Sherman Oaks-based sales communications software developer RingDNA Inc. closed a $30 million growth venture round Nov. 1 led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Prior investors Brentwood-based Palisades Growth Capital and Kobe Bryant-led Bryant Stibel & Co., based in Malibu, also contributed to the round.
A RingDNA spokeswoman said the funding will be used to support the existing team in Los Angeles, hire more staff and continue product development. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, RingDNA raised $6.3 million prior to the latest funding round.
RingDNA said it has processed more than 60 million recorded phone conversations between customers and service representatives, and uses that data to train an artificial intelligence to automate and process calls to provide feedback for its human call center co-workers. The goal, according to RingDNA, is to use the data to accelerate business-to-business sales and expedite communication between sales representatives, customers, prospective clients and support teams.
“Our customers understand that in order to succeed, the sales process needs to be guided by intentional coaching augmented with AI insights,” RingDNA Chief Executive Howard Brown said in a statement. “It’s the rich human interaction powered with insights learned that helps drive sales success.”
Bryant Stibel has invested in technology firms since 2013, though Bryant himself announced the firm in August 2016. Since then, the venture firm has raised $100 million since August 2016, per CrunchBase Inc. In addition to RingDNA, Bryant Stibel invested in Culver City-based Scopely Inc. and health-tech movement tracker software developer Focus Ventures Inc., based downtown.
$14.5 MILLION FOR IMBELLUS
Westwood-based Imbellus Inc. announced Oct. 31 a $14.5 million Series A funding round led by San Francisco venture capital investor Owl Ventures, bringing the testing software firm’s total funding to $23 million. Santa Monica-based Upfront Ventures also contributed an unspecified sum to the Series A.
Imbellus wants its artificial-intelligence-driven simulated tests to one day replace the SAT, believing skills are more valuable to employers than knowledge. Its assessments are designed to quantify skills that differentiate machine learning from human intelligence, including metacognition and critical thinking. Imbellus reports its assessments are programmed to resist cheating and hacking, and uses its AI mechanism to generate variable scenarios and tests for users.
“Our long-term goal is to reorient the education system to develop minds that ask the right questions, imagine the next problem to solve and navigate complex systems,” said Chief Executive Rebecca Kantar, who said Imbellus wants to learn “not just what people know but how they think.”
Founded in 2016, Imbellus collaborates with UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST), which provides consultation on tests and access to UCLA research.
BEVERLY HILLS BIRD BAN
A Nov. 1 lawsuit filed in L.A. County Superior Court is Santa Monica-based Bird Rides Inc.’s first attempt to overturn a city ban on its dockless scooters through litigation.
The Beverly Hills City Council instituted a ban on all motorized scooters July 24, including those operated by Bird’s competitors. Bird is the only scooter company so far to file suit. The company wants the court to overturn the city’s scooter ban and refund all impound fees related to the seizure of scooters, which Bird estimates to be more than $100,000. Bird claims in the suit that the vote violated California open meetings law as the ban wasn’t on the agenda 72 hours ahead of time. Bird also claims the scooter ban is a violation of state environmental laws.
Bird seeks damages, attorney’s fees and law suit costs as well as “just compensation for the City’s deprivation of Bird’s property,” though it did not specify dollar figures. Bird is represented by downtown-based O’Melveny & Myers.
Beverly Hills City Attorney Larry Weiner said in a statement issued last week that the municipality was disappointed by the lawsuit.
“We are disappointed Bird has filed this lawsuit rather than addressing the safety problems that led to the adoption of our six month prohibition on shared mobility devices,” Weiner said. “At several public meetings, we heard testimony that these dockless scooters were consistently and illegally operated on the sidewalk posing a hazard to pedestrians and blocked the public right-of-way when they were parked.”
Weiner’s statement said the scooters are a safety hazard and that the city was within its rights to regulate their use.
“State law explicitly allows us to regulate these dockless scooters (and) we plan to continue to regulate them until we can work out the safety impacts,” Weiner said.
Staff reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335.
