STARTUPS & INNOVATIONS

LAUNCH

Tagnos Inc. in Aliso Viejo wants to help employers enforce social distancing and safety standards. 

The company unveiled a new monitoring system, which is compatible with Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Zebra Technologies’ location tagging and sensing MotionWorks device line.

“We make it easy for organizations to monitor and enforce social distancing, as well as to automate contract tracing,” said Sheila Minton, president and chief operating officer of Tagnos. “By helping to prevent contagion from spreading, we can help create a safe and secure environment for everybody.”

Each employee with a MotionWorks device—such as a handheld barcode scanner—will receive an alert if they come within 6 feet of another person with a device. Collected data is saved on a dashboard, which can be used by employers to track alerts and violations.

“While COVID-19 is taking a huge toll on people and organizations, it is also paving the way for the adoption of innovations that can automatically diagnose issues in real-time and alert the right personnel so they can take immediate action,” Minton added.

Tagnos primarily develops software for improved workflow in hospitals. Its system uses tags, sensors, analytics and a database to track and display the location of patients and equipment.

Zebra is a close partner; the company’s venture arm has invested in Tagnos several times.

The firm, which has raised some $9 million since its start in 2010, counts Providence’s St. Joseph Hospital in Orange among its clients.

Irvine-based recruiting firm Jobot recently launched a new Mortgage Recruiting Division, aimed at filling positions in the mortgage and real estate industries. 

The company said it is currently looking to fill more than 1,000 positions for its clients. 

“We are uniquely positioned to assist our clients and candidates in the mortgage industry,” said Chief Executive Heidi Golledge. “With our [artificial intelligence] technology and some of the most experienced recruiters in the market, we can find processors, underwriters, funders and management within hours. We have more than 50,000 qualified mortgage candidates in our Jax system that can work remotely nationwide.”

Jobot recruiters use the company’s internal software system, called Jax, to speed the recruiting process. Jax identifies hot markets and matches ideal candidates with positions, while Jobot recruiters handle interpersonal elements such as direct communications between candidates and hiring managers. 

Golledge is a co-founder of two other startups: CareerBliss and Irvine-based Cybercoders, which was sold to professional service company ASGN Inc. for more than $100 million in 2013.

FINANCING

Immerse Inc., an Irvine-based developer of virtual reality software for educational and language-learning purposes, raised a $1.5 million Series A round of financing last month.

The round was led by Annapolis, Md.-based Eagle Venture Fund.

The company is considering raising an additional half a million dollars to support language-learning franchises in East Asia, according to Chief Executive Quinn Taber.

Immerse has in the past worked with Tokyo-based Sendai Ikuei Gakuen, one of the region’s more prominent high schools, and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ divisions in Asia.

It won several new clients in recent months: Immerse is offering language courses to students via Panama’s Ministry of Education and providing leadership and sales training to Microsoft employees under a one-year contract.

Taber founded Immerse in 2017. Immerse is part of the UCI Beall Applied Innovation Wayfinder program.

Seal Beach-based Cuddly Inc., a fundraising platform for animal shelters, closed a $4 million Series A round of financing last week. 

The round was led by Lead Edge Capital in Santa Barbara.

New funds will allow Cuddly to add fundraising consultants, boost marketing spend and improve its product experience. 

Brittney Latini will lead donor acquisition and supply chain partnerships as the new vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce.

Chief Executive John Hussey said, “Our goal is to help our sheltering partners improve their fundraising efforts through community, innovation, and technology. They are passionate about saving every animal and our role is to help provide the resources needed to achieve that objective.”

The company said it has raised more than $20 million on its platform from nearly 300,000 donors to support over 2,100 nonprofit animal shelters since 2014.

NEW HIRES

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Irvine recently brought on Aziz Mottiwala as chief commercial officer.

Mottiwala was previously chief commercial officer at Santa Monica-based Opiant Pharmaceuticals Inc. and head of commercial at Aliso Viejo-based Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. He spent 10 years at Allergan (now AbbVie Inc.) as vice president of marketing, where he helped its eyecare business grow to over $2 billion in annual revenue. 

The firm also named Elizabeth Yeu, an ophthalmologist with Virginia Eye Consultants and an advisor for Aliso Viejo-based business accelerator Octane, its chief medical advisor. 

Tarsus is developing TP-03, a drug that is designed to treat an inflammatory condition caused by certain types of mites that can live on eyelashes and inflamed glands in the eyelids.

The company also relocated its office and laboratory space to a 10,879-square-foot location near the Irvine Spectrum, across the street from Masimo Corp. 

In January, Tarsus raised a $60 million Series B round of financing with participation from Aliso Viejo-based Visionary Ventures; the Horowitz Group, a real estate investment firm in Newport Beach; and Vivo Capital in Palo Alto.

ACQUISITION

Irvine-based DocVerify Inc., a developer of an electronic notary platform, was acquired by Black Knight Inc. at the end of last month.

Financial terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

Black Knight (NYSE: BKI) is a data analytics and software provider for mortgage and loan services. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm sports a $13 billion market cap.

DocVerify’s remote notarization tools, which are built on its user verification and storage platform, will help Black Knight reduce forgery, fraud or theft for its clients, the company said.

“Digital documents are becoming the norm for conducting business in virtually all industries,” Black Knight Chief Executive Anthony Jabbour said in a statement. “Black Knight and DocVerify share a commitment to helping our clients move closer to a secure paperless environment through the digitization of the document validation process and a highly secure eNotary solution that our mortgage and real estate clients can leverage to offer a 100% digital closing.”