EXEC HIRES
UCI’s Beall Applied Innovation on Aug. 26 named Errol Arkilic as its new chief innovation officer and executive director. He assumes his new role Oct. 1.
Founded in 2014, the Beall Applied Innovation (BAI) is the public research university’s commercialization branch, a multifaceted platform that supports entrepreneurship. Its incubator, Wayfinder, has formed over 60 startups to-date.
“Over the years, Beall Applied Innovation has surpassed my highest expectations, and I am confident that with Dr. Arkilic’s appointment as its second director, we will continue to accelerate our commitment to transformative research and the development of regional strategies,” UCI chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement.
In his new role, Arkilic will oversee entrepreneurial engagement with partners, intellectual property stewardship, licensing and marketing, and outreach relations, the school said.
The BAI’s founding executive director Richard Sudek retired on March 31. Under his tenure, its events space, The Cove, expanded from 1,500 to 100,000 square feet, the Wayfinder raised $25 million in equity funding and $8 million in grants, and its Industry Sponsored Research team helped execute more than $100 million in research contracts.
Sudek “is a force of nature, a visionary leader who provided the framework for the BAI to become a truly unique structure, not just among the UCs, but among academic institutions,” Arkilic told the Business Journal.
Arkilic, a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from San Francisco, comes from a 25-year entrepreneurial background. He’s the founder of M34 Capital, a seed-stage investment firm, Real Industry, a nonprofit focused on industry success for university students, and several startups.
“OC is really poised to take an enormous leap forward in innovation,” Arkilic said. “With a bit of collaboration, we can do a world of wonders. I’m excited to make it happen.”
Tustin’s fintech Happy Money named Jeff Winner as its interim CEO. Its founder and former Chief Executive Scott Saunders will remain as chairman of the board of directors.
Founded in 2009, Happy Money helps millions of Americans, in particular millennials, break up with their credit cards and reduce their debt levels, via unsecured personal loans in partnership with community-focused credit unions. It raised a $70 million Series D round two years ago, giving it a valuation of nearly $500 million at the time.
Its platform provides a “virtual financial coach” to help customers better manage their money, the company said. Its “human-centric, science-backed” approach has helped 150,000 members pay off over $3 billion in debt.
“Happy Money is poised for exponential growth, and I believe this is the optimal time to transition to a new CEO for the next chapter,” Saunders said in a statement dated Aug. 25.
Winner has 37 years of experience in technology and finance.
Prior to joining Happy Money as CTO in early 2020, he held leadership roles at Twitter and Goldman Sachs.
“Jeff has proven himself to be an incredible addition to our team, and I have complete confidence in him and the executive team,” Saunders added. “I’m proud of what we have built to date and want to thank and celebrate the Happy Money team, past, present, and future.”
Irvine’s GoDocs announced Aug. 31 a new CEO and venture investment.
GoDocs is an online provider of commercial loans. Its clients comprise major banks, credit unions and private money lenders among others, the company said.
Since its founding, it’s helped close over 60,000 loans, representing a total loan value of over $80 billion.
The growth investment came from M33 Growth, a Boston-based, growth-stage investment firm.
While details of the investment were undisclosed, GoDocs said the capital will help expand its line of loan documents to include business loans, lines of credit, and commercial and industrial loans. It will also support the integration of origination and loan servicing into its software.
The company last month hired Steve Butler as chief executive to lead the company alongside its founder and president, Gary Highland.
Prior to joining GoDocs, Butler founded the mortgage technology company AI Foundry in Wakefield, Mass.
“We are looking forward to further investing in our product, expanding our brand’s reach and adding a number of seamless integrations to our platform,” Highland said in a statement. “With M33 and Steve joining our team, we’re looking forward to accelerating growth.”
INVESTMENT
Fountain Valley-based Motive Companies, which operates a portfolio of renewal energy and infrastructure products, announced Sept. 10 it has made a strategic investment in Austin, Texas-based GenXComm, developer of dynamic filtering and Radio Frequency (RF)-photonics systems.
Motive Companies’ product portfolio includes solar photovoltaic, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicle & forklift charging, and other related products. It also provides energy storage and maintenance services.
The OC company led a $20 million Series B funding round, along with Raine Next-Gen Communications and BMW iVentures GenXComm, for GenXComm.
GenXComm says it’s the first company in the world to combine radio frequency and photonics to solve the problems associated with today’s wireless connectivity infrastructure.
“Enterprise and Industrial customers worldwide are investing in the digital transformation and full automation of business processes and decision systems,” CTO of GenXComm Hardik Jain said in a statement. “GenXComm’s 4G LTE and 5G cellular mesh systems will provide the enterprise WAN with the coverage, reliability, agility, and secure connectivity required to make this
transformation a reality.”
LAUNCH
Newport Beach’s Vocalytics announced Sept. 10 it is deploying its noise detection service to several hospital groups, starting with Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach and later Providence Mission Hospital. It will also expand to military branches and airports.
Founded in 2019, Vocalytics provides AI software that listens to ambient noise caught on microphones of security cameras, the company said. It then processes the data through its library of over 500 sound profiles to send real-time alerts to customers.
“Security cameras don’t see glass breaking or a gunshot behind it, while sound is 360 degrees,” Van West CEO and founder of Vocalytics told the Business Journal. “Cameras are a great tool – we’re making them even better.”
For security cameras built without a microphone, Vocalytics offers an Acoustic Sensing Device.
It’s also HIPAA and GDPR-compliant, meaning individual data privacy is guaranteed.
“Privacy is a fundamental human right and we’ve made it a pillar in our technology,” West noted.
It’s currently a finalist for the 13th annual SXSW Pitch event and was recently selected for Octane’s High Tech Awards beginning Sept. 23.
Also on the horizon, Vocalytics will open a “sizable seed round” in the first quarter next year, West said.
“Now, the time is finally right,” he added. “As the world is starting to reopen, there’s a lot more demand for our product.”
FUNDING
Irvine-based CoCoPie announced it’s closed a $6 million Series A funding round with the Sequoia China Seed Fund.
It was also awarded last month a $250,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation.
The capital will be put toward R&D; and growing CoCoPIE’s customer base, executives said.
CoCoPie, co-founded in 2020 by computer scientists Bin Ren and Xipeng Shen, offers software-enhanced artificial intelligence for mainstream mobile devices, which enhances the resolution and performance of live streaming, communication applications and video in real-time, the company says.
Its technology runs two to 30 times faster than other AI applications, even on low-end or middle-end smartphones, and it dramatically cuts back on computing power, according to Shen.
“These applications can outperform high-end AI devices,” Shen told Yahoo Finance on Sept. 8. “At the same time, these technologies can make these apps run much more energy-efficiently, so you can save four to 18 times energy consumption.”
The company says its technology can eliminate the need to buy a new smartphone every two years.
