Berkonomics
MARCH 17, 2018
Close. I’ve been sued as a board member too many times over the past twenty-five years of board service. Five times. Does that shock you? It does me. Entrepreneurs blaming their board for failures of a fragile, early stage company. Shareholders unhappy over the same loss, reaching out to sue every name available. Employees reaching out to anyone above to redress grievances.
TechCrunch LA
MARCH 22, 2018
Recognizing the tens of billions of dollars that the Southern Californian region leaves on the table, because it hasn’t taken its rightful place in the American technology industry, a new group called the Alliance for Southern California Innovation has just released a report to analyze how SoCal can work to assume its pole position. Through interviews with 100 leaders of the technology ecosystem and an analysis of venture capital funding for the region, the organization has concluded (
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 20, 2018
UpKeep, a Los Angeles-based facilities maintenance company, announced $10 million in Series A funding, led by Emergence Capital. As part of the deal, Kevin Spain, a partner at Emergence, will join UpKeep’s board.
socalTECH
MARCH 22, 2018
If you run a restaurant, it turns out the move towards online ordering is a recipe for chaos--with multiple online order services and apps, all with their own way of getting orders to your restaurant. Santa Monica-based Ordermark (www.getordermark.com) is looking to tame that chaos with a system which takes all of those online orders, and feeds them into a single printer at a restaurant.
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.
Xconomy
MARCH 21, 2018
Big Food is getting serious about innovation. Many top food companies are increasingly pumping money into supporting young, innovative startups, according to a recent analysis by CB Insights. The firms include stalwarts like Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC ) , which has an incubator and accelerator program called Springboard , and relative newcomers like the Greek-style yogurt maker Chobani , which operates an incubator that makes $25,000 investments in startups with no equity stake.
InfoChachkie
MARCH 19, 2018
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. In an astonishingly short time period, the Comanche Native Americans progressed from a technologically primitive tribe (nomadic, little use of textiles, basketry or pottery), to becoming the most powerful society of the Southern Plains, controlling the Comecheria, a territory encompassing parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
One of Uber 's self driving car has killed a woman , while in autonomous mode, according to police in Tempe, Arizona. According to police reports, Uber's vehicle was in autonomous mode when the woman was killed on Sunday evening. Uber kicked off its self driving car program in Tempe in February of 2017, after the California DMV stripped Uber of its license to operate self-driving car permits.
Xconomy
MARCH 19, 2018
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers the federal Medicare insurance program, will begin covering FDA-approved diagnostic tests that scan tumors for a range of genetic mutations. The news is a boost for companies like Foundation Medicine and Thermo Fisher Scientific, who are among the few firms with such tests on the market.
SoCal Tech Calendar
MARCH 18, 2018
Saturday, March 24, 2018 --.
L.A. Business Journal
MARCH 23, 2018
ServiceTitan, a Glendale-based software app for service professionals, announced $62 million in Series C funding. The funding round was led by Battery Ventures and will be used to expand the company from 400 to 500 employees by the end of the year, as well as for product enhancement and partnership expansion.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
Startup accelerator operator Techstars has teamed up with Startup Boost , which recently launched a program in Los Angeles, to help more startups get off the ground. According to Techstars, the two will work together to run Startup Boost programs for pre-seed, early stage entrepreneurs around the world. Startup Boost is currently taking applications for its program in Los Angeles, until March 26th, and is also running programs in New York, London, and Toronto.
Xconomy
MARCH 19, 2018
Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence technologies have stoked fears that machines are coming for humans’ jobs in a variety of industries. Some executives of robotics companies have tried to allay those concerns, arguing that in many cases, people’s roles will evolve, but technology won’t eliminate their jobs completely. A report by The New York Times indicates that’s how things seem to be playing out in the warehouse and logistics sector, at least for now.
