Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2023

The name “investment bank” somehow always sounded like a place where I could deposit my investments, and maybe even earn a little interest. Then I learned that these banks really negotiate investments and collect fees on the transactions, sort of like commercial banks do with loans to businesses. Very confusing.

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MARCH 28, 2019

San Diego-based treasury and finance software developer Kyriba announced late Wednesday that it has raised $160M in a growth funding round, from private equity investor Bridgepoint. According to Kyriba, the investment round will give Bridgepoint a majority stake in its business, and values the company at $1.2 READ MORE>>.

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OCTOBER 29, 2019

Los Angeles-based mobile games developer Scopely has raised a $200M, Series D funding, which it says it will use for acquisitions, the company announed early this morning. The company was founded in 2011, and has now raised over $487M in total funding since founding. READ MORE>>.

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FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Irvine-based Bitvore , the big data, artificial intelligence, and data analytics startup, has upped its latest funding round to $14.2M, as part of what appears to be an ongoing $17.75M funding effort. The company's CEO, Jeff Drake, was a founder at Access360 (acquired by IBM), and also served at IBM, Akana, and ServiceMesh.

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SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Los Angeles-based Docupace Technologies , a provider of electronic processing technology aimed at the financial institutional and wealth management industry, said today that it has raised a round of funding from RCS Capital Corporation. The new investment gives RCS Capital a majority stake in Docupace. READ MORE>>.

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Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Avalon said Tuesday that GSK (NYSE: GSK ) has agreed to buy the company, Sitari Pharmaceuticals, which has been developing a treatment for celiac disease. Sitari was the first of eight companies spun up through the partnership between the Southern California investment outfit and British pharma company.

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AUGUST 23, 2017

San Diego-based MabVax Therapeutics , a biotechnology developer developing antibody-based treatments for cancer, said on Tuesday that it has raised $1.3M in a Series J Convertible Preferred Stock financing, and has engaged an investment banking firm to "explore strategic alternatives" for the company. READ MORE>>.

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JUNE 3, 2021

El Segundo-based human capital and policy management software developer NEOGOV, which is led by Shane Evangelist, has scored a round of funding from private equity giants The Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus. The size of the investment--described as "significant"--was not announced. The company was founded in 2000.

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OCTOBER 12, 2016

Los Angeles-based Edlio , a developer of a cloud-based, software product used by schools and school districts to build and manage school websites, has raised $40M in a funding round. The funding came from L Squared Capital Partners. Edlio is led by CEO Ali Arsan.

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MAY 1, 2019

Santa Monica-based advertising startup VideoAmp said on Wednesday that it has raised a big $70M funding round, led by the Raine Group, and also included Ankona Capital, Mediaocean, and RTL Group. The company, which develops cross-platform advertising, said it will use the funding to build out its team, as well as for acquisition.

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JULY 8, 2019

Perforce Software , a developer of software used by developers to manage their software source control and DevOps--which is backed by Santa Monica-based Clearlake Capital Group--has scored a new round of funding, the company announced this morning. Clearlake first made its investment in Perforce in late 2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Leadership brand development.

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JULY 27, 2016

The The Stage Fund , a investment and acquisition firm focused on acquiring turnaround companies, has tapped a longtime Southern California entrepreneur, Dan Tamkin , as a new Managing Partner in Los Angeles. According to the fund, Tamkin will be setting up a West Coast office for the fund, which is based in Denver, Colorado.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

What You Can Learn From Public Markets It doesn’t really take a genius to realize that what happens in the public markets will filter back to the private markets because the ultimate exit of these companies is either an IPO or an acquisition (often by a public company whose valuation is fixed daily by the market). It’s just math.

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SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Los Angeles-based Appetize, the developer of point-of-sale ordering apps serving the restaurant, sports, entertainment, and hospitality business, has been acquired by San Francisco-based SpotOn, the companies said on Tuesday. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. billion, with the funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

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JUNE 30, 2021

Los Angeles-based ServiceTitan, which provides software used by contractors and the trades to manage their business, has acquired another company, Aspire Software, which develops software for the commercial landscaping business. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. The Series G funding values ServiceTitan at $9.5

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MAY 10, 2021

Los Angeles-based Science 37, a developer of software used for managing clinical research projects, has gone public in a merger with LifeSci Acquisition II Corp., According to Science 37, the deal will provide it with a $250M balance sheet to fund its technology platform and extend into new markets.

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OCTOBER 19, 2021

San Diego-based nonprofit software developer Classy announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring event platform Fondi, the developer of a virtual and hybrid event platform. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Classy said it will relaunch Fondi as Classy Live for nonprofits. Fondi was previously owned by Lennd.

