A weekly roundup of must-read L.A. tech investments and acquisitions.
$11 million
Type: Equity
Location: Santa Monica
Investor: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the round, with earlier investors Raine Ventures, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Rincon Venture Partners, Crosscut Ventures and Advancit Capital joining.
Description: Mobcrush’s platform streams video of people playing mobile games. The company had just bagged a $4.9 million seed round in May. The speed at which investors poured money into the Santa Monica startup is an example of how fast the industry catering to video game spectators is evolving. Still beta testing its product, Mobcrush will be looking to use the new $11 million infusion to fund user growth as part of its October public launch.
$4.5 Million
Type: Equity
Location: West Hollywood
Investors: Blumberg Capital led the round with Structure Capital, Altpoint Ventures, T5 Capital, HashtagOne, and several angels participating.
Description: Alcohol on-demand app Saucey delivers beer, wine and spirits in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago. The company sources alcohol from local liquor-licensed shops and promises delivery in one hour or less. It is facing a lot of competition from existing apps, such as Drizly and Amazon Prime.
Undisclosed
Type: Equity
Location: Venice
Investor: Anschutz Entertainment Group
Description: Pogoseat’s app allows event attendees to upgrade their seats. AEG will offer the app to attendees at its events and venues. As part of a partnership with AEG, Pogoseat sold off an undisclosed amount of equity.
Undisclosed
Type: Acquisition
Location: Sherman Oaks
Acquirer: Vubiquity
Description: The deal for Toronto’s Juice Worldwide is the latest in a series of acquisitions for Vubiquity. Juice Worldwide brings a technology package to help Vubiquity better format, license and track digital video files for distribution on iTunes, Google, Amazon and Netflix. Juice Worldwide will retain its 50 employees and continue to operate as an independent brand that is wholly owned by Vubiquity.
Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.
