Irvine-based software startup Integrien Corp. recently raised $8 million in venture funding.
The round was led by Menlo Park-based Clearstone Venture Management Services, with additional investment from Missouri’s Acartha Group LLC and the venture arm of St. Louis-based Mariner Private Equity LLC.
Integrien’s software helps manage e-commerce, stock trading and other programs that are costly if they fail.
The software crunches data and tells technology workers when to pay attention and what to pay attention to in order to head off problems.
Integrien doesn’t disclose financials. It said it saw sales grow 140% in 2009 and that the company inked “a number of seven-figure deals with Fortune 100 companies.”
The Business Journal estimates Integrien has raised nearly $40 million in venture funding to date, including the latest round. The company plans to use the latest money raised to boost sales.
It targets customers in healthcare, banking, payment processing and online retail—including locals Western Digital Corp. and QLogic Corp. as well as Microsoft Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., eBay Inc.’s Shopping.com, Qualcomm Inc. and Baxter International
Inc.
In March, Integrien added Orange County software veteran Lee Roberts to its board.
Roberts is former chief executive at Costa Mesa’s FileNet Corp., which was bought by IBM Corp. for $1.5 billion in 2006.
Last month Integrien snagged another former FileNet executive. It hired Phil Rugani as executive vice president of sales and field operations.
Rugani is set to head the company’s sales, professional services, customer support, resale and channel operations.
Prior to joining Integrien, Rugani was chief executive at Wheaton, Md.-based Jupiter Management Consulting Group, which specializes in startup businesses.
Rugani also was vice president of IBM’s Americas enterprise content management division after IBM acquired FileNet.
He’s also held posts at Oracle Corp. and IBM’s Informix Inc.
Toshiba’s Consolidation
Starting in July, Japan’s Toshiba Corp. is set to combine two consumer electronics divisions, including a big business unit in Irvine.
Irvine’s Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., which designs and markets laptop computers, will combine with Wayne, N.J.-based Toshiba America Consumer Products LLC, which makes TVs, Blu-ray players, TV/DVD combo products and portable DVD players.
The move “is designed to take full advantage of ongoing digital convergence in the U.S. market by combining the resources of each company,” the company said.
The consumer products unit is set to be folded into a division of Toshiba America Information Systems in Irvine as of July 1. It’s unclear what will happen to the New Jersey site.
It also is unclear what the move means for Toshiba’s Irvine campus, which has some 1,500 workers spread across four business units that make printers, fax machines, projectors, telecommunications gear, external portable storage drives and other office products.
Calling on Angels
The first award named for Tech Coast Angels founder Luis Villalobos, who died in October, was given earlier this month.
The Angel Capital Association, a San Francisco-based trade group, raised an initial round of funds for Seattle’s Modumetal Inc., a maker of a specialized alloy metal used as a replacement for steel.
Modumetal was the inaugural winner for having the “most innovative idea” by the association. The amount of the round wasn’t disclosed.
The award was established earlier this year to honor Villalobos, who started Tech Coast Angels, a loose group of angel investors in Southern California. Richard Sudek, current chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, is chair of the Luis Villalobos Award committee.
Modumetal makes an alloy that is stronger and lighter than steel. It’s aimed at replacing other metals in military armor.
There’s also an endowed fellowship in Villalobos’ name for a masters of business administration student at the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.
Vizio in Canada
Irvine’s Vizio Inc., a maker of flat TVs and related accessories, recently launched a Web site catering to Canadians, including a French-language version.
The site is set to help drive Vizio’s sales push into Canada, where it began selling late last year.
“We recognize Canada is an extremely important market for Vizio,” said Steven Joe, Vizio’s international vice president. “Our goal is to bring our high-value, high-performance proposition to Canadian consumers and to become a key provider of HDTVs and electronics throughout the country.”
A new executive at Vizio, Joe hails from Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems Inc., a maker of networking gear for consumers that’s part of Taiwan’s D-Link Corp.
Joe was chief executive and president at D-Link and spent more than two decades at the company before a restructuring last year that saw a shakeup in executive ranks.
