VENTURE CAPITAL
Newport Beach’s Toba Capital, Orange County’s largest VC firm and backed by Vinny Smith, and Silicon Valley’s Storm Ventures on March 24 co-led a $14 million Series A investment in Clear Skye Inc., an Emeryville-based identity protection firm.
Incorporated in 2015, Clear Skye says it’s the only identity security solution built on workflow platform ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) that increases efficiency among areas like technology, human resources, security and governance.
Its growing customer base includes West Fraser, Blackhawk Network, Premise Health, while its revenue quintupled in 2021, officials said.
The newest round brings its total funding to nearly $20 million since its seed round in 2020, which Toba also led, Toba’s Capital Partner Rajan Aggarwal said.
“We are very proud to back Clear Skye and its team,” Aggarwal told the Business Journal. “Today the enterprises have to spend considerable amounts of time and resources deploying and integrating traditional solutions. Even after all this, Identity and IT admins are fatigued with the complexity of the ongoing management and scalability of such solutions.”
The funds will enable Clear Skye to expand its team and services. It also appointed Erin Duncan, formerly of Saviynt as chief marketing officer, and Jackson Shaw, from Dell as chief strategy officer.
EXEC HIRES
Anaheim-based smart apartment technology provider Arize last month appointed multifamily industry veteran Joel Sandoval as its national sales director.
Arize is expanding its executive team to address the increased market demand for its products, according to the company.
Founded in 2016, Arize offers IoT devices for multifamily owners, including the Arize Smart Thermostat and the Arize Smoke Listener.
“Joel brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team that will be vital as the company continues to expand its solutions,” Arise’s Vice President of Sales Rick Goldberg said in a statement. “As Arize continues to see demand for smart home ecosystems, we are confident our team will continue to provide quality customer service while working closely to identify solutions that would be best for the needs of our property managers and owners, as well as their tenants.”
In his role at Arize, Sandoval will drive sales, reach new markets and extend the reach of its solutions within the multifamily and real estate community.
Sandoval previously held leadership positions at Valet Living, Pro Leasing and other companies, totaling over 15 years of developing and executing strategies to grow multifamily businesses.
PRODUCTS
Vytanutra has launched a new affiliate program for influencers and creators to boost its consumer base, the family-owned nutrition company in Irvine said March 22.
The new campaign, dubbed the “vytainfluencer program,” was launched to spread the word about its organic supplements.
It allows creators to earn free company products in exchange for Vytanutra compliant social posts, the company said.
It’s also seeking out “micro-influencers”—on social media users who have under 10,000 followers on Instagram—as opposed to larger influencers because they typically have a stronger connection with their audience.
“By reaching out to micro-influencers who fit our specific niche and have already promoted health and wellness products in the past, our influencers started advocating for the brand, listing out our supplement benefits on unbiased opinion,” the company said in a statement.
“When we launched Optic Care, we reached out to influencers who have promoted our products in the past and these influencers were also doing swipe up campaigns on their IG stories that leads to traffic directly to our website.”
FUNDING
VivoSense Inc. has raised $25 million in Series A financing, the Newport Beach medtech firm announced March 30. The round was co-led by Swiss biopharmaceutical firm Debiopharm and New York life science investor Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund.
VivoSense, incorporated in 2010, is developing a software platform that reads all commercially available wearable sensors for clinical trials. Its creation was supported by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Navy.
The latest funding will accelerate the development of novel digital biomarkers, digital outcomes, and the company’s data analysis platform for life science research, officials said.
“Measures that are trusted and valued by all stakeholders are the foundation on which all other innovation in digital health must be based,” VivoSense CEO Dudley Tabakin said in a statement.
The company “is working to realize the potential of novel measures and technologies in regulatory and medical decision making to leverage real-world data at scale and bring life-saving treatments to the patients who need them most.”
According to Perceptive CEO Chris Garabedian, wearable technologies may soon “supplement or replace traditional methods used in clinical trials.”
“Data captured by wearable sensors will play an increasingly important role in our industry, and VivoSense is poised to become a leader,” he added.
FOOD
Newport Beach consumer good upstart GTFO It’s Vegan announced March 15 its line of vegan sushi is now available at grocery stores nationwide.
Food distributors Kehe and Sysco picked up the line of products, called GreatFoods It’s Vegan, which comes in tuna, calamari, sailfish or salmon, the company said. It’s also now on the menu at New York vegan chain Beyon Sushi.
“This expansion of our GreatFoods It’s Vegan line of sashimi into national retail and foodservice distribution represents a major milestone in the evolution” of the company, GTFO’s President Marc Pierce said in a statement. “As we continue to expand our footprint beyond online, to include manufacturing and business-to-business distribution, we are grateful to secure such an amazing portfolio of partnerships to fuel our growth.”
The startup was co-founded in 2020 by husband and wife Marc and Tanya Pierce and has subsequently emerged as the “largest player in the online vegan” space, it says, counting over 3,000 plant-based products across over 750 brands. Since its launch, GTFO reports fulfilling nearly 40,000 orders and servicing over 400 specialty retailers across the U.S.
