Exara, based in San Juan Capistrano as part of Frost Data Capital’s incubator, closed out its seed round of financing, which brought it more than $3 million.
The company, founded by Eric Kraemer and Eric Lemoine in 2013, is a software platform that delivers specialized data from industrial machines to the companies that operate them. It’s a database designed to run on a new class of servers from Intel, Dell and others that will operate in very rugged environments, with low power and limited storage. Exara’s software provides wireless connectivity and lots of input/output capacity to bridge the gap between information technology and operational technology systems.
Thirteen investors participated in the offering. The seed money is being used to continue to develop its software to meet customer requirements, as well as for sales and marketing efforts, according to Chief Executive Brian Murphy.
Fundraising Startup Win
A startup that helps student and philanthropic community organizations fundraise scored first place in California State University-Fullerton’s Business Plan Competition, presented by its Center for Entrepreneurship. Little Nexus, started last year by CSUF students, created a website for any organization that wants to host a fundraiser at a restaurant. By visiting www.littlenexus.com, the organizations can see all of the restaurants in their area that host fundraisers and book the event directly through the website.
Little Nexus took home $2,500 cash and more than $7,300 in in-kind services for its first-place win.
The money will be used primarily for Web development, co-founder and CTO Miguel Olivares said. The Little Nexus executive team is looking to raise $20,000 through personal investments. At a later time, they will be seeking $150,000 from angel investors, said Olivares, who’s a senior at CSUF.
Conscious Caffeination
Conscious Bean, with its headquarters and roastery in Costa Mesa, recently inked an agreement to open a craft coffee bar inside The Art Institute of California – Orange County in Santa Ana, part of its private college system throughout the state. The institute is opening a “trendy” student lounge, according to Conscious Bean founder and Chief Executive Matthew Evilsizor.
“The new cafe and lounge will have plenty of communal seating and be open to the public as well as (institute) students, which I believe to be the perfect recipe for culture, creation, collaboration and of course … caffeination,” he said via email.
The coffee bar will have its own name, independent of Conscious Bean, but will brew the startup’s single-origin coffees, he added.
Conscious Bean started in Los Angeles in 2012. It moved to OC nearly two years ago. It’s been funded so far by a Small Business Administration micro-loan of $10,000 and Evilsizor’s own funds, he said.
Uber for Kids
A ride-share service for parents of busy children expanded to OC in early April. HopSkipDrive is based in Los Angeles.
The startup intensely vets and hires drivers—including background checks and fingerprinting—according to founder and Chief Executive Joanna McFarland, a busy mom herself. The drivers also must have a minimum of five years of childcare experience.
HopSkipDrive, which touts itself as the first ride service for kids, can drive one child to multiple events, including school, or drive multiple children to the same event. Parents use an app to schedule a driver and can monitor their children’s rides in real-time through the app. The startup’s reach now covers a good deal of Orange County.
HopSkipDrive launched in March 2015 and has raised more than $14 million from various venture capital firms. Its most recent funding was an approximate $10 million Series A round.
Students Tackle Industrial ‘Net
Cal State University-Fullerton and San Ramon-based GE Digital have teamed up for the GE/California State University Innovation Challenge involving student teams from five CSU campuses, including CSUF. The students are competing to develop projects for what is known as the “industrial” Internet, a term coined by GE referring to the integration of complex physical machinery with networked sensors and software.
The competition launched March 24. It challenges engineering and computer science students to create an app—using GE’s Predix software platform—that demonstrates their data engineering knowledge. The apps must measure resource consumption by extracting data from sensors already located on each campus’ infrastructure that provide real-time data on energy and water consumption. The students then must propose changes to optimize usage.
The competition, designed to inspire innovation and help prepare students for the workforce, will award multiple cash prizes totaling $25,000 and summer internships at GE Digital.
The company awarded CSUF a $150,000 grant to plan and host the challenge, said Hart Roussel, CSUF’s director of planned giving.
