2019

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Why Has Seed Investing Declined? And What Does this Mean for the Future?

Both Sides of the Table

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. What gives? Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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How TuesdayNights is Helping Women Entrepreneurs Connect With Capital

socalTECH

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. So, to help other female entrepreneurs, they founded TuesdayNights (www.tuesdaynights.org), a group in LA which helps female entrepreneurs connect with capital and each other to improve their access to capital.

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With its Greenlots acquisition, Shell is moving from gas stations to charging stations

TechCrunch LA

In a bid to show that it’s getting ready for the electrification of American roads, Royal Dutch Shell is buying Greenlots , a Los Angeles-based developer of electric vehicle charging and energy management technologies. Shell, which is making the acquisition through its Shell New Energies US subsidiary, snatched the company from Energy Impact Partners, a cleantech-focused investment firm.

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BYD Sells 130 Electric Buses to LADOT

L.A. Business Journal

BYD Motors will deliver 130 electric buses to the L.A. Department of Transportation, the company's largest order yet.

Company 222
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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

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.

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More Than 50 E-Scooters Pulled From Portland River

Tech.Co

The e-scooter vandalism pandemic continues, as Portland authorities have reportedly hauled more than 50 e-scooters out of a Portland river last week. E-scooters have begun taking over US cities in recent months, with Chicago being the latest to implement the technology just last month. While the innovative two-wheeled vehicles have given thousands access to affordable means of transportation, as well as quite a bit of fun, many citizens believe they are dangerous, tedious, and generally just get

News 174
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Five Questions With a16z’s Vijay Pande on AI and Making New Drugs

Xconomy

In startup world these days, the word “biotech” is increasingly accompanied by “computational” and two, two-letter initialisms: AI and ML. Those tools—artificial intelligence and machine learning, respectively—have been around for decades, but in recent years have become faster and cheaper, accelerating their use by those in the business of discovering and developing new drugs.

More Trending

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What Your Car Says About You

AllTopStartups

Cars are more than just the things you drive. They’re a part of who you are and tend to reflect your personality. Think about it. When you shop for a… The post What Your Car Says About You appeared first on AllTopStartups.

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Solar Startup Heliogen Looks to Power Plants, Refineries

L.A. Business Journal

For decades, solar technology experts have sought to generate electricity. But Pasadena-based Heliogen has a new technology that swaps fossil fuels for solar energy in industrial applications.

Pasadena 263
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Flying taxi startup Blade is helping Silicon Valley CEOs bypass traffic

TechCrunch LA

One year after a $38 million Series B valued on-demand aviation startup Blade at $140 million, the company has begun taxiing the Bay Area’s elite. As part of a new pilot program, Blade has given 200 people in San Francisco and Silicon Valley exclusive access to its mobile app, allowing them to book helicopters, private jets and even seaplanes at a moments notice for $200 per seat, at least.

Van Nuys 279
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Audi’s new V2I feature helps drivers hit every green light

TechCrunch LA

Audi has added a new feature to the vehicle-to-infrastructure technology embedded in its newer models that’s designed to help drivers catch every green light. The tech, called GLOSA or Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory, is part of the automaker’s built-in traffic light-reading technology. And Audi says it’s the first automaker to include this GLOSA feature in its cars.

Help 279
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Using full-body MRIs, Ezra can now detect 11 cancers in men and 13 in women

TechCrunch LA

When Ezra first launched about six months ago, the company was using magnetic resonance imaging machines to test for prostate cancer in men. But the company’s founder, Emi Gal, always had a larger goal. “One of the biggest problems in cancer is that there’s no accurate, fast, painless, way to scan for cancer anywhere in the body” Gal said at the time of his company’s debut.

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Marcus Hutchins, malware researcher and ‘WannaCry hero,’ sentenced to supervised release

TechCrunch LA

Marcus Hutchins, the malware researcher who became known as an “accidental hero” for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017, has been sentenced to supervised release for one year on charges of making and selling the Kronos banking malware. Presiding Judge J. P. Stadtmueller described Hutchins, 25, as a “talented” but “youthful offender” in remarks in federal court in Milwaukee Friday.

Research 277
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A new Tesla Model S can now drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco on a single charge

TechCrunch LA

Tesla has announced that it has extended the range of its Model S vehicle to 370 miles and Model X to 325 miles on a single charge — extending the range of its flagship car to make the trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco on a single charge. . The extensions beat Tesla’s previous records for mileage per charge using the same 100 kWh battery pack, the company said.

