A weekly roundup of must-read L.A. tech investments and acquisitions.
TigerText
$50 Million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: The new round was led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from Invus Group and Accolade Partners, as well as previous backers Shasta Ventures, OrbiMed and Reed Elsevier.
Description: TigerText’s mobile phone, Apple Watch and desktop software allow doctors and nurses to text medical information about patients without running afoul of patient privacy laws. The app maintains privacy with such features as self-destructing messages, message recall and secure file transfer. TigerText said it will use some of its funding infusion to acquire new customers through additional advertising efforts. The funding will also be used to further enhance the company’s software.
VideoAmp
$15 million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Series A round was led by RTL Group with participation from prior investors Anthem Venture Partners, Simon Equity Partners, Third Wave Capital, Wavemaker Partners, ZenShin Capital, and new investment from Startup Capital Ventures.
Description: The company’s platform supplies digital and television targeting data and facilitates ad buys across television and online video platforms simultaneously. As advertising buying slowly shifts away from television spots toward online video, VideoAmp is trying to smooth the transition by serving both.
VideoAmp said its targeting software tracks 150 million people and about 1 billion devices used by those individuals.
Panjo
$4.6 million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: The Series A round was led by Spark Capital, with participation from Fabrice Grinda, Lerer Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments Inc., Beenos Partners, Mucker Capital and Mesa Ventures.
Description: The Panjo marketplace is designed to serve enthusiast communities, which tend to have difficulty in larger, more general-purpose online markets, such as eBay. Used goods make up the vast majority Panjo’s inventory and about 75 percent is hard-to-find automotive parts. The company said $10 million in goods are sold a month on the site. Popular items include wet shaving razors, Tesla Model S modifications and Audi A5 parts. Panjo makes money from a transaction fee.
RealD
$551 million
Type: Acquired
Location: Beverly Hills
Buyer: Rizvi Traverse Management
Description: RealD Inc., which makes 3-D cameras and glasses for the movie industry, has reached an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management for $551 million. RealD has been struggling recently because of the decreasing popularity of 3-D movies. The company rejected a higher takeover bid last year by New York investment firm Starboard Value, which owns 10 percent of RealD.
Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.