socalTECH
MARCH 22, 2018
San Diego-based Pairwise Plants , which is applying gene editing to the agriculture industry, said this week that it raised $25M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by Deerfield Management and Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV). Dr. Tom Adams is CEO of Pairwise, which was founded by Drs. Feng Zhang, David Liu and J. Keith Joung. READ MORE>>.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Los Angeles-based expense and invoice management software developer Chrome River announced this morning that it has named Matt Gahr as its new Chief Sales Officer. Gahr was most recently Vice President Sales, Americas at Cornerstone OnDemand, where Chrome River said he oversaw more than 100 sales professionals. Gahr also has served at Gevity (now TriNet) and Randstad, and was co-founder of GetListed.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
Fountain Valley-based HyperX , the gaming memory and products division of Kingston Technology Company , said this morning that it is expanding its popular line of FURY DDR4 gaming memory. According to HyperX, it has launched a new line of "Plug N Play" DDR4 modules specifically designed for "overclocking"--the technique of running hardware beyond its specifications in order to eke out the greatest performance possible out of that hardware.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
The Riveter , a Seattle-based startup which operates female focused coworking spaces in Seattle, said Monday that it is planning to expand to other cities across the U.S.--starting with Los Angeles--after a funding round. The Riveter said it raised $4.75M in its first round of institutional funding, which was led by Madrona Venture Group. The Riveter specifically said the funding will go to expand its locations to Los Angeeles.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
Los Angeles-based 11 Honore , a new startup offering up online shopping of designer, runway fashion, has raised $8m in a Series A funding, the company said on Monday. The funding was led by Redpoint Ventures, and also included Forerunner Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Greycroft and Canvas Ventures, all existing investors. 11 Honore was founded by Patrick Herning (founder of Fathom, a boutique marketing agency acquired by HL Group) and Kathryn Retzer (former Vogue and Town & Country fashion edit
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
San Diego-based Qualcomm said late Friday that Dr. Paul Jacobs--the company's former CEO and Chairman--will not be re-nominated to its board of directors, as a result of his notification to that board that he is exploring the possibility of making a proposal to acquire Qualcomm. According to Qualcomm, it had not yet received an offer from Jacobs to acquire the company.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
Los Angeles-based streaming television service Hulu has sued a new startup, Humu , founded by former Google head of people operations Laszlo Bock, over its name. The lawsuit was filed with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Humu is reportedly working on human resources software. Bock launched his startup in May of last year via a posted on LinkedIn.
socalTECH
MARCH 19, 2018
Los Angeles-based dating app developer Tinder 's parent company, Match Group , has sued Tinder competitor Bumble in the Texas Western District Court oer patent infringement, alleging that Bumble is virtually identical to Tinder. According to the lawsuit, Match Group, LLC vs. Bumble Trading Inc., it is suing Bumble over both patent infringement and stealing trade secrets.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
Elon Musk , founder of both LA's SpaceX and electric vehicle maker Tesla , has deleted the Facebook pages for both of the companies, in support of the #DeleteFacebook movement. After an inquiry from followers on Twitter on if he'd delete the SpaceX page, Musk said "I didn't realize there was one. Will do". Both the SpaceX and Tesla pages disappeared shortly from Facebook.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
San Diego-based Scientist.com , which operates an outsourced research marketplace, says it has received a data security certification this week. According to the company, it received the SOC 2 certification, which certifies that the company adheres to rigorous information security policies and procedures regarding customer data. The company said the audit was performed on the company by RSM.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
The XPRIZE Foundation , the Los Angeles nonprofit which helps run prize-based competitions to help solve the world's problems, said it has named five finalists in the $1.75M Water Abundance XPRIZE --its prize which is aimed at encouraging the development of technology which can extract water from merely thin air. According to the foundation, the five finalists are the Hydro Harvest Operation (Newcastle, Australia); JMCC WING (South Point Island of Hawaii); Skydra (Chicago, IL); Uravu (Hyderaba
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
Glendale-based software developer ServiceTitan , which develops workflow and field service management for home service businesses, announced Friday morning that it has raised $62M in a Series C funding. The funding was led by Battery Ventures, and also included Bessemer Venture Partners and ICONIQ Capital. The company, founded by Ara Mahdessian and Vahe Kuzoyan, said that Battery's Michael Brown joins the company's board with the funding.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
Santa Barbara-based BioIQ , which operates a platform to help manage health testing programs for health plans, employers and enterprise customers, has raised $26.5M more in funding, according to the firm. The funding was led by HealthQuest Capital, and also included Arboretum Ventures and other, un-nnamed insiders. The company, led by CEO Justin Bellante, said it will use the new funding for continued growth.
