FUNDING
Fintech Finfare Inc. of Irvine reported March 9 it has raised $20 million in a seed funding round led by investment firm Digital Mobile Venture Ltd.
Digital Mobile Venture is run by Samuel Chen, who made a fortune as one of Zoom’s early investors. His stake in the company is currently worth around $900 million, Finfare’s Senior Marketing Manager, Sandra Porter, told the Business Journal via email.
The capital will support product engineering, data and operations, officials said.
“Finfare is in the business of making our payment and digital banking platform fun for everyone,” said Finfare Chief Executive Wayne Lin, who studied at UC Irvine and previously served as COO of Vacaville-based Polaris Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“Managing your money or banking can be fun when it’s simplified and easily accessible,” Lin said. “Getting rewards that generate a greater return from spending, while reducing transaction costs is how Finfare aims to make this experience enjoyable for our users.”
Founded in 2021, FinFare says it’s building an AI-driven spend management platform and a rewards program to serve North American companies. It plans to launch a physical and virtual card-issuing management tool in the fourth quarter of 2022, followed by scheduled releases of new features, functions, and products through 2023, officials said.
Irvine-based VR edtech startup Immerse VR announced March 10 it has closed a $9 million Series B round, bringing its total capital raised to $11.5 million.
The round was co-led by Eagle Venture Fund and Mustang Creek Capital, with participation from other undisclosed investors, officials said.
Launched in 2017 at UCI’s Wayfinder incubator, Immerse developed a VR English language learning platform. So far, it has partnered with language schools in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
“This funding positions us to execute on ambitious go-to-market plans while simultaneously getting us on the radar of the tech companies that are fueling the rise of VR,” founder and CEO Quinn Taber told the Business Journal via email.
The additional financing will enable Immerse to become the “foremost educator in the metaverse,” Taber said, as well as grow its team, innovate more products and launch its app onto other major VR platforms.
It is expected to release a French learning program this fall, followed by German, Japanese and Italian.
Entelexo Biotherapeutics Inc., biotech firm based out of UCI’s University Lab Partners, is seeking to raise $20 million this year in a preferred seed round.
The funding will help Entelexo to grow its team and develop a new class of drugs to address incurable autoimmune disorders, said Entelexo founder and CEO Milad Riazifar, a scientist who previously worked in cellular therapeutics at Duarte’s City of Hope.
“I always knew I wanted to start a company, so I quit my job and started Entelexo to functionalize what I learned in the last 10 years,” Riazifar told the Business Journal.
Founded in 2020, Entelexo’s therapeutics will use exosomes to inhibit harmful cells from attacking other tissues—something that occurs with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, diabetes and psoriasis, Riazifar said.
To date, Entelexo has raised a “few million dollars” in pre-seed funding and has three full-time scientists on staff. It was also accepted into the Mountain View-based Y Combinator—an accelerator with a slimmer acceptance rate than Harvard—and NYU’s Endless Frontier Labs, which provides mentorship from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Riazifar said.
The first drugs in its pipeline will address multiple sclerosis (MS) and a rare ocular surface disease with no current therapeutic on the market.
VENTURE CAPITAL
Irvine seed-stage venture capital firm Cove Fund said March 15 it will continue to raise money for its newest fund, Cove Fund III, throughout 2022 while actively investing in local companies.
Cove Fund III, launched last October, will surpass $30 million, according to Fund Manager Paul Voois and Venture Partner J.C. Ruffalo. Late last year, the new fund made its first investment, participating in a $3 million round for San Diego SaaS enterprise platform, Zesty.io.
“The deal flow has been phenomenal with J.C. on board and the brand we built,” Voois told the Business Journal. “We’re seeing hundreds of opportunities. The startup ecosystem remains very strong despite current headwinds, like inflation, interest rates and the war in Europe.”
According to Voois, Cove Fund bills itself as generalist, meaning it sees “investment opportunities from all parts of the market,” from SaaS and medical devices to semiconductors and telecom. Most of its investments occur in San Diego and Orange County.
It partners with a small but growing list of OC-based firms, including Kona, Okapi and Tech Coast Angels, Voois said, adding, “We like to collaborate whenever possible.”
FINTECH
FoodsPass Inc. —a fintech-foodtech app maker—has partnered with Houston’s grocery advertising network IndoorMedia and hired four interns ahead of its first seed round.
FoodsPass, founded in Newport Beach in 2020, is developing a mobile app that aggregates deals at local grocery stores and restaurants, and an open banking debit card, to create a unique product that merges payments and savings, according to founder and CEO Travis Siflinger.
Siflinger previously launched the marketing campaign for The Pure Bar, which Kellogg’s Kashi Foods acquired in 2016, and started several other companies, including bankruptcy alternative Flux Credit.
The beta-stage app, which went live on the Apple App Store and Google Play store late last year, currently counts some 2,100 users, the majority of whom are women over 25.
“In order to achieve the same result of our streamline solution, consumers must juggle five or more apps and take photos of offers,” Siflinger told the Business Journal, adding that food makes up 90% of all cardholders’ spending. “We estimate every typical family can save $1,000 on per year using FoodsPass.”
The card, slated to launch by mid-2022, guarantees up to 35% cashback, while the newer app will plug into users’ digital wallets, Siflinger said.
Former Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley is the newest investor and brand advisory team member in Elevate.Money, the Newport Beach real estate fintech platform reported March 15.
Another brand advisory team member is multi-platinum recording artist YG, officials said.
Elevate was launched in September 2021 by co-founders Harold Hofer, Alex Cruttenden and Sachin Jhangiani; it bills itself as an investment platform that allows users purchase shares of its private Real Estate Investment Trust with as little as $100.
“I’m partnering with Elevate.Money because of their commitment to financial literacy and my confidence in the team they have built around the company,” Gurley said in a statement. “When I heard the vision from Harold and Sachin, it resonated with me at a point in my life when I did not know where, what or how to start investing in my future self. I’ve been in many young investors’ shoes today.”
Last year, Elevate raised $1.7 million in seed capital from Acorns co-founder Walter Cruttenden, former Irvine Co. President Ray Wirta and others. Hofer and Wirta, who also served as CEO of brokerage giant CBRE Group Inc., have worked together at other CRE ventures targeting smaller-sized investors.
