LAUNCH
Octane, Orange County’s largest tech and medtech business accelerator, has unveiled a product of its own, a software that helps determine the likelihood of success for a startup.
Dubbed Haystax, it’s a SaaS “that predicts a startup’s probability of receiving capital and becoming an operational entity with 90% accuracy,” according to Octane, which says the product was developed “using our Capital Readiness Rubric and our historical database of over nearly 2,000 companies.”
The product has uses for accelerators, startups and investors alike, according to Octane, which notes that companies it has assisted over the years have raised over $4.3 billion in revenue and had over $3.5 billion in exits.
Octane, founded by Dwight Decker, Matt Massengill, Jim Mazzo, Tom Moebus and Mike Mussallem, is celebrating its 20th year of operations.
The product is now live at www.haystax.ai; it was unveiled during Octane’s High Tech Awards event on Sept. 29. It’s Octane’s first-ever product.
Batch22, a maker of spirits, has kicked off sales of its first product: Classic Gold, an American version of Scandinavian aquavit.
The drink is the brainchild of co-founder and CEO Matthew Arkin, who worked on the recipe at his LA-area home during the pandemic. Arkin, the son of actor Alan Arkin and who also counts a lengthy acting resume, soon brought in friends Bruce Glassman and Marc Marosi as partners. “Marc and Bruce brought their expertise and passion to the project and helped to develop the final prototype batch, which was, in fact, the 22nd recipe,” hence the company name.
With the trio living between LA and San Diego, the company is planning to put its headquarters in Irvine, Arkin tells the Business Journal. The aquavit is produced in Fullerton.
Batch 22 held a launch party at Irvine’s Bistango restaurant last month, drawing a sizeable crowd.
Arkin, who has served as an adjunct professor at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University, as well as Director of the Acting Intensive Program at South Coast Repertory, says Batch 22 is planning to showcase its aquavit-based cocktails at South Coast Repertory in the coming season.
FUNDING
Renata Medical Inc., a Santa Ana medtech company, has raised over $11.5 million in equity, according to regulatory filings.
The company hasn’t disclosed what it will use the new funds for. Renata Medical is developing a device that aims to minimize the number of surgeries children with congenital heart disease (CHD) typically undergo.
“Every year in the United States, over 40,000 children are born with congenital heart disease,” the company said on its website. “Today, the market is not focused on addressing this issue—60% of the devices implanted in these children are either off-label or not specifically devised for pediatric applications. As a result, congenital patients may need multiple invasive and costly surgeries.”
The company last month won the award for Outstanding Innovation in Medical Technology/Life Sciences at Octane’s High Tech Awards.
Renata Medical, founded in 2019, has raised nearly $16 million to date. The company’s CEO, Dustin Armer, has served as an engineer at General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW). Armer began his nearly 12-year stint at Edwards Lifesciences as a technical data package engineer, working his way up to senior manager of research and development.
HQ MOVES
M8 Systems Inc., an Irvine agtech startup, is planning to move its headquarters to Bakersfield within the next few years, according to local newspaper The Bakersfield Californian.
The move will bring the company closer to its customer base: farmers. Kern County, which Bakersfield is a part of, generated $7.7 billion through agricultural commodities in 2020, according to the 2020 Kern County Crop & Livestock report.
Chief Executive Max Safai said he hopes to hire six people in Bakersfield by the end of the year. He projects that by 2024, about 20 M8 Systems employees, or three quarters of its workforce, could be working in the city. No agreement, however, has been finalized to move the company’s headquarters.
“We want to have a close relationship with the city of Bakersfield, and we also want to be where the action is in the Central Valley,” Safai told The Bakersfield Californian.
The company plans to retain a small Irvine footprint, housing employees in software engineering, HR, sales and finance, partly to attend to the company’s San Diego customers.
M8 Systems aims to reduce irrigation costs to farmers with its product, FarmLink, which uses IoT tech to analyze weather information. Its software is designed to detect leaks, alert nearby farmworkers and automatically shut off pipes when they are damaged.
Safai founded M8 Systems last year. He previously served as the VP Hardware Engineering, Manufacturing and Operations for Amazon Go at Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), where he is credited for developing the company’s cashier-less retail stores.
EXEC HIRES
Unconditional, a Laguna Beach-based dog rescue group that got 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2019, has named Peter Chang as its executive director.
Chang was most recently CEO at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC), where he oversaw the Laguna Beach organization’s animal welfare programs, collaborative research initiatives, and science-based education curriculum. He also led PMMC’s largest capital campaign, a $7.5 million effort to fund expansion of its facility along Laguna Canyon Road, and the addition of a water reclamation system.
Unconditional’s mission is “to build a world where people see the value in senior and special dogs, and to ensure each has a chance to find a loving home.” It is prepping to start construction of a brand-new adoption center on Laguna Canyon Road, next to PMMC’s facilities.
Designed “to look more like a home than a rescue facility,” the two-story, 8,000-square-foot building will house up to 40 dogs as the organization works to find them homes.
Unconditional anticipates that at scale, it will be rescuing and adopting out more than 1,000 senior and special needs dogs every year
Locals Amy and Julian Mack started Unconditional; the latter is CEO of Irvine’s JustFoodForDogs, one of the country’s fastest-growing pet food companies.
“It’s overwhelmingly tragic what’s happening to senior and special needs dogs in shelters around the country, and people don’t realize it,” Chang said. This “is an opportunity to infuse the community with positivity and rally together as we work to support these incredible dogs.”
PARTNERSHIPS
BookingPal, an Irvine vacation rental software company, linked up with Airbnb Inc. (Nasdaq: ABNB).
The San Francisco-based online vacation rental marketplace last month welcomed BookingPal into its partnership network, the Preferred Software Program, which counts 30 global companies.
The alliance has allowed BookingPal to integrate Airbnb’s reviews system into the company’s platform, enabling property managers to read and respond to Airbnb reviews on BookingPal’s site.
“Reviews have a profound impact on the financial success for property managers’ listings, but it is often forgotten as travelers’ transition back to their daily lives once a trip concludes, and property managers focus on the next booking,” BookingPal CEO Alex Aydin said in a statement.
BookingPal, founded in 2013, has raised a total of $22 million in funding. The company’s last funding round, in 2019, was a Series D, where it raised $12 million. Board members include local tech and real estate entrepreneur Mark Moshayedi.
BookingPal is Aydin’s third venture. He previously founded Irvine provider of data server appliances Procom Technology Inc. in 1987 and co-founded Santa Ana mortgage comparison site Icanbuy Corp. in 2006.