socalTECH
MARCH 23, 2018
San Diego-based Peachjar , which develops software used in the K-12 market to help get flyers and information to parents, has named Joyce Whitby as its new Vice President of Sales, and Tom Motter as Vice President of District Relationships. Whitby was previously National Vice President of Sales for the Education Group and SchoolMessenger division of West Corporation, and also served at VizZle.
socalTECH
MARCH 22, 2018
Sylmar-based medical implant maker Second Sight Medical Products announced this morning that it has named John T. Blake as the company's new Chief Financial Officer. Blake was previously Senior Vice President at aTyr Pharma, and also served at Volcano Corporation and BD Biosciences. Blake replaces Thomas Miller, who had been CFO since 2014. Miller apparently had resigned as CFO in June of 2017, but had remained at his post until the company could find a new CFO.
socalTECH
MARCH 22, 2018
The Boring Company , the startup founded by Elon Musk to bore tunnels underneath cities for high speed transportation, is one of two companies now in the running to dig a tunnel underneath downtown Chicago, to O'Hare airport. According to local reports, The Boring Company now just faces one competitior, O'hare Express LLC, a consortium of companies made up of Meridiam, Antarctica Capital, JLC Infrastructure, Mott MacDonald, and First Transit.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
La Jolla-based Connectiv , a developer of cloud-based, mobile software used by biomedical and clinical engineering groups to manage and control their medical devices and equipment, has been acquired by Austin, Texas-based Accruent. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. Accruent said the acquisition is its seventh in the past 24 months. Accruent was founded in Los Angeles a little over 22 years ago, but was acquired and moved to Texas in 2016.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Kozmo.com , the 90's-era online grocery delivery service brand, is back--thanks to Los Angeles-based Yummy.com. According to Yummy.com, it launched the Kozmo.com online warehouse club on Wednesday in Los Angeles, offering up next-day delivery of bulk groceries, saying it will delivery fresh produce, meat and packaged groceries, health and beauty products, beer, wine and liquor through its service, at prices similar to a traditional warehouse club--but without a membership fee.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Irvine-based antivirus and endpoint protection software developer Cylance has linked up with virtual server software developer VMware , to apply its software to VMware's Workspace ONE Trust Network, a new effort to plug security providers into VMware's platform. According to Cylance, the collaboration will allow customers to deploy Cylance directly from inside VMware's Workspace ONE platform, to help them prevent malware infections.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Los Angeles-based advertising software developer SteelHouse said this morning that it has named two new executives at the company. According to SteelHouse, it has named Dan Weiner as SVP of Enterprise Sales/CTV, and Rory Mitchell as VP of Client Success, Head of Accounts. Weiner was most recently head of Western Region Sales for Pandora, and previously served at Clear Channel and CBS, having worked on the FOX Audience Network (Myspace).
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Los Angeles-based TicketGuardian , which operates a ticket insurance service for live events, said it has named Casey Callinsky as its new President. Callinsky previously had served as a bank area president for Wells Fargo, where he had served in a variety of positions since 2002, and prior to that, had been at US Bank. TicketGuardian said its founder, Bryan Derbyshire, remains as CEO.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
Los Angeles-based Maco.la Management , a new investment fund, said it its targeting the blockchain market, with a new $6M fund. According to Maco.la, it has a target of raising a total of $40M for its fund. The new investment fund is led by Mark Strome. According to Maco.la, it is looking to invest in enterprises seeking to optimize and accelerate their business with the use of blockchain technology.
socalTECH
MARCH 21, 2018
La Jolla-based venture investor Avalon Ventures is the lead investor in a round for San Francisco-based Averon , a developer of mobile identity verification software. Averon said today that it has raised $5M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by Avalon Ventures, and also included Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff. Averon says it has now raised $13.3M in total.
socalTECH
MARCH 20, 2018
Female-centric dating app developer Bumble has responded to Match Group , the parent company of LA's Tinder , calling Match a "bully" in a full page ad in the New York Times and saying it has "swiped left" on the company. Match Group just sued Bumble over patents, saying Bumble's app was identical to Tinder, after Bumble rejected Match Group's efforts to acquire the company.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
243 
Let's personalize your content