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Techstars and Starburst Aerospace are launching a space industry accelerator in Los Angeles

TechCrunch LA

With the help of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Technologies, SAIC and the Israel Aerospace Industries company, Techstars and Starburst Aerospace are launching an accelerator focused on the space industry in Los Angeles. Already a major hub for the space and aerospace startup industry, with companies like SpaceX, Relativity Space, Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab, Phase Four, and others calling Los Angeles home, the new accelerator will provide another booste

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Fortnite World Cup has handed out $30 million in prizes, and cemented its spot in the culture

TechCrunch LA

The Fortnite phenomenon — the wildly popular battle royale game from Epic Games — has manifested itself in concerned articles , cultural shoutouts and now has sealed its place in the cultural firmament by wrapping up its first “World Cup” which saw the company give away $30 million in prizes. Congrats to all of our winners this weekend at the #FortniteWorldCup Finals.

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Elon Musk says Tesla Model Y will be revealed at its LA design studio on March 14

TechCrunch LA

Tesla will pull back the curtains and unveil its Model Y crossover vehicle at an event in Los Angeles on March 14th, according to a tweet from chief executive Elon Musk. Model Y unveil event on March 14 at LA Design Studio. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2019. It’s the fifth new car design to come from Tesla’s shop since the company was founded in 2003.

Design 272
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Upstart banking company Dave is now worth $1 billion, as Norwest puts in $50 million

TechCrunch LA

Two years after the Los Angeles-based fintech startup Dave launched with a suite of money management tools to save consumers from overdraft fees , the company is now worth $1 billion thanks to a nascent banking practice that had investors lining up. The company used its overdraft protection service and money management display to shift customers’ focus away from the total balance that their account would show by giving them a sense of how much was actually left in their accounts once debit

Company 262
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More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

TechCrunch LA

Brud , the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela , is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

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Google partners with Sony Pictures Imageworks to launch an open source VFX render manager

TechCrunch LA

Google today announced that it has partnered with Sony Pictures Imageworks , Sony’s visual effects and animation studio, to launch OpenCue , an open source render manager. OpenCue doesn’t handle any of the actual rendering processes but it provides all the tools to break down those different steps and then schedule and manage the different rendering jobs across large rendering farms, both local and in the cloud.

Google 261
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Daily Crunch: Twitter will delete dormant accounts

TechCrunch LA

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Twitter will free up handles by deleting inactive accounts. “As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter,” the company said.

Netflix 243
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Snap is channeling Asia’s messaging giants with its move into gaming

TechCrunch LA

Snap is taking a leaf out of the Asian messaging app playbook as its social messaging service enters a new era. The company unveiled a series of new strategies that are aimed at breathing fresh life into the service which has been ruthlessly cloned by Facebook across Instagram, WhatsApp, and even its primary social network. The result? Snap has consistently lost users since going public in 2017.

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Fifty years of the internet

TechCrunch LA

Leonard Kleinrock. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Leonard Kleinrock is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. When my team of graduate students and I sent the first message over the internet on a warm Los Angeles evening in October, 1969, little did we suspect that we were at the start of a worldwide revolution.

UCLA 253
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Consolidation is coming to gaming, and Jam City raises $145 million to capitalize on it

TechCrunch LA

A slew of banks are coming together to back a new roll-up strategy for the Los Angeles-based mobile gaming studio, Jam City and giving the company $145 million in new funding to carry that out. There’s no word on whether the new money is in equity or debt, but what is certain is that JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and syndicate partners including Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank and CIT Bank are all involved in the deal.

Mobile 251
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Shell’s first electric vehicle fast charger lands in Singapore

TechCrunch LA

Royal Dutch Shell, the energy giant known for its fossil fuel production and hundreds of Shell gas stations, is creeping into the electric vehicle-power business. The company’s first DC fast charger launched Monday at a Shell gas station in Singapore. Greenlots, an EV charging startup acquired by Shell in January, installed the charger. This is the first of 10 DC fast chargers that Greenlots plans to bring to Shell service stations in Singapore over the next several months.

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Relativity is building a 3D-printing rocket manufacturing hub in Mississippi

TechCrunch LA

The future of rocket manufacturing has touched down in Mississippi. At NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center , nestled in Hancock County, Miss., right on the border of Louisiana, the Los Angeles-based 3D-printed spacecraft manufacturer, Relativity Space , is planning a massive $59 million expansion to make a permanent manufacturing hub in this bucolic corner of the southeast.

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Kensh?, ‘the antithesis of Goop,’ launches a research-based guide to natural medicine

TechCrunch LA

Goop is cashing in on pseudoscience and, in the process, giving natural health practices a bad name. Krista Berlincourt, the co-founder and chief executive officer of a new startup, Kensh? Health , hopes she can take back the narrative. “We’re the antithesis of Goop,” Berlincourt, a fintech veteran who previously led marketing and product at Simple Finance, tells TechCrunch.

