A weekly roundup of must-read L.A. tech investments and acquisitions.
Azubu
$60 Million
Type: Bonds
Location: Sherman Oaks
Investors: Round was raised from London’s Sapinda Group with participation from Sallfort Privatbank of Switzerland
Description: The live-streaming video game market is dominated by Amazon’s Twitch, but Azubu believes it can nudge its way in by focusing on e-sports and on international markets. Azubu’s website exclusively streams live video game tournaments, and brings in revenue through advertisements and a cut of paid subscriptions. Azubu attracts 9 million unique viewers a month and 93 percent of those view tournaments live. The company said viewership over the past 12 months has grown 1,200 percent.
Tastemade
$40 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Series D round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from Redpoint Ventures, Raine Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Liberty Media, Scripps Networks Interactive and Tohokushinsha Film Corp.
Description: The cash influx will be used to expand production capacity, launch new shows in international markets and improve the company’s video distribution technology. In partnership with freelance video creators, Tastemade produces online food, travel and lifestyle content. The company distributes on a variety of platforms including YouTube, Apple TV, Snapchat and Facebook. Tastemade has raised about $80 million in capital in total.
MD Insider
$12 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Series B round was led by Summation Health Ventures, a venture firm formed by Cedars-Sinai and Memorial Care Health Systems.
Description: MD Insider intends to use the money to hire additional sales and marketing staff to push customer acquisition. Branding itself baseball statistics for doctors, MD Insider uses medical data to determine doctor performance on specific medical procedures. The company said it has processed and analyzed billions of health records, covering more than 850,000 doctors, over 6,000 hospitals and more than 30,000 diseases and conditions.
UBeam
$2.7 Million
Type: Crowdfunded equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Pooled investment from OurCrowd
Description: UBeam’s crowdfunding efforts have so far raised $2.6 million of its $4.7 million target, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That amount was raised from 95 investors, who each invested a minimum of $10,000. The crowdfunding effort began in July and is being facilitated by crowdfunding platform OurCrowd of Jerusalem.
Riot Games
Undisclosed
Type: Acquisition
Location: West Los Angeles
Buyer: Tencent
Description: Tencent has purchased the remaining portion of Riot Games that it did not own. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Tencent of Shenzhen, China reportedly owned 93 percent of Riot Games before the deal. Tencent first purchased a majority stake in Riot in 2011 for $231 million and since has incrementally increased its ownership. Riot Games is known for the wildly popular video game League of Legends.
Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.
