socalTECH

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Venice, California-based StackCommerce, which develops a white-label marketplace which is used by publishers and brands to help connect people with products, has been acquired by Integrated Media Company (IMC), itself owned by private equity investor TPG. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced.

Venice 113

Venice Commerce Equity Acquisition 113

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2021

Venice Beach-based Specular Theory, a developer of virtual reality training software for the U.S. According to the company, the funding will go towards expanding its immersive training products supporting U.S. Air Force, says it has received $4.5M in a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III contract.

Training 113

Training Outsource Development Venice Research 113

socalTECH

MARCH 18, 2021

Venice, California-based Pledge, which provides a fundraising platform which links businesses, nonprofits, and individuals to help raise money for nonprofits, has raised $3M in additional seed funding, the company said this week. The company says it has now raised $12M in total.

Help 113

Help Seed Funding Venice Venture Capital 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Startup Boost Los Angeles says its program includes six weekly workshop sessions and one demo night hosted by Google, in Venice. Matt Stodder, the co-director of the Los Angeles program, says it is seeking companies with the right team, a minimum viable product, customer traction, and viable plan for going forward.

Los Angeles 154

Los Angeles Class Angel Startup 154

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

We started the test in Venice Beach in Abbott Kinney… that’s where you’d find the best coverage. At launch, there will be nearly fifty retailers on the site including shops like Buck Mason, Le Labo, Parachute Home, the Venice Beach boutique, Coutula 12th Tribe, Timbuk2, Zadig & Voltaire, Supervinyl and Urbanic. .

Sales 249

Sales Los Angeles Beverly Hills Demand 249

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2020

Venice, California-based Vive Organic , an organic "wellness" drink brand, said today that it has raised $13M in a Series B funding round. According to Vive Organic, it will use the new funding to expand its digital footprint, for its pipline, and to make it products more accessible to consumers nationwide. READ MORE>>.

Organization 113

Organization Venice Press Sales 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Venice-based Snap announced the third class of its Yellow startup accelerator class on Wednesday, naming ten companies to participate in its annual 14-week program in Los Angeles. Snap says that those 10 companies were receive $150,000 in equity investments, mentorship from Snap and others, space in Los Angeles, as well as other support.

Class 127

Class Venice Los Angeles Equity 127

socalTECH

DECEMBER 18, 2018

Venice, California-based Snap is continuing to see turnover in its hardware unit, SnapLab, and has lost its VP of Hardware Development in charge of its Spectacles sunglasses product, the third head of that unit in the past six months.

Venice 113

Venice Product Develop Development 113

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Venice-based Snap , the parent company of Snapchat , is continuing in its quest to add hardware to its products, with the introduction of its third generation Spectacles , the Spectacles 3. Snap has started taking pre-orders for the pricey glasses, capable of capturing 3D content, for the price of only $380.

Snapchat 113

Snapchat Venice Pricing Content 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 11, 2019

The program includes six weekly workshop sessions and one demo night hosted by Google in Venice. Startup Boost says it is looking for companies with the right team, a minimum viable product, customer traction, and viable plan for going forward. Applications for the program will close on March 15th.

Los Angeles 124

Los Angeles Angel Startup Venice 124

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2018

Venice, California-based Snap , the parent firm of Snapchat , has quietly acquired a 3D gaming engine developer based in the UK, according to a report. According to the report, Snap acquired PlayCanvas, a developer of 3D game design software, last May. No details on the acquisition have been announced by either of the companies.

Snapchat 138

Snapchat Venice Startup Report 138

socalTECH

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Venice, California-based GIGXR , a new startup, has acquired the assets of Pearson Immersive Learning Group , a unit of publishing firm Pearson, and raised $1M in a seed funding round, the company disclosed today. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. GIGXR is led by CEO David King Lassman, who previously founded Vyclone.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Venice Training Acquisition 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2017

A report, published by The Information this morning, says that Venice, California-based Snap "badly overestimated demand" for its Spectacles product, and now has hundreds of thousands of units piled up in warehouses. The report cited two people "close to the company", saying Snap is "already struggling to meet expectations".

