Tech Coast Angels, a group of 270 investors in Orange County and the rest of Southern California who fund technology startups, has invested $1.3 million in Santa Ana-based software developer Clupedia Corp.
It was the group’s biggest funding of its past 25 deals, said John Harbison, lead investor on the deal.
Clupedia offers software called Clucast that plugs into a browser. It allows Web surfers to generate and retrieve “clues”,ratings, reviews, notes, links or blogs about any subject or product out there.
When you highlight a word of text on a Web page, a browser collects all of the “clues” about that word, which can be sorted and searched.
Users, called “Clucasters,” can write their own “clues” and have them ranked by others.
“It’s a way to aggregate comments and opinions that people have placed wherever on the Web,” Harbison said.
Tech Coast Angels didn’t detail the funding before a test version of the software recently went up at www.clupedia.com. The company has been in “stealth mode,” Harbison said.
An expanded version of Clucast is due in August.
The founder and chief executive of Clupedia, David Saad, has a colorful history.
He founded Braintec, an early technology consulting company, more than two decades ago. Braintec was sold to Technisource Inc., another tech services company that went private under IntelliMark Holdings Inc. in 2002.
Saad developed ProofReader, a spell, grammar and style checker plus dictionary and thesaurus.
He has a collection of degrees in mathematics, economics and computer science and is a two-time Olympic competitor in Judo.
Saad contributed $2.3 million of his own money to start Clupedia. It’s been operating out of Santa Ana’s Digital Media Center, a hub for startups and multimedia companies.
Harbison is big on Clupedia’s prospects.
“I’ve done 17 deals at Tech Coast, and this more than any other one has more of a potential to be a multibillion-dollar, YouTube kind of an exit,” he said.
Clupedia is looking to venture capital firms to raise about $5 million in a second round of funding this fall.
It’s attracted the attention of other Web entrepreneurs.
Johannes Larcher, who served as vice president of social networking site Friendster Inc., sits on Clupedia’s board.
Prior to Friendster, Larcher was chief of staff at Overture Services Inc., which Yahoo Inc. bought in 2003 for nearly $2 billion.
Tech Honors
The Orange County and Inland Empire chapter of the American Electronics Association, the nation’s biggest technology trade group, honored some local companies and executives earlier this month at a big to-do at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach.
Attendees were a who’s who of OC’s tech industry.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle emceed the event.
Ed Coleman, chief executive of Irvine’s Gateway Inc., gave the keynote speech (see story, page 1).
Some notable executives presented awards, including Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp.’s Jim McCluney, Mike Morhaime of Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment, Santa Ana-based Power-wave Technologies Inc.’s Ron Buschur and Fountain Valley-based D-Link Systems Inc.’s Steven Joe.
Some winners:
– Michael Hajeck of Aliso Viejo-based SiliconSystems Inc. for Outstanding Private Company CEO.
– Kofax Image Products Inc. for Computer Peripherals.
– Emulex and Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology Co. for Computer Storage.
– D-Link Systems for Consumer Hardware.
– Santa Ana-based SRS Labs Inc. for Consumer Software.
– Jayco Interface Technology Inc. of Corona for Innovation Design.
– Costa Mesa’s Mind Institute for Instructional Technology.
– Aliso Viejo’s Memeo Inc. for Internet.
– Irvine’s Axiom Microdevices Inc. for Semiconductors.
– Integrien Corp. and Return Exchange Inc., both of Irvine, for Software.
SimpleTech Deal
The former consumer memory products arm of what’s now STEC Inc. of Santa Ana has landed a deal with a top distributor, San Jose’s Bell Microproducts Inc.
In February, San Mateo-based Fabrik Inc. bought STEC’s business making memory cards sold in stores for use in digital cameras and other devices. Fabrik kept the SimpleTech name that STEC used to go by.
STEC sold off its consumer products business to focus on flash memory for industrial uses, including healthcare and aerospace.
