ACQUISITION
Costa Mesa-based, early stage venture capital investor Operate Studio said one of its portfolio companies, Brea’s Ardius, has been acquired by Gusto, a software firm headquartered in San Francisco valued at more than $7 billion. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Gusto, which started as a payroll and benefits platform for small and medium-sized businesses, has expanded into employee on-boarding, insurance, benefits and other HR offerings. According to TechCrunch, Gusto acquired Ardius to automate R&D tax credits and further streamline payroll taxes for the 100,000 businesses they currently serve.
Operate Studio, which was founded in 2019, invests in new software companies based in Southern California. Carey Ransom, founder and president of Operate Studio, said it was Ardius’ sole early stage investor from Orange County.
Ardius was founded by Joshua Lee in 2018 to prevent startups from being overtaxed.
“Joshua is the exact kind of entrepreneur we get excited about, with a deep subject matter expertise in the business problem he was solving,” Ransom told the Business Journal. “He did the customer discovery and validation to discover what the needs of customers are.
“We were excited to be an Ardius shareholder and equally excited to be at Gusto now,” Ransom said.
FUNDING
Newport Beach-based live music streaming app Trubify said it has raised $3.3 million from UCI’s Cove Fund II.
Trubify is a free app that its exec team says it offers better monetization capabilities for musicians than $42 billion-valued Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), including monetized performances, tips from fans and brand deals.
According to Trubify’s CEO Stephen Tyszka, the app combines his background in technology and 25 years of experience in the music industry.
“Tech, music and money do have an intersection,” Tyszka told the Business Journal. “Starving artist syndrome is a real thing and technology can be used to alleviate it.”
Backers of the app include the founder of Irvine micro-investing app Acorns, Walter Cruttenden and CEO of Fliptix and board member of the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, Jaime Siegel.
The company won Octane Launchpad’s People’s Choice Award in 2020.
“Trubify has been extremely proactive in creating multiple revenue streams for artists,” Siegel told the Business Journal. “Producers, promoters and labels take economics away from the very people providing the content. Trubify turns that whole model on its head.”
The company was developed during the pandemic, when music venues shut down and social media platforms YouTube, Instagram and Facebook restricted artists from earning a living from home.
“Trubify bypasses the legacy business model’s baggage. With Trubify, artists can capitalize in ways that weren’t even possible in the existing system,” Cove Fund’s Howard Mirowitz told the Business Journal.
The company said it has opened an extended seed round to accelerate the go-to-market strategy; the round is still open.