Report 113

Report Venice Demand Product 113

socalTECH

MARCH 17, 2016

Venice-based Snapchat has named Tom Conrad, the former CTO of Pandora, as its new VP of Product, the company disclosed on Wednesday. Conrad--who is based in the Bay Area--was CTO at Pandora between 2004 and 2014. He also served at Kenamea, Pets.com, Documentum/Relevance, Berkeley Systems, and Apple Computer. READ MORE>>.

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Venice Product Company 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2014

Venice, California-based messaging app developer Snapchat is planning to roll out its first advertising effort soon, according to CEO Evan Spiegel, who said this week at the Vanity Fair New Establishment summit. The new ads apparently will first appear around the companies "Stories" product. READ MORE>>.

Snapchat 174

Snapchat Venice Advertising Mobile 174

socalTECH

JANUARY 29, 2018

Venice, California-based Snap is about to get a big new challenger to its flagship "Spectacles" line, from none other than Google , as Google rolled out a new product called Google Clips over the weekend.

Google 113

Google Artificial Inteligence Venice Design 113

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2016

Venice, California-based OpenMail , a developer of data warehousing products used for marketing analytics and targeting, has acquired the Infospace business from owner Blucora. Blucora said that OpenMail is paying the company $45M in cash for Infospace. Blucora was advised by GCA Savvian Advisors in the sale.

Venice 124

Venice Demand Platform Sales 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Venice, California-based Snap, Inc. , out of Brigham Young University, and sold that to Snap for the basis of its Scancodes product. out of Brigham Young University, and sold that to Snap for the basis of its Scancodes product. The report says that the new lab is being headed up by former Scan.me READ MORE>>.

Snapchat 124

Snapchat Research Venice Report 124

socalTECH

JULY 11, 2017

While you are there, you might notice that you can now buy Soylent , the meal replacement product created by Los Angeles-based Rosa Foods. Rosa Foods, led by CEO and founder Rob Rhinehart, said the distribution at 7-11 stores is its first move beyond e-commerce.

Culver City 169

Culver City Santa Monica Venice Los Angeles 169

socalTECH

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Venice, California-based Snap , the parent company of Snapchat , has opened up an office in China, according to job posts and information surfaced via Chinese social media this week. The new office, in Shenzhen, will work on R&D for the company's new Spectacles product, its camera-enabled sunglasses product.

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Venice Social Media Report 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 28, 2016

Venice-based Snapchat 's newest product--Snap-recording sunglasses--is the result of the work of another, Los Angeles startup--Vergence Labs--which was quietly acquired by Snapchat back in 2014. Business Insider tells the story of Vergence Labs , founded by Erick Miller and Jonathan Rodriguez, and their roots at UCLA and Stanford.

Snapchat 100

Snapchat UCLA Startup Venice 100

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 26, 2020

Endless West announced this morning that it would shift production away from its distillery to begin making hand sanitizers. The second is clinical trials and the third is production. Voodoo aims to print at least 2,500 protective face shields weekly and can scale to larger production volumes based on demand, the company said.

Company 281

Company Companies Mobile Organization 281

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2018

Venice-based startup Heartbeat , which wants to pay women to share posts from brands, said this week that it has launched an app which lets women sign up for the company's service. According to Heartbeat, its new app for iOS and Android connects women with campaigns which offer free products, services, and/or payments for branded posts.

Netflix 100

Netflix Venice Services Product 100

socalTECH

AUGUST 11, 2016

Venice, California-based OpenMail has completed its deal to acquire online search engine site Infospace , from owner Blucora. OpenMail is led by former Demand Media executive Chuck Ursini, and is developing data warehousing products in the marketing analytics and targeting area. Infospace has been around since 1996.