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OCTOBER 4, 2019

Los Angeles-based Moonshots Capital , the venture capital investment firm led by Kelly Perdew, has seen its first exit out of its portfolio, with the acquisition this week of Threatcare , a developer of cybersecurity software. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. READ MORE>>.

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MAY 27, 2021

Irvine-based savings and investing app developer Acorns said today that it will be going public, via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Pioneer Merger Corp., which trades on the NASDAQ as PACX. The transaction will give the company a fully diluted equity value of $2.2 Acorns is led by CEO Noah Kerner.

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JULY 9, 2021

Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. CerraCap Ventures said it made its investment in Totient out of its second fund, CerraCap II LP. The venture investor says the exit is the second for tht fund.

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MAY 14, 2020

Newport Beach-based NextVR , a developer of virtual reality technology, has been acquired by Apple , Apple disclosed on THursday afternoon. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. in funding for its virtual reality broadcasting technology. The company had raised more than $110.5M

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. Matt’s commitment to re-investing in tech startups is reminiscent to this great Fred Wilson post of “recycling capital. &#. Backstopping is when banks feel they are protected by VC’s investing in the company.

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JANUARY 28, 2021

Los Angeles-based electric vehicle developer Faraday Future is joining the rush to public markets through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), saying this morning that it plans to list on the NASDAQ through a merger with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. billion.

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JULY 13, 2020

Los Angeles-based electric car maker Fisker announced this morning that it is in a merger with a public, special purpose acquisition company, called Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp. The company said the merger and proceeds will fully fund the development of its all-electric Fisker Ocean through start of production in 2022.

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TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 28, 2020

In a move to shore up institutional support in what’s likely to be it’s last fundraising as a private company, the Los Angeles-based mobile gaming behemoth Scopely has raised $340 million in its latest eye-popping round of funding. “We were excited to crossover and invest in Scopely.”

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JUNE 14, 2019

Los Angeles-based AppOnboard , which develops mobile app design and development software, has acquired Buildbox , a developer of mobile game development software. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Both AppOnboard and Buildbox develop tools which do not require coding to develop apps.

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Mobile Tool Acquisition Los Angeles 124

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OCTOBER 22, 2018

CrowdStrike , the cybersecurity software developer which has major operations in Irvine, has hired an IPO banker and is eyeing an IPO before the end of the year, according to a report from Reuters. CrowdStrike is led by veteran cybersecurity executive George Kurtz, and raised a big funding round in January. READ MORE>>.

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OCTOBER 12, 2020

Los Angeles-based social application developer Triller , which competes head to head against TikTok , is seeking to reach the public markets through a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company), according to a report. Reuters cited "people familiar with the matter" for the report. TikTok is the target of efforts by the U.S.

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NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Los Angeles-based Weblife , a developer of secure, employee web browsing software, has been acquired by Proofpoint , in a $66M all cash deal, the companies announced today. Proofpoint said it will use the acquisition to extend its email malware protection to users' personal email accounts. Nordic Eye said it invested $3.0M

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MAY 4, 2021

Irvine-based e-commerce software developer Kajabi said this morning that it has raised a massive, $550M funding round, which values the company at over $2 billion. The investment round firmly vaunts the company into unicorn territory. The investment round firmly vaunts the company into unicorn territory.

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OCTOBER 16, 2019

Los Angeles-based artificial intelligence developer Boundless Mind , which is uses AI to personalize the interaction of users on apps, has been acquired by New York-based Thrive Global , a startup founded by Arianna Huffington focused on behavior change. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced.

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FEBRUARY 28, 2018

According to Phunware , a developer of mobile application lifecycle management software, it has been acquired by Stellar Acquisition II , which is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market. Stellar is a so-called "blank check acquisition company" specifically designed to for reverse mergers.

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MARCH 18, 2014

Irvine-based Bitvore , a startup developing big data and intelligence-gathering software which pulls information from both public and private data sources for businesses, said this morning that it has closed a $4.5M, Series A funding round. The funding was led by serial entreprenur Yuri Pikover, as well as $1M from crowdfunding.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

The first three skills I espoused were: access to the highest-quality deal-flow, domain knowledge of the topic area in which you’re investing and access to VCs to help fund the next stages of development. But consider periods of time where the average time a company exists before acquisition or IPO is 7-10 years.

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JUNE 20, 2014

By the time I funded them they were doing 400 million video views a month, had 40 million subscribers and had already become a powerhouse in ad sales / revenue working with marquee advertisers including: P&G, Budweiser, Nestle, Ford, Frito Lay and Honda. This was a marked change from the previous leadership of YouTube.

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MAY 17, 2011

Idealab, Quercus Trust, and Phoenix Fire had invested $3.5M in funding in RayTracker a developer of solar tracking technology. on their investment. A report today from Greentech Media says that Pasadena-based Idealab 's sale of portfolio firm RayTracker was worth $44.8M. READ MORE>>.

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