Sat.Jan 12, 2019 - Fri.Jan 18, 2019

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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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AlwaysAI Adds $4M to Bring Deep Learning to Embedded ‘Edge’ Devices

Xconomy

Many of our devices, from wearables to medical instruments to drones, can capture reams of images. Using algorithms to analyze those images on the devices, in turn, generally takes loads of computing power and energy—sometimes more than is feasible. AlwaysAI says it is getting ready to sell its software for enterprise developers looking to make applications that use deep learning to better process the immense amount of data from embedded devices, such as cameras, drones, wearables, and rob

Software 108
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Google's Machine Learning Tools Used To Identify LA Potholes

socalTECH

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are two of the biggest buzzwords in technology today--but how are they being used to help you in everyday life? Google said on Wednesday that a team at Loyola Marymount University is using its open source, machine learning tool--TensorFlow--as part of a project to help identify potholes and cracks in Los Angeles, in an attempt to perhaps improve the flow of traffic through the city.

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What would you do if told to “fail fast?”

Berkonomics

Here’s a question that should strike close to home. Professional investors like to quote this mantra to anyone who will listen. “Fail fast,” they say. But what if you believe so strongly in your budding enterprise that this seems to be the most ill-advised directive you’ve ever heard? So here are some rules that might make it clearer for you and for those who so easily quote the mantra.

Incubator 120
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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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Dreaming of Mars, the startup Relativity Space gets its first launch site on Earth

TechCrunch LA

3D-printing the first rocket on Mars. That’s the goal Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone set for themselves when they founded Los Angeles-based Relativity Space in 2015. At the time they were working from a WeWork in Seattle, during the darkest winter in Seattle history, where Ellis was wrapping up a stint at Blue Origin. The two had met in college at USC in their jet propulsion lab.

Sites 217
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CTO Mixer Cruise: Brian Sletten will speak about Web Assembly

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 -- CTO Mixer Cruise: Brian Sletten will speak about Web Assembly. On Tuesday, January 22nd @ 6pm, CTO Mixers will set sail with Brian Sletten who will be giving a presentation on Web Assembly, preceded by a brief talk by Joe Devon called Accessibility IS Innovation.

Web 100

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What would you do if told to “fail fast?”

Berkonomics

Here’s a question that should strike close to home. Professional investors like to quote this mantra to anyone who will listen. “Fail fast,” they say. But what if you believe so strongly in your budding enterprise that this seems to be the most ill-advised directive you’ve ever heard? So here are some rules that might make it clearer for you and for those who so easily quote the mantra.

Incubator 120
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The Average Startup Overnight Success Takes Six Years

Startup Professionals Musings

Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

Startup 111
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AppSec California 2019

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 -- AppSec California 2019. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Los Angeles Chapter has teamed up with the Orange County, Inland Empire, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco Bay Area Chapters to bring you another great AppSec California. Join us and your peers for amazing talks and networking on January 22-25, 2019!

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Iteris Partners With Cisco On Traffic Cameras, Smart City Effort

socalTECH

Santa Ana-based Iteris , which develops data analytics software used for the transportation and agriculture industries, has entered into a strategic partnership with Cisco , the two announced this morning. The companies said that Iteris will promote Cisco's "Connected Roadway" products, aimed at the pedestrian safety and connected vehicle applications.

Platform 149
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Merck And The Future of Immuno-Oncology: A Chat With Roger Perlmutter

Xconomy

Cancer immunotherapy is, in a word, tantalizing. It might save the life of someone at death’s door and keep the cancer at bay for years. Or it might not work at all. There’s no telling what a patient will experience. “There’s a real poverty of understanding of how the machine that is us works,” says Roger Perlmutter, the executive vice president of pharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE: MRK ) and the head of its research division, Merck Research Laboratories.

Research 111
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10 Tips For Rising Above The Crowd In Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone knows that that startups are risky, but they also expect that the job will be exciting and potentially very lucrative (think early employees at Facebook and Google). Yet we have all heard stories about the high turnover, unstructured work environment, lower base pay, and unpredictable expectations from the top. Assuming you are lucky enough to get hired, what can you do to survive, and even stand out above the rest in this environment?

Tips 100
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Investing in AI

SoCal Tech Calendar

Thursday, January 17, 2019 -- CES 2019 at UCLA Anderson. Technology has become an integral part of our lives, changing our lives and work, the opportunities for new ventures and established enterprises, and more broadly society. Technology based disruptions are affecting almost every sector today including transportation, healthcare, financial services and retail.

