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AUGUST 18, 2021

Los Angeles-based Jambox.io said this morning that it has launched new, online music licensing service, which aims to connect film and video makers with music. The company said it offers up a catalog of songs, soundtracks and special effects for its customers, available both via subscription or through single song licensing.

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AUGUST 18, 2021

Glendale-based LegalZoom has partnered with the University of Southern California (USC), to fund a scholarship and a new lab, the company said this week. According to LegalZoom, it has partnered with the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business to amplify the learning opportunities offered through the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab (BSEL).

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JUNE 23, 2021

Los Angeles-based Bird says it is expanding into the bicycle sharing market, unveiling a new electric bicycle and a program to support what it calls "multimodal" cities. According to Bird, its new Bird Bike is designed for longer, 3-5 mile trips, and are equipped with a high-powered motor capable of handling hills with up to a 20% grade. Bird--led by founder and CEO Travis VanderZanden--says it plans to start rolling out the shared Bird Bike across North America and Europe this year.

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MAY 6, 2021

Two veterans of Honest Co. have launched a new startup, ELM Foods, focused on online grocery shopping for plant-based foods. According to ELM Foods, its two founders--Joel Jackson and Melissa Williams--were both at Honest Co., the newly public provider of natural baby and household products. According to ELM Foods, it is offering up "intelligent" recipe and meal-plan shopping for sustainable and healthy groceries, helping its customers eat a plant-based diet.

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FEBRUARY 4, 2021

Los Angeles-based Halogen Ventures, the venture capital firm led by Jesse Draper, has raised $21M in its second fund, the firm said on Wednesday. According to Halogen Ventures, the fund will continue to invest in women and diversity. Halogen Ventures was founded in 2015, and so far has invested in over 60 female founded companies, and says it now has ten exits out of its portfolio.

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JANUARY 15, 2021

Los Angeles-based web hosting and WordPress services provider DreamHost and small business lending service Lendio said on Thursday that the two are partnered to provide Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application guidance to Dreamhost customers. According to the companies, Lendio will work to assist DreamHost business customers to apply for funds made available in the latest US government Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) program.

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JANUARY 15, 2021

Irvine-based Viant Technology, a developer of advertising software, has filed for an IPO, saying in a filing with the SEC that it is looking to raise up to $150M in an IPO on the Nasdaq Global Market as DSP. The IPO is being underwritten by BofA Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Canaccord Genuity, JMP Securities, Needham & Company, and Raymond James.

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DECEMBER 15, 2020

Irvine-based Cosemi Technologies , a developer of plug-and-play HDMI, DisplayPort and USB active optical cables, said on Tuesday tht it has raised $8M in a strategic funding round. The funding came from Nitto Denko Corporation, a Japanese materials manufacturer. According to Cosemi, it will ues the new funding round to accelerate its growth, and also address a growing market in the area of high-speed, hybrid active optical interconnect solutions.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Los Angeles-based electronic products retailer Newegg said on Monday that it is kicking off its Black Friday deals today, through midnight on Cyber Monday a further indication of how the holiday shopping season has blurred into a continuous stream of promotions that now start, in many cases, in October. Newegg says it will offer up savings on its "most sought-after" tech gifts for eigh days.

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NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Los Angeles-based Credit Key , a startup which helps e-commerce merchants offer up instant point-of-sale financing to customers, has raised $33.85M in its Series A funding. The funding came from Greycroft, Bonfire Ventures, Loeb.nyc, and other investors. The startup--led by startup veteran John Tomich--integrates with e-commerce payment systems, appearing as a payment option at checkout.

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NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Santa Barbara-based WELL Health , a startup which offers up patient communications tools to healthcare providers, payers, and others, has raised $45M more in a SEries C funding round, the company said this week. The funding was led by Lead Edge Capital, and also included Martin Ventures, the healthcare-focused venture capital firm founded by executive, investor, and entrepreneur, Charlie Martin, and existing investors Jackson Square Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Summation Health Ventures, S

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NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Los Angeles-based Parallel Agile , a developer of software focused on the Agile coding market, says it has rolled out a new product, CodeBot UX. The company says the new software helps create user interface software, generating database schema, API documentation, server-side code, client-side code including domain classes, CRUD functions and usage examples all from object oriented modeling (UML).

