STARTUPS & INNOVATIONS

LAUNCH

Tustin-based fintech app Float has launched its beta iOS version, which allows users to track their credit scores, and the credit scores of friends, family, and others who give them permission. An Android app is on the way.

Founder Max Ukropina shares his credit record with everyone, so that they make their first friend as soon as they join the platform.

Ukropina previously spent four years as a director of business development at Irvine fintech Acorns, which is fast approaching unicorn status. He has been developing the app since last year, working closely with Tustin-based web development team UpTech Works.

Current investors include Acorns co-founders Jeff Cruttenden and Walter Cruttenden, SoFi co-founder Dan Macklin, the “Go brothers” of real estate firm PropertyRate, and Mike Gleason of Consumer Brands LLC. Float is also working with the new OC4 Venture Studio, headed by OCTANe board member Carey Ransom and Kyle Kamrooz, co-founder of CloudVirga.

Ukropina said he wants Float to give consumers more control over their credit information and allow them to use it beyond just lending and housing.

Float opens up the conversation about credit scores, and allows an extra set of eyes on credit scores for users and their loved ones; for example, a parent might monitor the credit of a college-aged child, or a user might want to check out a potential roommate before the move in.

To keep the app free for consumers, Float also suggests financial products like debt consolidation, credit cards, or mortgage loans for users based on their credit score and financial goals. The company is in the process of closing a seed round.

Nui Cookies has launched a new line of low-carb, sugar-free cookies, including chocolate chip and snickerdoodle flavors. Orders will start shipping on Oct. 29.

The company’s former product line has been discontinued. 

Nui Cookies was formed in 2016 by Victor Macias and Kristoffer Quiaoit. The company has raised about $100,000 on Kickstarter and appeared on “Shark Tank” last year. It is located along Santa Ana’s 4th Street and has three employees.

Recipes for the new cookies use a natural sweetener called allulose and has been in development for about a year and a half, according to Marketing Manager Valerie Bui. She added that the team considered customer feedback, and created a new recipe that “isn’t so crumbly” and “tastes like junk food,” despite its healthy ingredients and keto-friendly formula. 

An eight-pack of cookies retails for $24.95 online. Double chocolate and peanut butter flavors are in development, and longer term, the company is considering opportunities in retail and wholesale. It’s also expecting to enter global markets next year.

The company is currently seeking strategic investors.

FINANCING

Irvine-based Nfluence, a marketing technology platform that helps gaming and esports influencers monetize their livestreams, has secured $500,000 from Orange County angel investors in the first month of its seed round. The round is still open.

Nfluence is currently developing an application with artificial intelligence and machine learning that allows brands to automate and track marketing campaigns while connecting with game-streaming influencers.

Without Nfluence, or a platform like it, millions of micro-influencers have no chance to monetize their content.

Nfluence is led by entrepreneurs Ethen Yao and Stephen Tyszka and AI expert Khalid Malik. The team has some noteworthy members on its board of directors, including Paul Sams, former chief operating officer at Blizzard Entertainment; Mike Gleason, chief executive of ATM.com; and Ed Kiernan, founder of Engine Shop.

Walter Cruttenden, founder of fintech apps Acorns and Blast, serves as an adviser along with Anthony Gin from Upfront Ventures.

The company expects to unveil its platform next year, following the release of its first prototype in November. Several esports and gaming influencers have committed to the 2020 launch, and with the market still relatively untapped, Nfluence projects significant growth.

In 2018, the industry grew 40% year-over-year. Accordingly, Nfluence believes it is well positioned to serve game streamers and provide brands with deeper market penetration. The company projects more than $1 million in revenue in its first year in business.

UCI Beall Applied Innovation last month received a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund.

The funding is dedicated to the education and support of women-led startups, and will focus on making participants aware of Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer funding opportunities. The money will not go into startups themselves.

“The SBA is a strong ally to startups and an important partner to us in our goal to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the STEM field,” said Richard Sudek, executive director of UCI Beall Applied Innovation.

Applied Innovation plans to amplify personal mentorship and facilitate relationships with industry veterans and active investors, among other services, with the cash infusion. SBA’s Small Business Development Center at Applied Innovation also provides business development and planning services.

A total of $3 million was split among 60 accelerators and incubators across 39 states and territories.

OFFICE SPACE

Aracari Biosciences Inc. is moving out of UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute, but it’s not traveling far.

The company, which aims to better predict drug efficacy and toxicity through its “body on a chip” technology, is relocating next month to a private lab suite at the new wet lab incubator by University Lab Partners at UCI Research Park.

Co-founder Abe Lee said the company has “outgrown its space” and looks forward to working in “a more commercial environment.”

The new facility also gives Aracari cost-effective, state-of-the-art technical resources when research testing drugs for pharmaceutical companies, according to Lee, which is how the company generates revenue. 

Aracari’s product mimics blood vessels and vascularized micro organs and tumors, so the company can deliver and evaluate drugs in an environment that closely resembles the human body. The company is primarily focused on how a drug “targets and kills cancerous tumors” said Lee. 

The company was co-founded by Lee, Steve George and Chris Hughes, who is also the chief scientific officer. G. Wesley Hatfield serves as chief executive officer.

Aracari is in a “healthy spot” financially, and plans to provide precision medicine services within a couple of years, according to Lee.

ACQUISITION

Saturn Satellite Networks, with facilities in California and Colorado, recently announced plans to acquire Los Alamitos-based NovaWurks, a provider of high-technology space products and services, on undisclosed terms.

Reports put the value of the deal well into the seven figures. 

The startup will become a subsidiary of Saturn upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to take three years. 

Talbot Jaeger, founder and chief technical architect at NovaWurks, invented spacecraft building blocks called Hyper-Integrated Satlets, or HISats, that snap together and can be used for a variety of space-travel related projects.

Saturn will use the company’s platform to further the development of its own nationsat geostationary earth orbit (GEO) system, which will serve customers that do not need multi-ton communications satellites. GEO satellites have a smaller coverage footprint, but cost significantly less than the former.

“Our limitless ambitions are merged with [Jaeger’s] unmatched technical genius,” Tom Choi, executive chairman at Saturn, said in a statement. “We aim to change and better the world by making affordable space communications services a reality.”

NovaWorks’ HISats will continue to be sold to NASA, the U.S. military and other customers.