PARTNERSHIPS
PatientFi—an Irvine-based healthcare fintech—reported April 6 an expansion of its co-marketing agreement with Irvine’s Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) company.
Founded in 2017, PatientFi, is a point-of-sale platform used by healthcare providers to offer their patients a financing alternative to pay for elective procedures.
Last February, the two companies began their partnership, which helped drive a 56% increase in Natrelle breast implants, officials said. The new expansion, which goes into effect this month, provides monthly payment plans for aesthetic treatments like Botox, Juvederm and CoolSculpting.
“We understand and know how to help practices unlock the power of payment plans. Removing the barrier of affordability for patients with our unique financing platform in combination with educating providers how to market their most popular procedures and treatments on a budget-friendly basis is the hallmark of PatientFi,” company President Scott Jorgensen said in a statement.
ACCELERATORS
Irvine-based real estate firm Revive announced April 11 its selection as one of eight firms in the U.S. REACH accelerator for 2022.
The selection “signals the enormous growth potential of concierge services,” Revive CEO Michael Alladawi said in a statement. “By already enhancing homeowners’ sale profits by more than $28 million, REACH can exponentially help us grow our business, maximizing success for homeowners and buyers—which can be life-changing for those consumers, and game-changing for their agents.”
Co-founded in 2019 by real estate industry veteran Alladawi and technology entrepreneur Dalip Jaggi, Revive helps homeowners renovate their pre-sale homes, additions which the company says can help add well over $100,000 to the price of their homes.
The U.S. REACH program focuses on accelerating the growth of real estate, finance, banking, home service and insurance companies. It’s operated by Second Century Ventures, the investment arm of the National Association of Realtors and the most active global real estate technology fund, according to officials.
San Francisco’s California Life Sciences is launching a free advisory program for life sciences startups throughout Orange County, and other SoCal markets this summer.
Since launching in 2013, California Life Sciences’ FAST program has helped create 96 companies and over 790 new jobs in the Bay Area. Now, the FAST program is expanding to Southern California, where it will run twice per year.
“For years we’ve been asked by startups and other life science stakeholders if we could bring FAST to Southern California … to support an ever-increasing pool of early-stage life science innovators who are hungry for customized commercialization advising and funding,” Senior VP of Innovation and Inclusion Lori Lindburg said.
The program was “like three accelerator programs parlayed together in one setting,” Nanopharma Solutions’ CEO Kay Olmstead, a FAST graduate, said. “The company-specific, tailored program allowed us to set weekly goals, and advisors were great accountability partners. Focused input by area experts helped us address our gaps.”
To lead the effort, the organization is hiring Sibylle Hauser, formerly of Richtr Financial Studio, and Stephanie Allen, formerly of Canvas Health.
FUNDING
Baby product subscription service 123 Baby Box placed first on Amazon Prime’s 2 Minute Drill, a television show where entrepreneurs compete for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.
The news comes after the Irvine-based company opened a $1 million seed round in late March.
123 Baby Box, a Wayfinder startup founded in 2020 by University of California, Irvine alumnus Zarina Bahadur, is a subscription box curated for babies ranging from newborns to 36-month-old toddlers.
The company reports growing 50% since February.
“I was honored to have won the show given the nature of the competition,” Bahadur said in a statement. “This investment will push our company to hypergrowth.”
123 Baby Box also placed first in UCI’s 2020 New Venture Competition, was nominated for the Business Journal’s 2021 Women in Business Award and was most recently accepted into New York-based consumer goods accelerator XRC Labs.
Bahadur plans to put the funding and resources she receives from the show towards growing her subscriber base, enhancing her marketing efforts and expanding her online and digital presence.
VENTURE CAPITAL
Ladera Ranch investment firm Okapi Venture Capital was among the participating investors in Slingshot Aerospace’s oversubscribed $25 million Series A-1 round last month.
The El Segundo-based aerospace firm, incorporated in 2017, provides space simulation and analytics solutions for the U.S. Airforce, NASA, and other entities.
The funding round was led by Tim Draper’s firm Draper Associates and ATX Venture Partners. Other participants included Edison Partners and Embedded Ventures.
Slingshot Aerospace will use the capital to accelerate the commercialization of its products and technologies, including Slingshot Beacon, the industry’s first space collision avoidance platform, officials said.
On March 31, the company announced securing another $25 million from the U.S. Space Force to develop its Digital Space Twin and Slingshot Laboratory.
EXPANSION
Trubify Inc. of Irvine is expanding into four global markets, according to the music streaming app’s first-quarter investor update.
Founded in 2020 by Steven Tyszka, Trubify says it pays musicians more than Spotify, Youtube, or any other streaming platform. It currently reports 600 artists and over 43,000 users.
As of April, Trubify has completed its launch into the Caribbean and Africa, while its expansion into the United Kingdom and South America is currently underway, the company said.
“We have been very strategic about growth for the platform, but we are growing even faster than anticipated,” Tyszka said in a statement. Trubify “is bringing its artist-first technology to new and emerging worldwide markets so that more and more creators can feel rewarded, nurtured, and fairly compensated for their work.”
To date, Trubify has raised a total of $16 million between a Series A round closed last month in partnership with the county’s largest accelerator, Octane OC, and a seed round led by Irvine-based Cove Fund.
