and logistics marketplace developer NEXT , fresh off a big, $97M funding round announced last week, said that it has hired Peter Janda as the company's first ever Chief Financial Officer. Janda was most recently CFO at Chef'd, and also has served at such companies as Ingram Micro, Ernst & Young, among other companies. NEXT, which is led by Lydia Yan, raised its latest round of funding from Brookfield Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and GLP.

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