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OCTOBER 27, 2021

Los Angeles-based Daring Foods disclosed on Tuesday that it has raised $65M in a funding round, which came from Founders Fund, D1 Capital, and also included a number of celebrities, including DJ Steve Aoki, the NFL's Cameron Newton, tennis star Naomi Osaka, plus Tiger Global's Chase Coleman. Daring Foods makes a meat alternative, a soy-based chicken product which it calls "Vegan Chicken".

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OCTOBER 27, 2021

Rosemead, California-based Asian food chain Panda Express said this morning that it is expanding an effort it has with El Segundo-based Beyond Meat. According to Panda Express, it will expand its new Beyond The Original Orange Chicken across 70 locations nationwide, after a pilot in New York City and Southern California. The dish uses Beyond's meat alternatives, instead of chicken.

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OCTOBER 27, 2021

San Diego-based productivity software developer ClickUp said this morning that it has raised a huge, $400M Series C funding round, which gives it a valuation of $4 billion. The Series C funding was co-led by co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Meritech Capital Partners. ClickUp is led by Founder and CEO Zeb Evans.

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JULY 13, 2021

Carlsbad-based Smart Earth Technologies (SET), a developer of LTE and 5G products for the water utility market, has been acquired by San Francisco-based CrescoNet. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to the companies, SET sells battery-operated, cellular endpoint transceivers and valves, installation tools, LTE network infrastructure, and software for meter and customer management.

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MAY 5, 2021

Los Angeles-based Flowspace, a startup developing fulfillment software for e-commerce companies, said this week that it has named Piranavan Selvanandan as its new Vice President of Engineering. Selvanandan most recently was at Salesforce, in software engineering, and also served at HP. Flowspace said Selvanandan spent nearly a decade at Salesforce. The new exec comes following a $31M, Series B funding round for Flowspace in March.

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MAY 5, 2021

Santa Monica-based NXCR ,the subscription vehicle startup led by auto- and startup-veteran Scott Painter, and auto analytics company J.D. Power announced on Wednesday that the two companies are in a strategic alliance, which will link J.D. Power's data solutions, vehicle valuations, and "consumer insights" into NXCR's vehicle subscription service. Financial details of the strategic alliance were not annouced.

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OCTOBER 26, 2020

Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures reported Monday morning that it has named Kara Nortman as co-Managing Partner of the fund. The fund said that Nortman will work alongside current Managing Partner Mark Suster. Nortman has been at Upfront since 2014, serving as Partner at the firm. Upfront's biggest exits have been Ring (acquired by Amazon), TestFlight and FleetSmith (both acquired by Apple), Maker Studios (acquired by Disney).

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OCTOBER 26, 2020

Irvine-based property information provider CoreLogic says it has contributed $250,000 to local food banks, and also provided additional, volunteer paid time-off for its employees, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company said the contributions, made through its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) program, went to such organizations as Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, The Pantry, Foodlink, San Diego Food Bank, and others.

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JULY 20, 2020

Venice, California-based Snapchat has debuted the new meditation features that it developed with Los Angeles-based Headspace this morning, the new meditation-with-friends feature that the company announced at its Partner Summit in June. The new "Snapchat mini" feature lets friends simultaneously access the "Headspace Mini" feature, which are three to four minute meditation exercises.

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JULY 20, 2020

Los Angeles-based Gemist , a consumer startup which lets users "try and buy" jewelry, has raised a round of funding, the company said today. The funding came from De Beers Group Ventures, Legendary Ventures, Lightspeed Scout, and Luma Launch. Size of the funding was not announced. As part of the funding, Stephen Lussier, Executive Vice President, Consumer and Brands for De Beers Group, has joined the company's board.

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JULY 20, 2020

Los Angeles-based Ready, Set, Food! , which develops products that parents add to breast milk or formula to help prevent infants from developing severe food allergies to peanut, egg, and milk, has raised $3M in a funding round. According to the company, the second round of funding for the company was led by Danone Manifesto Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Danone, and also included Mark Cuban and AF Ventures.

