FUNDING
Grooming product startup Twist It Up Comb appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank on Jan. 27, and received funding from Marc Cuban and Daymond John.
Founder Noel Durity, a local real estate broker and loan officer, searched for years to find a quick, low maintenance way to style his hair in the morning after seeing a YouTube video of someone styling their hair with a tennis racket.
He decided to use 3D printing to improve the design. After getting interest from local barber shops, he worked with Tera Engineering Co. in Orange to make a model that could be mass produced. Durity, a member of the Irvine chapter of startup community Startup Grind, launched the product in Orange County in 2016.
He said the company had $500,000 in sales last year. The product sells for about $25.
Cuban and John each acquired 12.5% of the company for a total investment of $225,000, which Durity said will be used for production and marketing.
“My biggest thing is I always sold out, so I was trying to get production and inventory,” said Durity. “The majority of the money is just to scale.”
Irvine-based medical tech fund MedFocus contributed to a nearly $3.5 million seed round for device company Perfuze. The Galway, Ireland-based company is developing catheter-based technology to treat acute ischemic stroke.
MedFocus is a group of private equity venture capital funds that specifically invest in emerging medical device companies. The Perfuze investment came from the HBM-MedFocus Fund.
Fund Principal Manager Michael Henson, a veteran of OC’s medical device and healthcare technology scene, looks forward to working with Perfuze to bring their technology to the market.
“Perfuze has a simple, yet unique approach for the treatment of thrombectomy that we believe should provide faster clot removal from the brain, resulting in better patient outcomes, shorter procedure times and less expense,” said Henson in an emailed statement.
The round was led by European tech VC firm Earlybird.
PEOPLE
Verizon-alum Greg Haller, chief operating officer of Irvine-based call center giant Alorica Inc., has joined the board of directors of Mobilize Solutions, an Irvine-based ad tech startup that enhances mobile cameras with content including geofilters.
Mobilize Solutions launched in 2013, and opened a Kansas City, Mo. office last year. The company is investor-funded and raised close to $1 million in a bridge to Series A funding in 2018.
It has worked with brands such as Hyundai, Toyota and Salesforce to integrate their branding into geofilters for events like the L.A. Marathon.
Haller joins other Verizon veterans Marni Walden, John Harrobin, Mike Benvenuti, Brendan Fallis, Brian Jones and Nick Montes on the company’s board.
LAUNCH
Immerse, an Irvine-based virtual reality language learning company, took the wraps off the latest version of its app last week.
The UCI Applied Innovation Wayfinder startup’s software pairs with Oculus Go VR headsets and allow users to meet up with native speaking tutors in real time in virtual locations around the globe.
Chief Executive Quinn Taber said the company is currently working with several large corporate clients in Asia who wanted a top-of-the-line English learning program for employees.
The company raised $600,000 from angel investors in 2017 and is considering raising additional funds in the fall.
Irvine-based biotech company Bioreigns kicked off sales for a line of water-soluble products featuring cannabidiol, or CBD, a chemical found in cannabis plants, but which does not have psychoactive properties.
Products include Limitless, a CBD and curcumin energy support nutraceutical, a daily CBD tincture and a CBD sleep formula.
Chief Executive Nick Arroyo said the company’s products will be available for sale through distributors.
“We’re just trying to give the average person the opportunity to be entrepreneurs. I’m a huge supporter of entrepreneurship,” he said.
Real Housewives of Orange County alums Gretchen Rossi and Slade Smiley are working with the company as brand ambassadors, helping with marketing and product development.
Bioreigns is self-funded by Arroyo and co-founder Bryan Reed. They are currently headquartered at the office of Arroyo’s other company, Vantari Genetics, but seeking local space to house administrative and manufacturing operations.
Irvine-based EvoNexus graduated five startups from its business incubator last week, including Abtum, which produces radio frequency filters and other products, residential crowdfunding platform Blockbuyer, gaming platform company Evasyst, industrial component company Integra Devices, and AI chip manufacturer Syntiant.
EvoNexus Managing Director Bob Genthert said most companies stay with the incubator for an average of about two years.
“We’re a victim of our own success with five companies leaving at once,” he said. “We are actively seeking to bring new companies in.”
PARTNERSHIPS
Irvine-based VC firm Adventus Ventures has inked a deal with Korean wireless communication company OnFace.
OnFace will invest in two Adventus healthcare-focused companies, Allevion Therapeutics and Pressao Medical, while licensing those two OC-based companies’ technologies. OnFace and Adventus will also work to co-manufacture additional products and work jointly to bring them to market.
The deal was facilitated in part by Gumi Electronic Research Institute, a Korean government-funded medical device incubator with $110 million in backing, as part of an effort to help Korean companies diversify from information technology into med tech and life sciences companies and create local jobs.
OnFace and GERI will provide Adventus with resources to further develop and promote their technologies, such as Allevion’s Allevx Smart wrist cuff for tremor control and Pressao’s BP-Adjust wrist cuff for hypertension control.
Terms of the funding haven’t been finalized.
