FINANCING
Metronom Health of Laguna Hills raised a $22 million Series D round of financing last month, bringing its total funds to nearly $50 million since its 2010 inception.
The round was led by Hong Kong-based Ally Bridge Group, a venture capital firm that backs several Irvine-based companies including drugmaker GC Oncology and device maker Mavrik Dental.
Metronom is developing a continuous glucose monitor to help patients living with diabetes monitor blood sugar levels.
Most patients with diabetes (between 80% to 90%) use self-monitoring of blood glucose, an approach that typically requires patients to use a finger stick to measure blood sugar levels.
By contrast, Metronom’s in-the-body device is expected to last up to 14 days and does not require a blood stick. The small, discrete device was also designed to facilitate day-to-day management and physician oversight.
Metronom is a portfolio company of life sciences and medical device accelerator Fjord Ventures, which houses a collection of eight portfolio companies between two buildings in Laguna Hills.
It’s been a busy few months for Fjord Ventures and its founder Olav Bergheim, who serves as chief executive of Metronom. Fjord Ventures participated in a $42.5 million round for portfolio company Adagio Medical in November.
Mobix Labs Inc. recently raised a $2.5 million seed round of financing, according to regulatory filings.
The semiconductor firm, formed last July and based near the Irvine Spectrum, is focused on developing radio frequency “building blocks” such as antennas, chips and semiconductors for 5G networks and beyond.
Mobix Labs is led by CEO Fabian Battaglia, a former senior vice president of sales at semiconductor firm Microsemi Corp., where he managed over $2 billion in annual sales.
Microsemi, based in Aliso Viejo for many years, was sold for an enterprise value of $10.2 billion to Arizona-based Microchip Technology Inc. in 2018.
Other Microsemi alumni continue to be active in OC’s business circles; former CEO Jimmy Peterson heads the University of California-Irvine’s $2 billion philanthropic campaign with his wife, Sheila, and former COO Paul Pickle now runs Irvine-based Lantronix Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRX).
VENTURE CAPITAL
Aliso Viejo-based Octane, a business accelerator and content creator, will launch a new venture fund this year.
The venture fund is the third that Octane has been involved in; its board members helped initiate Laguna Beach-based Okapi Venture Capital, and Octane is a founding member and general partner of Aliso Viejo-based ophthalmic fund Visionary Ventures, which is raising its second fund earmarked for $100 million.Â
The new fund will invest in the best of the startup companies that go through Octane’s LaunchPad business accelerator each year and typically outperform average investments by a multiple of three, according to Octane Chief Executive Bill Carpou.
Octane sees about 55 companies through its accelerator annually and helped its portfolio companies raise about $587 million in 2020, up from $337 million the year prior.
More details regarding the multimillion-dollar fund will be presented at Octane’s second annual Aesthetics Tech Summit, which will run Jan. 20 to 22.
Octane will release further details on its 2020 impact at its first-ever partner summit, which will take place on Feb. 25, and will be headlined by Octane Chairman Jim Mazzo, Emile Haddad, chief executive of FivePoint Holdings, and Mike Mussallem, co-founder of Octane and chief executive of Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Liquid Diagnostics of San Clemente recently announced the completion of its home-collection COVID-19 antibodies test.
The test has a specificity of 99.99% according to a CLIA evaluation performed at the University of California, Los Angeles and has been filed for Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
Liquid Diagnostics’ antibodies test uses a unique bimolecular immobilization technique developed by David Wong, director of the head and neck oncology center at the UCLA School of Dentistry, to measure IgG antibodies that remain in the body after active infection. These antibodies have been shown ability to prevent re-infection.
The company’s antibody test can be used to determine essential workers’ immunity to the virus, as well as determine the need for booster shots following vaccination, according to Chief Executive Charles Strom, who is also an attending physician at Children Hospital of Los Angeles.
Liquid Diagnostics licensed technology from UCLA and launched in 2019. It is also working on saliva-based test for the detection of lung cancer.
LAUNCH
GameApart of Huntington Beach unveiled its gaming platform for virtual gatherings and gameplay.
The company’s platform runs on video conferencing tools such as Zoom, with one user acting as the game host and sharing their screen with everyone. Players use their smartphones to make moves, with game movements and results appearing on a virtual game table.
Games are added to the platform each month, such as a fill-in-the-blank word game similar to Cards Against Humanity and a mystery word guessing game.
The company makes money via advertisements and subscriptions starting at $4.99.
GameApart was founded by James Simmons last year. Simmons is a partner at technology services firm Fortium Partners and formerly chief executive at San Diego-based voting product maker Everyone Counts Inc.
WorkWhile launched its hourly workforce platform in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco and parts of Texas last month.
The San Francisco-based upstart developed its platform to provide employers with flexibility and control over their workforce, while bringing greater job stability to hourly workers, the company said.
Employers pay WorkWhile a service fee to list open shifts on its platform, meanwhile employees select time slots they are available to work. Employees are screened by WorkWhile using interviews, background checks and cognitive tests.
Employers using the platform include restaurant supplier Cheetah and meal delivery service Thistle.
WorkWhile raised a $3.5 million seed round of financing lead by Khosla Ventures ahead of its December launch.
