FINANCING
Huntington Beach-based children’s shoemaker Baubles + Soles recently accepted $100,000 from Shark Tank’s Daymond John, who bought 25% of the company.
Lisa Nguyen started the company with her husband, Duc, after being frustrated by buying multiple pairs of shoes for their 1-year-old and 3-year-old girls, which they would quickly grow out of.
She came up with shoes paired with “baubles,” small trinkets or treasures in various shapes that attach to the front of the footwear to reinvent their look, making any pair usable “from playground to party.”
Shoes come with a patent-pending twist lock for interchangeability and are recyclable, slip-resistant and U.S.-made.
One pair of shoes with a heart-shaped bauble runs $49.99; additional baubles cost $12.99 to $16.99.
The company is hoping to expand its line for girls ages 5 to 8.
The investment will go toward that, digital marketing and “retooling the product,” Lisa Nguyen said.
Baubles + Soles made about $150,000 in 2018, its first year in business, and expects to double that in 2019.
2020’s focus is on domestic growth, Lisa said.
Career development platform LeggUp Inc. in Newport Beach has raised $2 million in seed funding for expansion, led by WFG Family Ventures.
LeggUp works with corporate clients to provide professional development opportunities to those firms’ workers as an employee benefit. After taking a personality assessment, employees are paired with career coaches and proprietary programs on empowerment, leadership, performance and career transition.
LeggUp makes “career growth programs more approachable [and] an attractive option for HR leaders and managers to transform their workplace culture,” Chief Executive Tom Finn said in a statement.
LeggUp is helmed by Finn, previously a vice president at Aetna, and Chief Operating Officer Viktor Bullain.
The company has a half-dozen employees and an office near Fashion Island.
Newport Beach-based health communications platform Curogram recently closed a $1.8 million seed round, to boost sales and marketing.
It was financed by private investors including about 80 medical professionals and Tien Tzuo, founder of enterprise software company Zuora (NYSE: ZUO) and former chief strategy and marketing officer at Salesforce.com.
“Our company’s brisk growth over the past 18 months signals a significant market demand for healthcare communication technology,” Chief Executive Shayan Nafisi said.
He said the buy-in from “a large group of strategic investors who deal with healthcare communication challenges daily and truly understand the value Curogram provides [will help build] the best healthcare messaging platform on the market.”
The platform, available via desktop, mobile app and text messaging, was created to increase patient engagement with physicians, front office staff at medical facilities, and providers. It includes HIPAA-compliant texting, online intake forms, appointment reminders, surveys for feedback and more.
Curogram claims to reduce phone call volume up to 50% and no-show rates up to 75%.
The company has about 20 employees in Southern California.
LAUNCH
Rancho Santa Margarita-based Aigo.ai recently took the wraps off its intelligent personal assistant or “chatbot with a brain,” as Chief Value Officer Srini Pagidyala calls it.
The company is raising a $10 million round for commercialization, plans to triple its team from 15 to more than 50, and is seeking more SoCal office space.
Aigo is said to differ from Amazon’s Alexa and similar products because it can remember past conversations, learn new information interactively and understand context rather than just individual words, Pagidyala said.
“Aigo elegantly bridges these massive cognitive gaps left by chatbots while customizing the experience,” he added. “It can remember user preferences like your favorite cake or iPhone connections, and it can learn that when you say ‘guac’ you really mean ‘guacamole.’”
The company is going for B2B sales and has signed several large enterprise customers in the last few months, including one of the largest banks in the world and one of the largest ecommerce gift retailers, it said.
Aigo said it’s seeing demand from various sectors; the ecommerce retailer is using it as a hyper-personalized concierge system available anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Pagidyala joined Chief Executive Peter Voss, a serial tech entrepreneur and AI pioneer, in 2017 to commercialize the venture.
