socaltech.com TechNews - Friday, October 9, 2015

Benjamin F. Kuo Fri, 09 Oct 2015 06:11:17 -0700

socaltech.com TechNews - Friday, October 9, 2015
Edited by Benjamin F. Kuo
ISSN: 1524-6736
http://www.socaltech.com/News
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--Interview with Michael Abrams, the Disney Accelerator
--SendGrid Rolls Out New Triggered Email Service
--Ciphrex Appoints CFO
--FaceFirst Names Sales VP
--SpaceX To Launch Israeli Mission To The Moon
--LA Angel Investors Put Backing Into E-Sports Franchise, The Immortals
--SoCal Angel Investors See IPO Pop At CytomX
--Hixme Raises $10.4M For Health Insurance Efforts

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Leading Venture Capital Attorneys Frank Grant and Ryan Azlein Join Stradling

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, P.C. ("Stradling") has announced that
venture capital attorneys, Frank Grant, and Ryan Azlein, join the Firm as
shareholders and will lead the expansion of its Venture Capital, Start-Ups
and Emerging Companies practice groups. They will be based out of
Stradling’s Santa Monica office.

Prior to joining Stradling, Mr. Grant spent 10 years in Silicon Valley and
8 years in the LA market, most recently as Senior Counsel at Perkins Coie,
where he advised early stage companies, entrepreneurs and investors. He’s
also held corporate development and senior counsel positions at Nortel
Networks and Kennedy Commercial.

Mr. Azlein has practiced in the LA market for over 15 years, most recently
as Partner with Stubbs Alderton & Markiles and director of its
Preccelerator Program. An active advisor to the Southern California
emerging company and venture capital community, he is a regular speaker
on venture capital and entrepreneurship. Mr. Azlein will also spend time
in Stradling's Santa Barbara office.

To learn more, go to http://www.sycr.com

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Interview with Michael Abrams, the Disney Accelerator
----

Earlier this week, the Disney Accelerator held the demo day for its
second class. The Disney Accelerator takes ten, startup companies, and
pairs them with mentors from The Walt Disney Company and elsewhere, to
provide technical assistance, guidance, business advice, and other
resources--and also helps those company link up with internal Disney
resources that might help those companies succeed. We caught up with
Michael Abrams, Senior Vice President, Innovation at The Walt Disney
Company, to talk more about this year's class of companies and the
program.

What was the most interesting thing about this year's accelerator class for you?

Michael Abrams: If you compare with last year, last (More...)
http://www.socaltech.com/interview_with_michael_abrams_the_disney_accelerator/s-0062310.html

SendGrid Rolls Out New Triggered Email Service
----
SendGrid, the email infrastructure and delivery provider which has a
big development office in Orange County, said Thursday that it has
launched a new service that helps marketers send out emails to their
customers, based on their activities and actions. The new service,
Threads by SendGrid, allows marketers to craft how emails are send to
users, based on what websites they view, what features they are using,
mobile app activity, and more. Pricing on the new tool was not
announced. SendGrid says the new tool can help drive emails to
encourage users to upgrade their account, make purchases, complete
on-boarding, and more.

Ciphrex Appoints CFO
----
San Diego-based crytocurrency and blockchain startup Ciphrex has
appointed a new CFO, according to the company. Ciphrex said that
Carrie McQueen has joined the company as CFO, having previously served
as CFO for such companies as Social Reality, LifeVantage and Mast
Therapeutics, and also served at Websense and Qualcomm. Ciphrex is
working on Bitcoin wallet software.

FaceFirst Names Sales VP
----
Westlake Village-based ,a href="http://www.facefirst.com";>FaceFirst,
which develops facial recognition technology, said Thursday that it
has named Tom Melzl as its new Vice President of Worldwide Sales.
Melzl joins the company from StackIQ, where he was Vice President of
Sales, and also has also served at Inquira. FaceFirst says it is
developing facial recognition systems targeted for use by retail
clients, international airports, law enforcement, gaming and
commercial customers.

SpaceX To Launch Israeli Mission To The Moon
----
In the first, commercial effort to deliver a payload to the moon,
Hawthorne-based rocket developer SpaceX is set to launch a robotic
mission from an Israeli company to the moon. (More...)
http://www.socaltech.com/spacex_to_launch_israeli_mission_to_the_moon/s-0062308.html

LA Angel Investors Put Backing Into E-Sports Franchise, The Immortals
----
A long list of Los Angeles angel investors has made a foray into the
interesting new area of e-sports, saying Wednesday that they have
acquired Team 8, a professional e-sports team, and renamed the team,
the Immortals. (More...)
http://www.socaltech.com/la_angel_investors_put_backing_into_e_sports_franchise_the_immortals/s-0062306.html

SoCal Angel Investors See IPO Pop At CytomX
----
A number of Southern California angel investors are undoubtedly
breaking out the champagne this morning, after the successful IPO of
CytomX Therapeutics, a developer of cancer therapeutics which was spun
out of UC Santa Barbara. (More...)
http://www.socaltech.com/socal_angel_investors_see_ipo_pop_at_cytomx/s-0062300.html

Hixme Raises $10.4M For Health Insurance Efforts
----
Agoura-based Hixme Insurance Solutions, which is developing a platform
to help employers with managing health insurance, disclosed Wednesday
that it has raised $10.4M in a Series A funding. The funding came from
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. The company says it is looking to
help compmanies predict and budget for health insurance, save money,
and help employees tailor insurance coverage for their needs. The
company is led by Denny Weinberg, who spent 20 years as co-founder &
Executive Vice President of Wellpoint.
http://www.socaltech.com/intelligence/index.php?action=showdeal&id=68025

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