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Monday, Feb 17, 2025
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STARTUPS & INNOVATIONS

PARTNERSHIPS

Agtools Inc., an Orange-based agricultural-focused supply chain and data analytics company, has inked an agreement with Mexico-based software company Global Hitss.

The deal enables Global Hitss to expand its portfolio of services with Agtools. The companies will also mutually benefit from each other’s analytics and integration services.

Agtools provides data and analytics to farmers, buyers, distributors, retailers, government agencies and financial firms to drive efficiencies in the global food and supply chain.

The company’s founder and CEO, Martha Montoya, received a 2020 Business Journal Innovator of the Year award for her work with Agtools, as well as a prior Business Journal Women in Business award.

Agtools, launched in 2018 at UCI’s Wayfinder incubator, is backed by Tech Coast Angels.

Mobile Global Esports Inc. (Nasdaq: MGAM), which was founded in San Clemente and is working to develop university esports competitions using mobile telephones in India, has signed a deal with Los Angeles-based Artemis Ave LLC.

The partnership aims to deliver a custom, social-gaming platform for the Indian university esports market, according to company officials. The platform allows users to interact via video and audio while playing games and watching tournaments. It’s powered by Los Angeles-based video and audio platform developer ZuCasa, which Artemis owns. The gaming platform touts compression technology that can reduce file sizes by as much as 65%, according to company officials.

“People who have older smartphones in India will have a better experience playing on our platform rather than on any of the others,” Mobile Global Esports CEO Dave Pross told the Business Journal last month, citing the platform’s advanced compression technology.

Mobile Global Esports, also known as MOGO, went public in July at $4 per share, raising $6 million in its IPO. The company intends to use the funds from its IPO to expand staff in India and pay for its marketing, streaming and event expenses, regulatory filings indicate.

At press time, shares in MOGO were $2.49 apiece, giving the company a $45 million market cap. In late August, the company announced a move of its headquarters from San Clemente to Connecticut.

ThinkIQ, an Aliso Viejo digital manufacturing software company, is teaming up with the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), the U.S. national organization for smart manufacturing, which is the practice of analyzing computer-integrated data to streamline manufacturing processes.

CESMII will license ThinkIQ’s technology to support its Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform (SMIP), which aims to drive the adoption of smart manufacturing across the U.S. with open interfaces and information models that provide cheaper, easier and faster alternatives to traditional applications to the manufacturing community.

The partnership also enables ThinkIQ customers access to CESMII’s smart manufacturing applications.

“We are proud to have been chosen by CESMII as a core technology partner to drive adoption of Smart Manufacturing by manufacturers of all shapes and sizes via the SMIP,” ThinkIQ CEO Doug Lawson said in a statement.

The company, founded in 2015, raised a reported $11.6 million in a Series A round in 2020.

SALE

Mobilogix Inc., an Irvine developer of IoT hardware and software, was acquired by Irvine-based IoT company Telit.

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

The deal intends to support Telit’s expansion into the burgeoning market of new and existing IoT adopters, company officials said. In turn, Mobologix will use Telit’s resources to not only streamline its project development process but to also reach a larger market.

“We built Mobilogix into a successful global business with razor sharp focus on creating competitive, custom IoT solutions quickly for customers in verticals like telematics, micro-mobility, healthcare, construction and agriculture, sourcing modules and connectivity from across the IoT value chain,” Mobilogix CEO Mathi Gurusamy said in a statement.

“Bringing solutions together with all-Telit modules, connectivity and platforms makes custom design much more efficient for our large and small customers to get to market.”
Mobilogix will shut down its offices and relocate its employees to Telit’s Irvine headquarters.

Telit moved its headquarters from London to Irvine earlier this year. Mobilogix, founded in 2011, moved from Pasadena to Irvine in 2016.

FUNDING

Chapman University alumnus Luis Barrera received a $100,000 grant from Google LLC’s inaugural Latino Founders Fund for his startup, New York City-based Splyt, an application that helps users split the bill.

“I’m from Peru, where food and moments around the table mean everything to us,” Barrera, Splyt co-founder and CEO, told Chapman.

“During the pandemic, restaurants brought the only sense of normalcy to our lives, and we hated seeing people walk away from the table upset because they overpaid or even embarrassed because they couldn’t afford to split it conveniently. It was clear that other solutions only addressed part of the problem and something like splyt needed to exist.”

Barrera, who has launched other ventures in custom apparel, e-commerce and tech at Chapman’s Launch Labs incubator, earned a business degree from the university in 2017.

Staffing Future LLC, a Newport Beach recruitment tech company, received an investment from Boston-based Bullhorn Ventures, a new fund started by software staffing firm Bullhorn, to support the delivery of its technology to more hiring firms.

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed. Staffing Future already was a partner with Bullhorn.

The company will use the funds to not only enhance its candidate acquisition and engagement technologies but also to grow its presence in Europe, Staffing Future officials said.

Staffing Future’s website design and jobs portal platform serves hundreds of hiring agencies throughout the U.S., U.K. and Europe, according to company officials.

Jack Copeland and Bruce Stander founded Staffing Future in 2017. The company says it has over 250 clients and 100 integrations across 40 countries.

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