STARTUPS & INNOVATIONS

ACQUISITIONS

MailPix, a phone-to-print service from Huntington Beach, is acquiring photo websites and apps ahead of its first Series A funding round.

The company, formed in 2012, is CEO Fred Lerner’s seventh startup. He’s the former CEO of Kodak Processing Labs, former president of the Photo Marketing Association International and a United Nations’ IPC Hall of Fame awardee.

“I’ve been in the photographic business my whole life, making the switch from film processing to digital imaging. It’s a fun business, helping people preserve memories of their families,” Lerner told the Business Journal on Feb. 21. “I have no intention of retiring and every intention of continuing to build the business.”

According to Lerner, MailPix is the only mobile app that allows users to take a photo with their phone and pick up a print within one hour at over 18,000 retail locations nationwide—from CVS and Walgreens to Walmart. It offers 400 different products, including posters, canvas prints, mugs, and T-shirts.

The company, which counts 20 employees to date, has self-funded up to this point. While the amount MailPix is looking to raise hasn’t been determined yet, it is actively seeking investors. It has already acquired competitors 1HourPhoto, WinkFlash, RitzPix Online, and others.

FUNDING

KDD Nutraceuticals, a consumer goods firm at UCI’s RevHubOC incubator, is seeking investors in its first $25,000 crowdfunding campaign.

KDD’s campaign, launching in March on IFundWomen, will help support the mass production of Anti-Na chews: natural supplements designed to curb nausea in young women undergoing chemotherapy, pregnancy or other situations. Its ingredients include lemon, ginger root powder, Vitamin B6, and Bioenergy Ribose, an ingredient clinically proven to improve athletic endurance.

“My mission is to help these women add something to their toolbox so they can be functional throughout the day,” KDD Chief Executive Kristen Del Dosso told the Business Journal.

The idea came to her while hiking Mount Whitney, where she “discovered miserable altitude sickness—and there was no product on the market to help,” said Del Dosso, who earned her MBA from UCI’s Merage School of Business.

Last May, she began selling packs of 30 for $28.50 on her website and donates chews through her Chews for Charity effort.

Del Dosso is currently working on a new formula with East Coast-based JRS Pharma, which she hopes to try out on a pilot study of about 25 women suffering from recurring nausea.

OneTeam360, a new employee management software platform from Irvine, announced Feb. 17 the closing of its first $1 million funding round, along with additions to its executive team.

Established in 2019 and launching this year, OneTeam is a points-based SaaS solution that improves employee engagement, management, and training for the shift-based workforce, the company said.

According to officials, the investment will allow OneTeam360 to scale its team, invest in its technology and grow its customer base. Investors participating in the round were undisclosed.

Dan Berzansky, former owner of Rancho Cucamonga-based Premier Swim Academy, will serve as CEO, while former aerospace products manager Amar Ganwani will serve as COO. Others include CTO Davy Levy, CMO Paul Bresenden and Senior Product Manager Judd Howard.

“We are proud of the diverse industries and investor backgrounds represented by our investor base,” Berzansky said in a statement. “We are grateful that our goal was reached with relative ease, and we found ourselves in a position to handpick strategic partners to help catapult OneTeam360 to launch and beyond.”

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Crown Sterling Limited LLC, a Newport Beach-based encryption and digital asset tech firm, reported its Crown Sovereign (CSOV) utility token was scheduled to be listed on the BitMart Exchange on Feb. 22.

“Following many months of work on this effort, this will be the first of several U.S.-based exchange listings planned for this year,” Crown Sterling CEO Robert Grant said in a statement. “This is very exciting, as all U.S. citizens without restriction will very soon be able to participate in CSOV and the personal data sovereignty revolution.”

Grant is the former president of Allergan Medical and co-founder of Evolus Inc. (Nasdaq: EOLS), among other notable roles.

Founded in 2018, Crown Sterling develops technologies to help individuals protect, control and monetize their data.

Crown Sterling recently launched its desktop-based Native App & Wallet, which allows CSOV holders to store their tokens, make transfers in and out of the wallet, access private token sale details and send encrypted messages or digital assets.

According to Grant, the company will release more products in the next two years, including Quantum Resistant Encryption, Messaging to NFT Collectibles and Mathematical Compression/Decentralized Storage.

EXPANSION

Irvine’s robocall protection service YouMail said Feb. 16 it has expanded its services into the United Kingdom, where over 80% of residents reported receiving a scam call or text during the summer of 2021.

“The robocall problem is especially big in the U.K. now, where registering for the Telephone Preference Service does not appear to make a material difference in the number of calls people get,” said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. The company is “now moving beyond the U.S. to provide spam-free voicemail inboxes and second-line service to help address that problem.”

Since forming in 2007, YouMail has raised nearly $20 million in venture funding; a majority of which has been raised by Irvine-based investor network Tech Coast Angels, according to Crunchbase data.

The expansion also includes “several new options” for blocking robocalls, including a new visual voicemail app called “Hullo Mail,” which allows users to replace their mobile phone voicemail with spam-protected voicemail, as well as “Another Number,” a way to add a new phone number to a mobile phone which automatically blocks robocalling numbers.

PARTNERSHIP

Newport Beach design studio Pure Salt Interiors announced Feb. 17 a partnership with Los Angeles women’s advocacy group Tirzah International to provide entrepreneurial training to women in East Africa.

Pure Salt, co-founded by Leigh Lincoln and Aly Morford, began as a design studio and evolved into a national lifestyle brand. Its eponymous Pure Salt Shoppe launched in 2019. The company says it is amid “another growth chapter” as it expands to include a trade program, collaborations, licenses, and hospitality.

“Pure Salt is a women-owned, predominantly women-run business and our ethos from the founding of our company in 2016 has been to support and create opportunities for other women,” Lincoln said.

The partnership comprises a “range of initiatives,” including employing Kenyan and Tanzanian women artisans who hand-make pottery, textiles, among other decorative functional items, and offering them business and product development mentorship, officials said. The deal also includes in-person fundraising events and in-kind gifts.

The products will be sold on Pure Salt’s online store, Pure Salt Shoppe, and 20% of gross sales will be donated to Tirzah.