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NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Los Angeles-based electric vehicle manufacturer Faraday Future has joined as the founding member of a new group that is looking to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. According to Faraday Future, it has joined the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) , as a founding member, joining 29 other companies as part of the new group, which is pushing for 100 percent electric vehicle sales by 2030.

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OCTOBER 7, 2020

Los Angeles-based social app developer Triller --which competes directly against TikTok--said late Tuesday that it will start offering up livestreaming features on its app starting next week. According to Triller, the livestreaming feature will launch on October 12th, with new paywall and donation options included to help creators monetize their content.

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OCTOBER 7, 2020

Costa Mesa-based Givsum , which develops online software to help charitable organizations with their operations and fundraising, says it has received both new funding, as well as support, from two accelerators. Givsum said that has received capital investments from both SteelBridge Labs and OC4 Venture Studios, but did not say how much it raised from those efforts.

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OCTOBER 7, 2020

Los Angeles-based business advisory and financial services company B. Riley Financial has made a strategic investment in a developer of software for the financial industry, IQvestment Holdings , the company announced this morning. Size of the investment was not announced. According to B. Riley Financial, Chuck Hastings joins IQvestment Holdings' board of directors, with Jon Merriman joining the company's advisory board.

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Santa Monica-based Fair , the used car leasing company, said this week that it is adding longer, 2-year and 3-year leases to its menu of options, as a complement to the firm's month-to-month car options. According to Fair, the new lease options will offer up monthly savings to customers who want to keep their cars longer, with customers saving $40 per month on a 2-year Fair lease, and $70 a month on a 3 year lease.

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2020

Los Angeles-based Boosted Commerce announced on Thursday that it has raised $87M, and acquired six different companies in the business of Amazon fulfillment. According to Boosted, the funding came from Torch Capital, Crosscut Ventures, Spencer Rascoff (co-founder of Zillow), Elie Seidman (former CEO of Tinder), Tucker Kain (Los Angeles Dodgers); Ken Ramberg (founder of Goodpods), Scott Hendrickson (co-founder Permian Investment Partners), Thomas O.

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SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

North Hollywood-based UNest , which operates a mobile app which helps parents set up saving plans for their children's college, has acquired Littlefund , an app and service which helps parents with collecting gifts, and tracking and saving towards a child's goals. According to UNest, the acquisition will help it expand its product offerings. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced.

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AUGUST 28, 2020

Santa Monica-based Openfit , which provides digital, on-demand and live fitness, nutrition, and wellness programs, says it has tied into Amazon Halo , Amazon's new fitness and health tracking band. According to Openfit, as part of the collaboration, it has created a series of fitness-focused Labs which converts the data tracked by Amazon Halo into "actions that lead to measurable impact on their health and wellness.

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AUGUST 25, 2020

A new California bill is threatening shared, micro-mobility companies like Santa Monica-based Bird and Los Angeles-based Wheels , by threatening to eliminate their ability to force their users to sign away their rights to sue those companies in the case of an injury or accident. According to the proposed law, agreements from those micro-mobility companies "shall not contain a provision by which the user waives, releases, or in any way limits their legal rights or remedies under the agreement.

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AUGUST 26, 2020

Irvine-based financial wellness program operator Acorns , which operates a program that encourages Americans to save and invest, says it has received a strategic investment from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Dany Garcia, the co-founders of Seven Bucks Companies. Size of the investment was not announced. Johnson is best known for his acting roles, but now runs Seven Bucks Companies with his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.

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AUGUST 26, 2020

Los Angeles-based Bingie , a new startup, debuted a new, social recommendations app that helps users get movie recommendations from their friends on Thursday. The startup--led by Matt Knox--says the app helps users with movie recommendations across such services as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and more. According to Bingie, the new app lets users find content across streaming services and networks; share recommendations with friends; create internal group chats on a show or movie;

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AUGUST 27, 2020

Irvine-based property data provider b> ATTOM Data Solutions reports that even more properties in the United States have fallen into what it calls the "zombie foreclosure realm" in Q3, as the U.S. housing market continues to slide due to the economic aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. According to ATTOM Data, it tracked 1.5 million (1,570,265) residential properties in the United States vacant, representing 1.6 percent of all homes, with about 216,000 of those homes in the process of foreclos

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AUGUST 27, 2020

Los Angeles-based Signal Sciences , a developer of web application security software, has been acquired for $775M by San Francisco-based Fastly , Fastly annoucned this morning. According to Fastly, the cash and stock deal will expand its security portfolio, and form the basis of a new, upcoming security offering called Secure@Edge. Fastly said that new produt will provide a web application and API protection solution.