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JULY 1, 2020

Santa Ana-based Arqlite SPC , a company which has developed a way to processes unrecyclable plastic waste into artificial gravel, has received an investment from CEMEX Ventures , the corporate venturing arm of the building materials giant. Size of the investment were not announced. According to CEMEX Ventures and Arqlite, Arqlite's artificial gravel avoids the use of natural quarry aggregates and boulders in the production of light concrete with a low CO2 footprint, and installs drainage beds fo

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JUNE 3, 2020

San Diego-based Evofem Biosciences , a publicly held, biopharmaceuticals company which is developing products in the area of women's sexual and reproductive health, says it has priced approximately $100M in common stock to the public. The company said gross proceeds from the offering to Evofem, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $100 million.

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JUNE 3, 2020

Foothill Ranch-based TAE Life Sciences , which is developing boron-based radiation therapy drugs for the treatment of cancer, has raised $30M in what it says is an initial, Series B funding round. The company said the funding comes from a consortium of investors, including ARTIS Ventures. The company said the new funding will allow it to further accelerate development of its products.

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APRIL 24, 2020

Irvine-based esports company Allied Esports says, despite the shuttering of its live event business, its companies are seeing increased fan engagement from the widespread shift of people online in wake of the COVID-19 crisis. According to Allied Esports, it is seeing increased engagement, registration, participation and viewership within its two business units, World Poker Tour and Allied Esports International.

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APRIL 24, 2020

Santa Barbara-based HG Insights , which provides data on IT spending and technology to companies, says it has used its technology to compare the amount of cloud adoption by companies, which it says might help companies better weather the economic storm brought on by COVID-19. The company said the amount of cloud technology investment levels across different industries "varies considerably".

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APRIL 24, 2020

Los Angeles-based electric car developer Faraday Future said on Thursday afternoon that it has added former Nevada Lieutenant Governor Brian Krolicki to the company's board. According to Faraday Future, the move will help it help bolster its leadership team, improve corporate governance, and secure funding for the planned delivery of its first ultra-luxury production vehicle (FF 91).

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APRIL 24, 2020

Los Angeles-based private equity investor Century Park Capital Partners said this week that it has completed a majority recapitalization of business and IT consulting services company Accelalpha. Financial details of the recapitalization were not announced. According to the company, it has combined Accelalpha and a provider of logistics IT consulting, Prolog Partners.

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APRIL 24, 2020

For our interview this morning, we spoke with Carey Ransom , from OC4 Venture Studio (www.oc4v.com). Carey tells us a bit about what OC4 is doing, how it invests and works with companies, and also gives startups some advice about how to approach moving forward in light of the pandemic. What is OC4? Carey Ransom: The way I think about it, is it is really the culmination of almost two decades of software and technology company building and investing.

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MARCH 12, 2020

Irvine-based Mica Energies announced Wednesday afternoon that it has received a seed funding, and says it is working on a "proof of concept" for ite technology, focused on harvesting radio frequencies from the environment. Source and amount of that seed funding was not announced. The company claimed that the seed funding values the company at $39M. Mica Energies claims that it is working on technology that will allow for the charging of a smartphone battery while it is in a pocket or inside a bu

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MARCH 12, 2020

The Overwatch League , the e-sports league run by Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard , says it is cancelling all of its Homestands events scheduled for March and April. The league said that the health and safety of employees, fans, players, teams, and partners is "paramount" to Activision Blizzard Esports, and after careful review and collaboration with teams, it has cancelled all Overwatch League Homestands events for those months.

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JANUARY 27, 2020

Marina Del Rey-based Flowspace , which is backed by Canvas Ventures, Moment Ventures, 1984 Ventures, and Y Combinator, said last week that it has named a new Chief Revenue Officer. According to the company, Jerry Kingkade will accelerate the company's expansion and build out capabilities in sales and account management. Kingade was most recently Chief Commercial Officer at Kinnek, and previously spent five years at Houzz.

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JANUARY 27, 2020

Culver City-based Encantos , a developer of family entertainment and education titles, has raised $2M in a seed funding round, the company announced this morning. According to the company, the funding was led by Kapor Capital, and also included Boston Meridian Partners, Chingona Ventures, the Goldhirsh Foundation, Human Ventures, MathCapital plus angel investors, including Tom Chavez (CEO of super{set} Startup Studio), Rich Greenfield (Partner at LightShed Partners), Lydia Jett (Partner at Softb

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JANUARY 27, 2020

Pasadena-based Calibrate Ventures , a venture capital firm that says it invests in advanced technologies, has added two Venture Partners to the company. According to the firm, it has added Aime Leifer and Dan Murray to its team. Leifer is the founder and CEO of PureSignal, a provider of software for businesses; she also previously was at Weave HQ and Intuit, as well as Demandforce.