Guide 241
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Interview With Caradoc Ehrenhalt, EV Safe Charging

socalTECH

In a world where more and more drivers are moving to electric vehicles, where is EV charging today? To better understand exactly where EV technology is today, we caught up with Caradoc Ehrenhalt , the CEO and founder of a Los Angeles startup, EV Safe Charge (www.evsafecharge.com), to chat a bit about his view of where EV charging technology today. EV Safe Charge rents out EV chargers for events, in addition to having its own business installing charging stations.

Startup 243
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New THC and CBD infused beverage company, Cann, joins the race to replace booze

TechCrunch LA

Cann , a Los Angeles-based purveyor of CBD and THC-infused intoxicants, is rolling out its first major distribution through the venture-backed delivery service Eaze as it begins to hit the streets in California. The company founded by two former Bain consultants is the latest to take on the growing market for non-alcoholic intoxicants that use a combination of chemicals traditionally found in the marijuana plant to make their drinks.

Company 241
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Social Networking Startup MeWe Raises $4.5 Million

L.A. Business Journal

Culver City-based social networking startup Sgrouples Inc., doing business as MeWe, announced it raised $4.5 million in a venture round, bringing its total funding to $15 million since launching in 2012.

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How Rolebot Wants To Eliminate The Resume, With Shane Bernstein

socalTECH

Anyone who hires anyone, or has ever looked for a jobs knows how important a resume is. However, in the technical arena--as a programmer, developer, or software engineer--it's hard to tell from a resume how good you really are. Plus, it's often difficult to find that technical talent, which might not be looking for a job. That's where Los Angeles-based Rolebot (www.rolebot.net) comes in.

Sites 240
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Canoo takes the covers off of its debut electric vehicle

TechCrunch LA

The Los Angeles-based startup Canoo has finally unveiled its first model, the eponymously named canoo. The Canoo designers have departed pretty radically from the traditional designs that other electric vehicle manufacturers have favored going with something that looks more like a VW Microbus than the sport utility vehicle that Byton is aiming for, or Tesla and Fisker’s sportscars and sedans or Rivian’s electric trucks.

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In SF, tech crumbled the American dream — LA can do better

TechCrunch LA

Damian Bradfield. Contributor. Damian Bradfield is the president, CMO and founding partner of WeTransfer , the company that designs tools for the creative process. His upcoming book, The Trust Manifesto, about trust in the era of big data, will be released on October 4th. In the summer of 2018, parts of San Francisco’s public utilities turned gold. Manhole covers, drainpipes and gas line covers were gilded in protest by a pair of street artists, Erick Schmitt and Nick Bushman, and quickly became

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PodcastOne is launching LaunchpadDM, a free hosting platform for independent podcasters

TechCrunch LA

PodcastOne , the celebrity podcasting network from the founder of radio powerhouse WestwoodOne, is launching a free hosting platform for podcasters. The Los Angeles-based syndicated podcasting platform, which counts athletes, politicians, talk radio, and reality television stars like Adam Carolla, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Austin, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Dan Patrick, Spencer and Heidi Pratt, Jim Harbaugh, Ladygang, Dr.

Platform 237
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‘Socially Inept,’ a comedy startup founded by Microsoft employees, roasts tech bros

TechCrunch LA

Everyone gets a kick out of mocking the quintessential San Francisco techie, Patagonia vest and all. ‘ Socially Inept ,’ a new traveling comedy cohort, is making a business out of it. The group has been roasting the tech scene in hubs across the U.S., including Seattle, where the company is based, as well as Los Angeles, Austin and San Francisco, since last summer.

Netflix 237
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Tesla Model Y orders are now open

TechCrunch LA

Customers can already place an order for the Tesla Model Y, a mid-sized crossover SUV that won’t go into production until 2020. Tesla requires a $2,500 deposit to complete the order for the all-electric vehicle, according to information posted on its website. A disclaimer on the order form states that “production is expected to begin late next year.” Under that timeline, deliveries wouldn’t begin until late 2020 or possibly early 2021.

Startup 237
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Beyond Meat prices its public offering

TechCrunch LA

Beyond Meat , the meat replacement company whose packages of Beyond Burgers line grocery store aisles across America, has priced its initial public offering. The company is looking to raise roughly $200 million in the stock sale for its portfolio of burger, chicken and sausage replacements, selling 8.75 million shares of common stock at an upper limit of $21 per share that would value Beyond Meat at more than $1 billion.

Pricing 236