Venice 100

Venice Demand Sites Media 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2012

Venice-based StackSocial , which develops an e-commerce platform for publishers, said today that it has partnered with technology publication Digital Trends. StackSocial said that the deal will offer up new products via a new "Digital Trends Deals" section, which will offer up new apps and products to users.

Technical Review 183

Technical Review Venice Software Review Commerce 183

socalTECH

JANUARY 12, 2017

Venice, California-based Snap, Inc. , Snap Inc), and cites a number of patents which were granted to Vaporstream in July of 2005 for Vaporstream's secure messaging products. Snap Inc), and cites a number of patents which were granted to Vaporstream in July of 2005 for Vaporstream's secure messaging products. READ MORE>>.

Patents 100

Patents Snapchat Venice Product 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

tapiture venture capital angel investment social sharing photos products style' Tapiture said that Randall Kaplan, co-founder of Akamai, will join its board of directors as part of the funding. READ MORE>>.

Seed Funding 147

Seed Funding Funding Venice Venture Capital 147

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

A report, published by eMarketer on Tuesday, says that Venice, California-based Snapchat will earn an estimated $1 billion in ad revenues next year. The report predicted that Snapchat will represent 2 percent of social network ad dollars in the US next year. READ MORE>>.

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Report Social Network Venice 100

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2013

Venice-based WemoLab --which has been developing entertainment products around an oceanic theme--announced today that it has launched its first, mobile product, a new interactive tablet app. The firm said its app, SuperFugu, let kids take a "field trip" around the world''s ocean. The app is free, and runs on the iPad.

Education 168

Education Venice Entertainment Platform 168

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

There has always been tension between CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies and the retailers who sell their products to consumers. If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it.

Product 296

Product Course Custom Customer 296

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Newport Beach-based PogoTec said today that it has launched its first product, the PogoCam , a miniature camera designed to attach to any pair of glasses. The new device appears to be directly competitive to Venice-based Snap's own camera sunglasses. The new device costs $149.00.

Venice 113

Venice Competition Design Product 113

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Venice-based Fuisz , a developer of software to automatically identify objects and people in any video, has just partnered with AwesomenessTV , the company said Thursday. fuisz media awesomeness product software link video youtube' Financial details of the deal were not announced. READ MORE>>.

Venice 138

Venice Media Software Product 138

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Venice-based Snapchat said over the weekend that it has renamed itself to Snap Inc. , According to a post by Evan Spiegel, the company decided to drop the "chat" portion of its name so that it can expand on the number of different products that it is developing. for the Wall Street crowd :)".

Snapchat 100

Snapchat Venice Marketing Product 100

socalTECH

MAY 20, 2014

Venice, California-basd Epoxy --which was built by former executive from Team Downey--has launched a brand new set of tools aimed at helping online video creators use social media, and also disclosed a funding round. The two said they realized at Team Downey--the production firm of Robert Downey Jr.

Downey 207

Downey Tool Bertelsmann Help 207

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

In the last year, Los Angeles has become a favorite location for conducting "hackathons"--those challenges which encourage developers to create new applications and products around different themes. The latest? A hackathon focused on pets.

Venice 190

Venice Los Angeles Ideas Product 190

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2015

Venice, California- and Helsinki, Finland-based mobile game developer Seriously , the developer behind the title Best Fiends , has raised $18M in a venture funding round, the company said this morning. The new funding specifically goes to building out the company's production teams and marketing. READ MORE>>.

Mobile 100

Mobile Venice Capital Funding 100

socalTECH

APRIL 17, 2013

Venice Beach-based Bitium , a new startup out of LA''s Amplify accelerator, announced this morning that it has raised $2.4M Kriz was formerly VP of Product at Fastpoint Games, and also was involved in software consultancy 5Desks and cloud DevOps firm One Cloud Systems. in a seed funding round.

SaaS 208

SaaS Seed Funding Venice Venture Capital 208