OFFICE SPACE
Ketogenic cookie startup Nui Foods LLC moved into a new headquarters along Santa Ana’s 4th Street, relocating from its previous office in Fullerton.
The company, which makes cookies for the low-carb, high protein, high-fat keto diet, appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” last November and received a $300,000 investment from former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez on the show.
Marketing Manager Valerie Bui said the company is moving to downtown Santa Ana for a more “collaborative workspace for the team.” The 305 W. 4th St. location is run by Ryan Chase’s S&A Properties.
Nui was founded in 2016 by OC locals Kristoffer Quiaoit and Victor Macias. Nui had previously raised $100,000 in a Kickstarter campaign. The cookies are available via the company’s website or Amazon.com and retail for $14.95 for a pack of eight.
Aliso Viejo-based supply chain management startup ThinkIQ this month doubled its square footage in the TechSpace coworking location at 65 Enterprise Way, going from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet.
Company Vice President of Business Development and Marketing Dave Pritts said its current business and some upcoming large contracts were the catalyst for the expansion.
The company recently hired another business development representative and is also hiring for several software developers. ThinkIQ currently has 21 employees and Pritts said it will add up to six more in the next few months.
The company was founded in 2014 and has so far received a round of seed funding, and is gearing up for a Series A soon.
FUNDING
Aliso Viejo-based Internet of Things startup NotifAi closed a Series A round of $1.2 million last week, with investment from Bill Woodward, founder of Santa Monica-based Anthem Venture Partners, Washington Nationals second baseman Brian Dozier and N.Y-based Sean O’Sullivan Ventures, among others.
NotifAi is building an enterprise sensor network for high-rise buildings and condos to reduce risk of damages from fire, water, and theft.
Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Sean Heath said the sensors connect over radio frequency, and property managers are alerted to issues via a centrally managed platform. The company’s goal is to eventually offer insurance plans, in addition to their products.
“We have reduced risk based on our products, so we would be able to offer competitive property and casualty insurance policies to homeowners and to buildings for master policies,” said Heath.
The company was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of Aliso Viejo-based Indie Semiconductor, but was spun out as a separate startup in 2016.
It is currently running a pilot program in Northern California, and will install its products in OC buildings this year.
NEW HIRES
Lake Forest-based shipping and logistics tech company FreightPop has hired OC native Justin Dickson as its new vice president of sales.
Dickson was formerly vice president at DealerSocket, a previously San Clemente-based software as a service company that serves the automotive industry. The company recently relocated its headquarters from OC to Texas.
FreightPop launched two years ago after being spun out of Lake Forest-based Horizon Technology, the fourth startup to emerge from the technology distribution company. FreightPop provides shipping and logistics automation support for small to medium-market shipping companies.
Chief Executive Kurt Johnson said large shipping companies automated years ago, but small to midsize distributors are just starting to make the shift. He called the market “largely untapped.”
FreightPop closed a seed round in October 2018, with Irvine-based The Cove Fund I and The Cove Fund II investing. Johnson declined to share the exact amount of funding, but said the company “oversubscribed” and will likely look at raising a Series A round in the next 12 to 18 months.
Seal Beach-based pet product and fundraising platform Cuddly Inc. has appointed Natalise Kalea as its chief executive.
Kalea has served as the company’s chief operating officer since 2017, and has consulted and advised startups in the health and wellness, entertainment, and beauty industries.
Cuddly is an online marketplace for pet products. Users answer a few questions to generate a list of personalized products which they can then purchase from themselves, or send out to friends and family. The company describes itself as a “for-good” startup, as 5% of each purchase is donated to the user’s choice of animal rescue charity.
“I see a huge opportunity in pet tech in general,” said Kalea. “There is such a love that pet owners have for animals and to be able to build a business in this space is very rewarding on multiple levels.”
Cuddly was formed in 2014 and has raised $2 million in funding so far from friends, family and angel investors. The company is currently seeking to raise $3.2 million in institutional seed funding.
DATA DRILL
Tustin-based startup RateMyInvestor earlier this month released a national report on diversity in venture capital investing.
The report, prepared in partnership with N.Y.-based nonprofit Diversity VC, aggregated publicly available deal data from the top 135 U.S. VC firms by deal activity from venture-backed deals from seed to Series D + in the past five years.
Those 135 firms invested in nearly 4,500 startups during the time frame, 42% of which were in Silicon Valley. Nearly 30% of backed startups had founders that went to an Ivy League school, 77% were Caucasian and over 80% were all-male founder teams.
RateMyInvestor allows funding seekers to rate their experience with VC’s and investors.
Chief Executive Austin Stofer said he hopes the report will give people the evidence they need to create change.
“Most people are aware of the problems plaguing the industry,” he said. “These are the realities that we live with every day in the startup ecosystem but I enjoyed being able to release tangible evidence to support everyone’s assumptions.”
LAUNCH
Irvine-based computational storage startup NGD Systems Inc. has kicked off its Newport Platform data storage offering, which allows the processing of large quantities of data to be done more efficiently with fewer delays.
The platform will be targeted toward customers that run data centers and edge platforms, along with other corporate uses.
Company Vice President of Marketing Scott Shadley called the product “the first of its kind in the world.”
“No other product on the planet can store 16 terabytes of data [3.8 million songs, 3,413 HD movies, the entire Library of Congress] in the palm of your hand,” Shadley said via email.
The company was founded in 2013 and has received $25 million in two rounds of funding. Investors include Taiwanese semiconductor company Alcor Micro Corp., Silicon Valley-based VC BGV and French venture capital firm Orange Digital Ventures.
NGD Systems also recently expanded its office space. The 37-person team had nearly 3,000 square feet in Irvine’s 355 Goddard last year, and as of last month expanded the Spectrum-area location to over 9,000 square feet.