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JULY 21, 2020

San Diego-based Taoglas , a developer of RF antennas for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) market, says it has linked with electronics distributor Arrow Electronics. According to Taoglas, the partnership includes a new global distribution agreement focused on AI and IoT products and services. Taoglas said it will use Arrows sales and services organization to expand their customer base, grow ecosystem partnerships, and improve supply chain services.

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JULY 21, 2020

Datto , a developer of cloud-based software for the managed service provider (MSP) market--which just opened up a new office in Irvine--said that it has acquired Gluh Pty Ltd , an Australian company which develops software that allows MSPs to simplify procurement of IT products and services. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Datto is owned by private equity investor Vista Equity Partners.

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JUNE 23, 2020

Tired of trying to order from a restaurant menu, but can't quite picture what you want? Los Angeles-based Jeet said it launched today with a new app, which it says helps solves the problem of menus not having pictures. The company said the free app--which runs on iOS--allows customers at restaurants to see visual images of menu items, see what your friends have eaten, and works directly within restaurants.

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JUNE 23, 2020

Los Angeles-based Loot Crate and BuzzFeed says they have created a new "crate" to help people take a break from the noise, slow down, and enjoy some time offline. According to the two, the new "Joy of Missing Out Crate" is aimed at helping cure "fear of missing out syndrome" and onine burnout caused by keeping up with all of the apps, news sites and blogs.

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JUNE 23, 2020

San Diego-based life sciences equipment maker Illumina says it has selected seven, early-stage companies to join its first startup accelerate, the. According to the company, due to the pandemic, it is kicking off its efforts digitally this month, due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. The companies include three companies in Cambrige, UK, and four companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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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 billion invested across 2,298 deals in the first quarter of 2020, partially as a result of "record-high" levels of capital raised by VC funds in 2018 and 2019.

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MARCH 12, 2020

Los Angeles-based accounting software developer BlackLine is taking a new approach to its annual user conference in Europe, saying that it will now run its InTheBlack London 2020 event as a fully virtual event--but which will still feature thought leaders from its customers and users, instead as a series of virtual event sessions. The company--like the rest of the world--has had to rapidly shift its plans in light of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

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JANUARY 13, 2020

San Diego-based precision health analytics developer Human Longevity announced this morning that it has sold off its Oncology Division to NeoGenomics , in a deal worth $37M in cash. According to Human Longevity, the deal will help it focus entirely on "longevity and extending the healthy, high-performance human lifespan". The deal closed on Friday. Human Longevity's backers include Celgene, GE, and Illumina.

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JANUARY 6, 2020

Santa Monica-based Ring , which develops Internet-enabled doorbell cameras, security cameras, and other related products, is expanding its product lineup, saying at CES that it has rolled out a number of new products--including Internet-connected lightbulbs, garden lights, gate controllers, and more. Ring's new products all connect to Ring's app. Among the products is Access Controller Pro, a device which connects to electronic access gates, and lets users control those gates remotely.

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JANUARY 6, 2020

Fountain Valley-based HyperX has announced a number of products at CES, including a new wireless gaming headset with support for the "Qi" wireless charging standard. HyperX added a new mechanical gaming keyboard, a new gaming mouse, a "gaming mouse pad", as well as DDR4 DIMM and DDR4 SODIMM modules. The HyperX Cloud Flight S wireless headset was the most significant offering, offering one of the first Qi-certified wireless headsets.

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DECEMBER 23, 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 Aaron Fyke , the founder and Managing Director of Thin Line Capital (www.thinlinecapital.com), a venture capital firm in the energy and sustainability space.

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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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