FINANCING
Tustin-based RedApple Digital Health Inc. has raised $500,000 in seed funding for its Tinder-like platform that connects and matches healthcare providers with patients.
The platform is expected to launch out of beta next year, starting in Orange County. It is compatible with Apple, Android, and web platforms.
Currently, patients scour Google and sites such as Zocdoc to find local practitioners; nobody is matching patients’ requirements with healthcare providers and vice versa, according to Chief Executive Asad Zaidi.
Using the RedApple platform, patients can search for pricing, timing and locations that meet their needs, and providers can do the same to help fill empty waiting rooms.
Notably, the platform helps patients without health insurance find doctors that will treat them.
In the future, the company plans to implement an AI matching feature that uses customer insights to enhance its search function and provide better patient-practitioner matches, said Product Manager Asif Razzaq.
Zaidi, who is also the CEO of biomedical company Epinex Diagnostics Inc., founded RedApple last year. Throughout his career, he has developed heart valves, oxygenators and catheters for companies including Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT), and subsidiaries of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE: BDX). He is a University of California-Irvine alum.
The company is currently seeking developers and marketers to join the team. It plans a Series A round of funding soon.
Pi Variables Inc., a developer of road safety technology, was recently accepted into the Urban-X accelerator in New York, and received a $150,000 cash infusion.
The Tustin-based company has released its Attenuator Impact Management System, or AIMS, a cloud device that can be placed at the ends of roadside barriers, also known as attenuators, to detect when it has been hit, and notify transportation personnel to assess damages.
Founder and CEO Jim Selevan said that drivers often hit barriers in a non-disabling way, and drive off. This can lead to fatalities in future crashes when the barriers are not properly maintained.
The company, which also sells a series of roadside “lamps” or flares, is also developing a Curve Advanced Warning System, or CAWS, in which lamps are posted on barriers along sharp curves, and automatically turn on to alert drivers of the conditions ahead.
AIMS and CAWS are Internet of Things technologies being used in a pilot program with PennDOT.
Selevan said that Pi Variables’ products are used by government departments, in addition to trucking companies and transportation businesses. The company was founded in 2012 and brought its products to market in 2015. Since then, its revenue has doubled every year.
Selevan leads the company alongside two of his sons, Chief Operating Officer Daniel Selevan and Chief Technology Officer Adam Selevan. The company has 15 employees, and is seeking funds to add more team members and grow its business.
NEW HIRES
Automotive fintech Digital Motors Corp. has brought on Hinrich Woebcken as a senior adviser and investor.
Prior to joining the Irvine-based startup, Woebcken was president and CEO at Volkswagen Group of America Inc., where he overhauled and revamped the Volkswagen brand in North and Central America.
He has also served in executive roles at BMW Group for nearly a decade.
“Digital Motors is an exceptional auto tech company and I’m excited to be part of this team of digital game changers,” Woebcken said in a statement last month. “This flexible digital retailing solution lets car dealers easily expand their physical stores into the digital world, driving efficiency, increasing conversion, and improving customer satisfaction.”
Digital Motors, profiled in the Oct. 21 print edition of the Business Journal, is building a business-to-business platform that provides online storefronts to dealers. The company is helmed by former AutoGravity Corp. executives Andy Hinrichs and Nick Stellman.
Irvine-based Modulim, formerly known as Modulated Imaging Inc., has promoted Richard Oberreiter from chief operating officer to chief executive. David Cuccia, founder and former chief executive, is transitioning to the chief technology officer role to focus on research and development.
Oberreiter will oversee commercialization efforts of the company’s Clarifi Imaging System, while Cuccia will work to “extend the reach of Clarifi” to areas such as burn wounds, oncology, surgical guidance, dermatology and more.
The system, which uses spatial frequency domain imaging to detect and display areas in the body that lack proper blood flow, is currently being used to prevent diabetic foot ulcers by detecting areas with poor circulation, so that doctors can determine or change course of treatment before amputation is necessary.
The Clarifi Imaging System received FDA approval last year, and recently qualified for Medicare reimbursement.
Modulim has also created a six-person medical advisory board.
Members include Chair Jeffery Lehrman; former American Podiatric Medical Association President Matthew Garoufalis and Jennifer Spector, president of the American Association of Women Podiatrists.
PARTNERSHIPS
Locate Inventory, an end-to-end inventory and workflow management system provider, has been steadily adding clients, and is on track to reach 1,000 users by year’s end, company officials tell the Business Journal.
The Locate system provides tools for order fulfillment and management, including shipping and packing, and manufacturing and purchasing supply. It also connects with financial software such as QuickBooks.
The Laguna Hills-based company recently added a new client, Wurkin Stiffs, a developer of magnetic collar stays and tie bars for men, to its roster. The Florida-based Wurkin appeared on “Shark Tank” in 2017, and continues to do well as a small, niche brand, according to CEO Jonathan Boos.
Boos said that Locate’s system “checked every box, and then some, because the team comes to you.”
The company also recently onboarded Culver-City based Splash Lab, a company that designs high-end, eco-friendly bathroom products and storage systems.
Locate has about 13 employees, and has been bootstrapped and funded by friends and family thus far.
UCI Beall Applied Innovation recently welcomed four new teams to its early-stage startup incubator, UCI Wayfinder. At least one member from each team is affiliated with the University of California-Irvine.
The startups include:
• Hydroflow, maker of a water bottle accessory that keeps track of water intake during physical activity.
• UnoKiwi, a mobile app that allows users to create and market clothing with personal photos and customizable fonts and colors.
• Slanted Adaptor, a developer of a device that helps clinicians comfortably perform injections without straining their wrists.
• UniSafe, a safety app that alerts users to areas with high crime levels and registered sex offenders, created by college students for college students.
UniSafe won first place in the Business Products & Services category at the Beall Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s annual New Venture Competition at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business last year.