Invest 100
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Renovis Surgical Acquired By KYOCERA

socalTECH

Redlands-based Renovis Surgical , a manufacturer of orthopedic and spinal medical devices, has been acquired by Japanese company Kyocera Corporation , Kyocera said very late Tuesday evening. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. According to Kyocera, it agreed to purchase the major assets of Renovis, relating to its artificial joint and spinal products.

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Pensa, AI-Enabled Drones Maker for Inventory Monitoring, Raises $5M

Xconomy

Austin —The grocery store shelf has yet to be plugged into the increasingly digital food supply chain. Instead, inventory is typically tallied by employees by hand in a slow and laborious process. “It’s one big black hole with groceries, not knowing what is exactly on the retail shelf and available for sale,” says Richard Schwartz, president and CEO of Pensa Systems in Austin.

Research 109
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6 Leadership Insights To Inspire New Venture Founders

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting and building a company is all about leadership – formulating an idea, building a unique plan based on vision and experience, and forging a path over and through all obstacles. Yet the image of leadership in business is at an all-time low, according to national leadership experts, considering the political debacles, record business bankruptcies, and executive fraud cases.

Coach 94
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CTO Mixer Cruise: Brian Sletten will speak about Web Assembly

SoCal Tech Calendar

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 -- CTO Mixer Cruise: Brian Sletten will speak about Web Assembly. CTO Mixer Cruise: Brian Sletten will speak about Web Assembly.

Web 100
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Relativity Inks Deal For Canaveral Launch Site

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Relativity , a space launch startup which is developing automation technology designed to automate construction of rockets, said on Thursday that it has signed a deal for a launch site at Cape Canaveral. According to Relativity, the company gains own rocket launch facilities at Launch Complex 16 (C-16), based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Sites 133
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Teradata Names Oliver Ratzesberger as New CEO

Xconomy

Teradata on Monday announced that Oliver Ratzesberger, its chief operating officer, has been tapped as president and CEO Victor Lund’s successor. The company , which last year relocated its headquarters from Dayton, OH, to San Diego , is in the midst of a concerted effort to transform itself from a legacy data storage provider to an innovative, software-centric firm—and to highlight the changes it has been making to its business model along the way.

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Creating the Next Big Startup Takes More Than Passion

Startup Professionals Musings

Every aspiring entrepreneur I know is convinced that his or her idea could be the next big startup, blossoming into a billion dollar unicorn. Yet I find that only a few are able to put their passion aside for a moment, and compare their solution to the attributes that really attract a large market of new customers. Investors, on the other hand, make it their business to look for these attributes.

Startup 91
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Tech Coast Angels-LA Screening Day

SoCal Tech Calendar

Friday, January 18, 2019 -- Tech Coast Angels-LA Screening. Members and invited guests only.

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Heal Names Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs As Chairman, Adds Jeb Bush To Board

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based, on-demand doctor house call service Heal has named former Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs as its Chairman, and named former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to its board of directors, the company said on Wednesday. The startup lets clients schedule in-home visits by doctors for both routine visits and other checkups. Jacobs is currently founder and CEO of XCOM, a mobile technology company, and had been CEO and Chairman of Qualcomm.

Demand 133
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What’s Your Emergency? Law Enforcement’s Increasing Interest in Tech

Xconomy

Fort Worth, TX —Data analytics and visual search technologies are increasingly being used by law enforcement agencies, growth that has captured the attention of tech giant Motorola. The Chicago-based tech company, which has long sold narrow-band radios to law enforcement, has been building its arsenal of software and camera technologies through a series of acquisitions.

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Your Passion Can Breed Biases That Kill New Ventures

Startup Professionals Musings

I’m sure we have all seen entrepreneurs with high levels of passion and confidence touting an idea that seems to make very little sense to us. Of course, we never see ourselves in this mode, yet we need to recognize that all humans see reality differently through a built-in set of “cognitive biases,” based on their own unique background of experiences, training, and mental state.

Ideas 91
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6 Services from Telecom Infrastructure Companies in SoCal that Help Carriers Scale

Southern California Edison Blog

The telecommunications industry is under increasing pressure as customers demand high speeds and data transport, as well as implementing big data initiatives for their businesses. To keep up with demands, carriers are investing billions of dollar in infrastructure and service enhancements to help them grow. For your carrier business to grow and scale you need to: Improve the quality of service you provide.

SoCal 55
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HyperX Taps Celebrity Power For New Ad Campaign Tied To NBA Finals

socalTECH

Fountain Valley-based HyperX , the videogame accessory maker which is part of Kingston Technology, has launched a new ad campaign, which taps the celebrity power of Post Malone, Gordon Hayward, Joel Embiid, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pokimane, Shroud, Daigo, De'Aaron Fox and Rush. The company--which has had celebrity endorsement deals with all of those celebrity influencers--said its new "We're All Gamers" ad campaign is part of its presenting sponsorship of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC.

