socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Toba Capital , the venture fund run by former Quest Software founder Vinny Smith, has backed reporting and analytics dashboard software developer Grow.com in a $16M Series B funding round. The funding also included Peterson Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Kickstart Seed Fund, and HubSpot. Toba Capital also led Grow.com's SEries A funding. According to the company, it has now raised $26M in total.

Orange County 157

Orange County Capital Funding Seed Funding 157

L.A. Business Journal

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Fair raises $50 million and acquires rental car delivery service Skurt; Global Eagle submits overdue SEC filings; and Hulu says Super Bowl live-streaming outage was caused by program-extension glitch.

Hulu 130

Hulu Services Report 130

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based car leasing startup Fair , led by technology veteran Scott Painter, has acquired Los Angeles-based on-demand car rental service Skurt , according to reports this morning. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Skurt was venture backed by Upfront Ventures, BMW, Cross Culture Ventures, Expansion VC, Greycroft Partners, and Magic Johnson.

Venture Capital 133

Venture Capital Los Angeles Acquisition Demand 133

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Houston —Knowledge is power, but too much of a good thing can render data meaningless. That’s the struggle many retailers have in an age of data analytics. Think about the retailer e-mails we receive daily or the ads that appear on Google or our social media sites. Though based on our Web searches, those ads don’t necessarily represent what we would like to buy.

Commerce 72

Commerce Social Media Google Web 72

Advertiser: Aggregage

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

Company

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has released an animated video of what it hopes to demonstrate with its Falcon Heavy launch, scheduled now for tomorrow, Tuesday. In the video, SpaceX zooms in on the Florida launch pad, shows separation and landing of all three rocket boosters, and delivery of Elon Musk's shiny red Tesla--complete with astronaut dummy--into orbit around Mars.

SpaceX 133

SpaceX Hawthorne 133

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

You don’t need me to tell you it’s a rough world out there for startups. Venture capitalists have been unusually stingy lately, hanging on to billions of dollars they’d typically be channeling into promising young companies. When those investors do open their wallets, they’re shunning risky investments in favor of what the Wall Street Journal called “the upper echelon of highly valued startups” such as Airbnb and WeWork.

Angel 66

Angel Entrepreneur Journal Venture Capital 66

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

As an active angel investor, I’m accustomed to hearing entrepreneurs pitch their expectation to quickly create a new dominant brand, based on their disruptive technology. In the past, such statements have been credibility red flags, since “everyone” knows that a dominant brand takes decades to establish and scale. Only recently, I realized that times are rapidly changing.

Marketing 57

Marketing Startup Entrepreneur Social Media 57

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

El Seguno-based SmartAction , which is developing artificial intelligence-driven, call center automation software, said today that it has raised funding in a management recapitalization by private equity investors Staley Capital and TVC Capital. Financial details of the recapitalization were not announced. Staley Capital is based in Boston, and TVC Capital is based in San Diego.

Capital 113

Capital Signal Hill Artificial Inteligence Funding 113

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

After starting Organovo in 2007, I spent much of the next decade as CEO seeking financing to advance our bioprinting technology. Because I stepped out of an operational role early last year, I am now in a position of providing financing to aspiring life sciences entrepreneurs. The change has caused me to reflect a bit on the state of finance in biotech and in San Diego biotech particularly.

San Diego 45

San Diego Capital Funding Entrepreneur 45

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based Digital Fuel , a provider of IT business management software, has been acquired by Apptio , the two companies announced Friday. Financial details of the buy were not announced. Digital Fuel had been owned by private equity investor Skyview Capital. Digital Fuel had been founded in 2000, and was acquired by VMware in 2011; Digital Fuel was then acquired by Skyview Capital in 2016.

Equity 113

Equity Los Angeles Capital Software 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

Santa Monica-based Leaf Group , the publicly traded consumer Internet company best known for running such sites as Saatchi Art, Society6, EHow, and Livestrong, said it is looking to offer and sell approximately $22M in shares of its common stock. The company--which trades on the NYSE as LFGR--said the funds would go to working capital and general corporate purposes, plus to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products and technologies.

Acquisition 113

Acquisition eHow Santa Monica Demand 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

San Diego-based Qualcomm said this morning that it has received a revised proposal from Irvine-based Broadcom , where Broadcom has offered to pay $60.00 per share in cash and $22 per share in Broadcom stock for all outstanding shares of Qualcomm. The offer is an increase over an earier offer, made in November, where Broadcom offered to pay $60.00 in cash and $10.00 in Broadcom stock--an offer that was rejected by Qualcomm's board.

San Diego 113

San Diego Acquisition 113