socalTECH

JUNE 15, 2010

Santa Monica-based Zag , the online auto buying software firm headed by Scott Painter, has raised $11.1M in a new equity funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm Tuesday afternoon. The firm has previously raised funding from USAA, Capricorn Investment Group, LLC, GRP Partners and Anthem Venture Partners.

Zag 154

Zag GRP Partners Anthem Santa Monica 154

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Zag , the online car buying software firm headed by former CarsDirect CEO Scott Painter, has scored an investment from financial services firm USAA , USAA disclosed Thursday. USAA did not provide financial details behind the investment. USAA has been offering Zag's services to its members since 2007.

Zag 100

Zag Invest CarsDirect Venture Capital 100

socalTECH

APRIL 2, 2009

According to numbers derived from socalTECH's venture database, there was $717.96M invested in Southern California in the first quarter, up from only $465M in Q4 of 2008. PIPE in Cadence Pharmaceuticals , a $50M PIPE in Clarient , as well as venture investments in Sangart ($50M) and Victory Pharma ($45M). billion in funding.

Southern California 113

Southern California SoCal Invest SoCalTech 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

LA generally doesn’t have an appetite for this kind of investment at early stages. Side note: LA seems to have had some success in mega deals led by private equity firms as evidenced by DemandMedia and Chris DeWolf’s latest company backed by more than $20 million in private equity. LA investors are more pragmatic.

Company 290

Company Companies Technology Startup 290

socalTECH

JUNE 17, 2009

Companies we've selected are those that are the most exciting, and high profile, that people will want to invest in. We co-founded Zag together, and I was the COO of CarsDirect. Towards early 2007, Scott and I had taken Zag to a level of some measure of stability, and we were thinking about the next thing.

Startup 124

Startup Zag Venture Capital Equity 124