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JANUARY 27, 2020

Kobe Bryant , the basketball legend who also was one half of Los Angeles private equity investment firm Bryant Stibel , is dead at the age of 41, after a tragic helicopter crash in Calabasas took his life, the life of one of his daughters, and seven others. Bryant and his other passengers were on a helicopter traveling from John Wayne Airport, on the way to a basketball tournament for his daughter, which was being held at the Mamba Sports Academy in the Thousand Oaks area, and were inbound over

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JANUARY 20, 2020

Huntington Beach-based Rocket Lab said on Monday that its next launch, the first for 2020, will be the for U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). According to Rocket Lab, the mission, named "Birds of a Feather", will occur on January 31st, from Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site. Rocket Lab said it won the contract under the NRO Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract, which will allow the NRO to explore new launch opportunities that can provide a streamlined, commercial approa

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DECEMBER 30, 2019

Venice-based Snapchat is planning to launch a new feature in February, which will feature users' Bitmoji avatars as the main characters in a custom cartoon. The new feature--called Bitmoji TV , is expected to include users' Bitmoji avatars included in "secret agent missions", piloting a spaceship, and much more. A number of users have posted the teaser for Bitmoji TV that Snapchat apparently sent out over the last couple of days.

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DECEMBER 30, 2019

Amazon and Ring , the Santa Monica company now owned by Amazon, are the targets of a new class action lawsuit filed in Alabama by a man who claims Amazon and Ring have filed to do enough to secure their systems against hacking. The lawsuit still needs to be approved for class action status. The legal filing comes after a long list of high profile, security-camera hacking incidents that have occurred in the last month, many linked to a group of hackers which were streaming hacked cameras live on

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DECEMBER 30, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Today, we share the thoughts of Andy Wilson , Managing Director of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation (www.alliancesocal.org). We'll be featuring contributions all through the holiday season.

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DECEMBER 30, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Today, we share the thoughts of Michele Ruiz , the Co-Founder and CEO of BiasSync (www.biassync.com), a startup which develops products that helps help organizations more effectively assess and manage unconscious bias in the work environment.

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DECEMBER 30, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Today, we share the thoughts of Mike Jones , Co-founder and CEO of Science, Inc. (www.science-inc.com), which has been behind such companies as Dollar Shave Club, August Home, DogVacay, Hello Society, Playhaven, and many others.

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DECEMBER 16, 2019

San Diego-based Citadel Defense , which develops counter-drone technology to help detect and identify unauthorized drones, claims it has deployed its technology for three, undisclosed U.S. government agencies. According to the company, it has been working over the past six months to deploy its counter-drone technology, both domestically and abroad. The company said those deployments were all through a pilot program.

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DECEMBER 16, 2019

San Diego-based biopharmaceuticals developer Qpex Biopharma READ MORE>>.

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DECEMBER 16, 2019

Huntington Beach-based Rocket Lab , the provider of small satellite rocket launches, has just put a "Gold Mission Success Coin" on its e-commerce website for a mere $7.5M, in what clearly is a bit of spaceflight humor. According to Rocket Lab, the "Gold Mission Success Coin" can either be purchased on its e-commerce website, or it is included free with the purchase of dedicated launch on Rocket Labs Electron vehicle.

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DECEMBER 16, 2019

Northridge-based HemaCare , which develops products for the cell therapy market, has been acquired by Charles River Laboratories International , in a deal worth $380M in cash, the companies announced early this morning. HemaCare develops human-derived cellular products for cell therapy, providing a wide range of human primary cell types, plus cell processing services to support the discovery, development, and manufacture of cell therapies.

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NOVEMBER 8, 2019

Pasadena-based robot developer Miso Robotics is turning towards equity crowdfunding for its next fundraise, the company said this week. Miso--known for its kitchen assistant robot, Flippy--says it has started opening up reservations for a new equity crowdfunding round. The funding is also being supported by Wavemaker Labs, the "startup studio" arm of investment firm Wavemaker Ventures.

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

Los Angeles-based Boingo Wireless , which provides distributed antenna system (DAS), small cells and Wi-Fi services--including running its own network of Wi-Fi hotspots--says it is expanding its efforts to the new, Citizen Broadband Radio Services (CBRS). The new 3.5 Ghz radio service -- which runs at similar frequencies to new 5G wireless networking standards --was just approved by the FCC.

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