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CommonGrounds Raises $100M to Open More New Flexible Office Spaces

Xconomy

Billions of dollars have already flowed to the purveyors of shared workspaces, and the investment spigot isn’t turning off yet. CommonGrounds Workspace, a San Diego, CA-based company that operates flexible office spaces in California and Colorado today, announced Wednesday that it had raised $100 million in a Series A financing to expand its lineup to roughly 50 sites during the next two years.

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Backing Culture Genesis, T.I. launches TechCypha, an investment syndicate for tech deals

TechCrunch LA

With an inaugural investment into the Los Angeles-based entertainment startup Culture Genesis , Clifford Harris Jr., who’s better known as “T.I.”, has launched a new syndicated investment vehicle called Tech Cypha. Launched by the music and cultural impresario with more hustle than hustle and his business partner Jason Geder, the new collaborative investment strategy focused on tech startups will allow high net worth individuals to participate in deals.

Invest 187
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j2 Global Adds Two Companies In Q4

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based Internet services and publishing giant j2 Global has acquired two companies, saying this morning that it acquired Ekahau , a company in the digital media space, and Castle Connolly , a company in the digital media and healthcare industry. Financial details of the two acquisition were not announced, although the company said the financial impact of those acquisition is not expected to be material to the publicly held company.

Company 133
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Wiliot Finds $30M More From Amazon Web Services, Others

socalTECH

Wiliot , an Israel- and San Diego-based RFID technology developer, has received $30M more in a funding round, the company said on Monday. The funding, a Series B, came from Amazon Web Services, Samsung Venture Investment Corp., and Avery Dennison Corp. Wiliot is developing disposable, RFID tags which do not require batteries, and are aimed at use in the tracking of consumer products during the manufacturing process.

Web 133
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CareerArc, Led By Longtime Technology Vet, Connects With $30M

socalTECH

Los Angeles-based human resources (HR) technology developer CareerArc --part of an ever growing number of Los Angeles area enterprise software companies--said this morning that it has raised $30M in a growth equity funding. According to CareerArc, the new round was led by PeakEquity Partners. CareerArc says its developing HR software that specifically address two parts of the hiring software market--hiring new talent and transitioning employees out of the organization.

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Bird Backs Off On Legal Threats Against Journalist, Apologizes

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based on-demand scooter rental startup Bird has backed off on legal threats against a local, LA journalist, Cory Doctorow, after widespread outroar over what was perceived as a censorship threat , saying that the company's legal team "overreached" in issuing a takedown letter. Bird told the BBC it has apologized to Doctorow, who writes for BoingBoing , and had described how people were selling $30 kits on eBay that enabled them to take over Bird's scooters with a hardware hack--but

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Western Digital Aims At Gamers With Upgraded SSD

socalTECH

Western Digital , the disk drive and memory manufacturer which has major operations in Irvine, has rolled out a new solid state disk drive (SSD) aimed specifically at the PC gaming market. According to WD, it has launched the new WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD, which provides up to 2TB of capacity or desktop gaming systems. The SSD is in the M.2 (formerly Next Generation Form Factor) form factor, an industry standard being used for PCI Express, SATA, and USB devices in tablets, notebooks, and other sys

Marketing 113
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PetDesk Finds $12M For Veterinary Software

socalTECH

San Diego-based PetDesk , a developer of software used by veterinarians, announced Friday morning that it has raised $12M in a Series B funding round. The funding came from PeakSpan Capital. PetDesk develops online software used to manage veterinary practices. According to PetDesk, the new funding will help the company in an expansion push into the pet grooming industry.

Software 113
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EDF Renewables North America Buys Wind Project In Nebraska

socalTECH

San Diego-based renewable energy developer EDF Renewables North America said Thursday that it has acquired another wind project, this time in the state of Nebraska. According to EDF Renewables, it purchased 100 percent of the interest in the 300 megawatt (MW) Milligan 1 Wind Project, which is expected to go into operation in 2020. The company purchased the wind development from a partnership owned by Aksamit Resource Management, LLC and York Capital Management.

San Diego 113
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CoreLogic: 2018 Again Above Average For Catastrophes

socalTECH

Irvine-based property information provider CoreLogic said this morning that 2018 was indeed another, above-average year for catastrophic events, the third consecutive year of above-average catastrophe activity. The company--which tracks those events for insurers--issued a Natural Hazard Report detailing its analysis. The company said its report addresses the recent wildfires in California and severe rainfall- and hurricane-induced flooding throughout the nation.

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