How do geopolitical factors influence global commodities prices? That’s the question that an early-stage software company in Irvine answers with software using artificial intelligence.
Now France is calling.
Techstars Paris invited TerraManta to participate in its accelerator program from September through mid-December and made its standard $120,000 investment, as it does in all the companies it takes on, Chief Executive Leon Kotovich said. The selection process was “very rigorous,” he said, adding that only 10 companies were selected from an initial group of 100.
Kotovich and Chief Operating Officer Andrei Klimanov will travel to Paris and work closely with Total SA, a French oil and gas company and a partner of Techstars Paris, Kotovich said. Total SA’s 2016 revenue was approximately $128 billion in U.S. dollars.
The duo will work on building the next iteration of TerraManta for Crude Oil, its first product, which will include buy and sell signals, one of the “major” features requested by those who used the software during its trial period, Kotovich said.
Finance Company Launches
Get stock trading ideas from social media? That’s the concept behind a Laguna Beach-based company that created a stock research platform using artificial intelligence. Hash Finance launched in June and helps investors get ahead of likely changes in price and volume by analyzing social media patterns and other nontraditional data. It’s raised $1.25 million from family, friends and angel investors, founder and Chief Executive Richard Ingrassia said.
Social media can have a big impact on stocks, Ingrassia said. He said he created the platform because he did not see a consistently reliable tool for measuring and acting on social media’s “momentum shifts,” such as President Donald Trump’s tweets about Boeing and Amazon, for example.
“The criticisms drove both stocks lower, temporarily, and our algorithm picked up that selling activity at the outset,” Ingrassia said.
How it works: Hash Finance compares real-time social media conversations against historical patterns of various companies and flags those that experience an unusual spike or drop-off in volume or intensity of tweets. The first version of the software monitors only Twitter. Future versions will also monitor other social media, Ingrassia said.
Computers, using artificial intelligence, generate a list of stocks that have been affected either positively or adversely by the media. Then people, who are mainly “recovering Wall Street analysts” apply their knowledge to the data. Hash Finance sends a curated list of ideas to its home page every 15 minutes. For now, the data is free and visible to all.
The company also makes money through affiliate marketing, getting paid if a user clicks through to one of its affiliates’ offers. It also makes money through data licensing, where companies pay Hash Finance for the right to embed its data on their sites.
For now, what everyone can see on Hash Finance’s website is the same thing it provides to licensees.
“It just enhances what’s on their site and keeps their traffic from jumping off,” Ingrassia said.
His goals for the rest of the year are to sign more affiliate partner deals and get to positive cash flow, he said.
Ingrassia is managing director of Newport Beach-based Digital Offering LLC, a boutique investment bank that advises and invests in high-quality growth companies.
Delivery Service Starts Campaign
An Irvine-based company that provides on-demand pickup, delivery, moving and setup services launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine. Bringpro’s looking to raise $1.07 million, the new maximum amount allowed by federal crowdfunding rules. Investors can participate with a minimum $250 investment.
Don DiCostanzo, who’s also the chief executive of Fountain Valley-based Pedego Electric Bikes, co-founded Bringpro in 2015. It’s essentially “Uber for stuff,” using the same on-demand business model, but this company helps consumers and businesses move heavy or bulky items, such as furniture and TVs. It also helps with setup and installations at homes and businesses. It has a website, an app and a toll-free phone number.
The company plans to use the money it raises through the crowdfunding campaign to roll out services nationally through franchise opportunities, President Jamie Garelli said.
Equity crowdfunding differs from the original method of crowdfunding that’s gotten a lot of attention, thanks to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which match donors to startups, the latter typically providing a product or some other reward in exchange for cash. Equity crowdfunding exchanges stakes in startups for capital and allows nonaccredited investors—individuals with net worth of less than $1 million—to own portions of companies.
Bits & Pieces
California State University-Fullerton associate professor David Obstfeld has published a book, “Getting New Things Done.” He’s an associate professor of management in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics. … Irvine-based Cie Digital Labs announced that former Amazon and OpenX Product Executive Tegdeep Kondal is vice present of product development. Cie Digital Labs is a development firm and technology studio that accelerates growth-stage startups. It has an innovation lab and acts as a platform to develop ideas into technology ventures. Anderee Berengian is chief executive.
