Additional investors included Y Combinator, BoxGroup, Soma Capital, Shrug Capital, and Chapter One.
“Six months ago, we built Cohere to make engaging with your users feel like you’re standing right beside them,” the company said.
“Today, Cohere is being used by teams ranging from founders looking for their first few customers to large enterprises aiming to seamlessly solve customer issues.”
Cohere lets employees manage user activity via real time screen sharing and integrates with existing tools such as ZenDesk, Salesforce and Slack. Companies can also view customer sessions retroactively to make platform improvements.
Cohere generates revenue via subscriptions plans on a per user per month basis. It offers a free version for first-time users; additional plans start at $39 a month.
The Los Angeles-based upstart said the financing will support a streaming series called Going Public, which will shine a light on five entrepreneurs aiming to list their companies on the Nasdaq.
Going Public will premiere on Entrepreneur.com this summer, and it will allow viewers to directly invest in the companies featured on the series. Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners will price and underwrite the featured deals.
Crush Capital is led by sales and marketing executive Todd Goldberg and Darren Marble, the founder of Issuance, a marketing and technology platform for Reg A+ issuers.
“Darren and Todd founded Crush Capital with a vision to democratize the IPO, something that inspired me almost instantly,” Cruttenden, OC’s best-known fintech investor, said in a statement. “Their commitment to diversity and inclusion aligns with my core beliefs and will be on full display throughout their show ‘Going Public’.”
In the company’s namesake game, each player is a boba shop owner, striving to be the first to build five drink sets by collecting ingredient cards. Players use action cards to slow down or “sabobatage” their opponents.
Sabobatage will make about 10,000 initial games available for its backers and local boba shops before offering the game online, Chief Executive Eric Chen said.
“I wanted to create a game that was fun and fast-casual, and something that might support local businesses,” he said. “You can play the game at a boba shop, and finish by the time you’ve had your boba.”
Following its initial launch, Sabobatage will retail for $25. Online purchase options are expected by the end of 2021.
CLINICAL RESULTS
Newport Beach-based ImmunogenX Inc., an early-stage drug developer, recently announced favorable results of its Phase 2b clinical trial for its treatment of celiac disease, an incurable digestive ailment that destroys the lining of the intestines.
The trial demonstrated the company’s main product, Latiglutenase, “dramatically protects the health of the small intestine” and “offers symptom protection,” Chief Operating Officer Matt Dickason said.
Celiac disease is a combination of an allergy and an autoimmune condition involving gluten that causes destruction of the lining in the intestines, which when ingesting gluten results in bloating, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. About 3 million Americans have the illness.
The company is now enrolling patients for a Phase 2b study focused on symptom improvement sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, putting the company on track to bring its principal product to market in 2024, Dickason said.
ImmunogenX has raised $6 million from investors to date. It has also won several grants totaling an additional $6.5 million from different centers at the National Institutes of Health.
NEW HIRES
Bioniz Therapeutics Inc. of Irvine has named Alex Kaoukhov senior vice president and head of clinical development.
Kaoukhov will lead clinical development for the company’s Phase 3 study of BNZ-1 for a rare type of lymphoma that manifests in the skin, among other studies.
Kaoukhov comes to Bioniz from Barcelona-based pharmaceutical firm Almirall, where he served as head of global development. He also counts local ties; he was previously an associate vice president of clinical development at Allergan, where he oversaw the medical dermatology pipeline, and has held leadership positions at Novartis and Galderma.
Almirall said last January it was making a $15 million upfront payment in Bioniz for exclusive global rights to BNZ-1. The drug candidate has a value of more than $540 million when future royalties for the deal are factored in, Bioniz founder and Chief Executive Nazli Azimi told the Business Journal at the time the deal was announced.
Azimi has convinced several medical heavyweights to invest in her company and join her board, including Chairman David Pyott, former CEO at Allergan, and Joe Kiani, founder and chief executive of Irvine’s Masimo Corp.
City Twig Inc., an artificial intelligence-powered platform for insurance carriers, has named Andy Bhushan its co-chief executive.
Bhushan has been with City Twig since its 2018 start, and previously held the titles of chief technology officer and president. He will join chairman and current CEO Mike Kratzer in the new role.
“Andy brings tremendous experience in artificial intelligence and technology to drive efficiencies in the industry, and is instrumental to build our vision of making insurance accessible to diverse populations,” Kratzer said.
City Twig uses machine learning capabilities to help insurance organizations acquire new clients, recommend new products, boost customer outreach and more.
Product pricing starts at $12 a month for agents and $125 a month for agencies, among other options.
Existing clients of City Twig include Newport Beach-based Pacific Life, MassMutual, Farmers Insurance Group and Chase.
