A weekly roundup of must-read L.A. tech investments and acquisitions.
SteelHouse
$49 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Led by Mercato Partners, with participation from Staley Capital and Silicon Valley Bank
Description: Advertising software company SteelHouse has seen year-over-year growth of 155 percent and anticipates it will end 2015 with a run rate of $130 million, the company said. The latest round of funding will be used for product development, hiring and marketing.
Factual
$35 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Century City
Investors: Altpoint Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective, Haystack Partners, Heritage Group, Index Ventures, Miramar Ventures, Tamarisk Global, and Upfront Ventures, as well as individuals Saif Mansour, Michael Ovitz and Tom Unterman
Description: Factual’s location data is used in search engines, digital maps, social networks and digital advertising. The company plans to use the funding to boost hiring of sales and marketing people to make a push for rapidly acquiring new customers. Also, additional engineering staff will be hired and investments will be made to grow the company’s datasets.
DataScience
$22 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Culver City
Investor: Whitehart Ventures
Description: The startup has grown from seven employees in January to almost 50 employees today. DataScience, which was founded last year, specializes in analyzing business-related information on behalf of data swamped clients. The company’s employees work in ad hoc teams to address client data analysis needs, such as calculating the lifetime value of users and finding subscription cancellation patterns. For the services, the company charges customers a retainer, starting at $15,000 a month.
GoCoin and Ziftr
Merger
Location: Santa Monica
Description: Bitcoin payment platform GoCoin and loyalty points and credit card processing company Ziftr of Milford, N.H., have merged. The companies are merging in part to create a loyalty points system based on digital currencies such as bitcoin. The merged company, named GoCoin, will also offer a hybrid mobile payment app, which will give consumers the choice of paying with VISA, Mastercard, bitcoin-like digital currencies, or loyalty coupons and points.
SGN
Undisclosed
Type: Acquisition
Location: Culver City
Acquired Companies: Fat Rascal Games Inc. of Seattle and Kiwi Inc. of Palo Alto.
Description: The purchases will increase the number of game developers within SGN as well as add a number of gaming titles to its portfolio. Fat Rascal has produced mobile games such as Zynga Slingo, Matrix Online and Hidden Chronicles. Kiwi Inc. has produced mobile games such as Westbound, Shipwrecked: Lost Island and Enemy Lines. With the purchases, SGN now has development studios in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle and Buenos Aires.
LegalZoom
Undisclosed
Type: Acquisition
Location: Glendale
Acquired Company: Beaumont Legal of London
Description: LegalZoom has agreed to buy British law firm Beaumont Legal for an undisclosed amount, as part of its planned 2016 expansion into the United Kingdom. The deal is expected to be closed by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval. The purchase comes after LegalZoom was approved in January by regulators to provide legal services as an alternative business structure in the United Kingdom.
Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.
