FUNDING
Space and Time, a Newport Beach blockchain-powered data analytics company, has completed a $20 million funding round led by Microsoft Corp.’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) venture capital arm M12, according to national reports.
The company, which places its valuation at $300 million, said it will use the funding to hire more engineers.
Space and Time, which touts itself as a decentralized data platform, plans to integrate with Microsoft’s cloud-computing service, Azure, to allow users to manage analytics on blockchain-stored data.
The company expects to release its flagship product next fall; alpha and beta launches are planned for the end of this year and spring next year, respectively.
Space and Time, founded this year, has raised $50 million in funding to date.
The company’s CEO and co-founder, Nate Holiday, also serves as a go-to-market adviser for management consulting firm Bain & Company and as a strategic adviser for blockchain company Chainlink Labs, whose startup program has supported Space and Time. Holiday has held exec roles and cloud data company Teradata and healthcare payment processing company Alegeus Technologies LLC.
Bid My Listing Inc., a Newport Beach real estate tech company, has secured $15 million in a recent funding round led by investment firm Deer Park Road Management Company LP.
The funding will help Bid My Listing scale its team, tech and partnerships, company officials said.
The company’s online platform, launched in June, allows real estate agents to bid on listings from homeowners who are ready to sell, company officials said. Owners are paid upfront once they choose a bid from an agent.
“Since its launch, Bid My Listing has generated more than 2,000 listings from motivated homeowners looking to connect with real estate agents representing just over half a billion dollars in property value,” founder and CEO Matt Proman said in a statement.
Bid My Listing, founded last year, has raised $20 million to date. Its first funding round, in which the company raised $5 million, was also led by Deer Park.
Proman, serves as the chief executive at property management firm Quest Asset Management Inc. He previously co-founded and led New York-based publishing startup Cambridge Publishing and has held exec roles on the National Association of Professional Women and Professional Diversity Network.
EXPANSION
Recycle From Home LLC, a Santa Ana door-to-door recycling company, is looking to quadruple its customer base to 10,000 by next year, the company told Spectrum News.
Recycle From Home, whose officials tout the company as the “Amazon of recycling,” currently counts around 2,500 customers. It’s recycled 1.2 million beverage containers to date.
“We’re not actually taking business away from existing recycling centers, but we’re creating new recyclers who wouldn’t have done it before because of the added level of convenience,” Recycle from Home President Ryan Cooper told Spectrum News.
The door-to-door pickup service, founded in 2020, is currently only available in Irvine.
Users sign up online and receive 10 trash bags with instructions to separate waste by glass, plastic and aluminum. Company drivers then pick up the bags on a regular basis, sometimes once a month, and recycle the materials at the company’s Santa Ana facility.
Customers are then paid via Venmo or PayPal account, or with a check; Recycle From Home takes 10% of the proceeds.
PARTNERSHIPS
Melax Technologies Inc., a Houston-based provider of natural language processing (NLP) software, is teaming up with the University of California, Irvine to improve patient care through its platform that analyzes patient records.
The partnership allows UCI to use Melax’s text annotation tool, LANN, and AI-powered language processor, CLAMP, to analyze the university’s electronic health records system. NLP software uses AI to quickly analyze large amounts of data.
“There has been a strong desire among UCI researchers to have the capability to analyze free-text clinical narrative data using cutting-edge NLP technologies,” UCI Chief Research Information Officer at UCI Health Affairs Kai Zheng said in a statement.
Melax this year also inked partnerships with the University of Western Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University Medical Center for similar projects.
The company, founded in 2017, has received a total of $600,000 in funding to date, through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The company’s CEO, Andre Pontin, has served in VP roles in drug monitoring software company DoseMe LLC and healthcare tech company Seremedi Inc.
STUDIES
Hugel America Inc., a Newport Beach medical aesthetics firm whose parent company is a competitor to Botox, earlier this month presented data from its Phase 3 clinical trial, BLESS III, at the annual American Society for Dermatologic Surgery meeting.
The trial assessed the efficacy of its treatment, letibotulinumtoxinA, for facial lines around the eyebrows, known as glabellar lines.
“Hyperfunctional glabellar frown lines can transmit facial miscues that adversely affect emotional communication and facial attractiveness, increase perceptions of age and diminish self-esteem,” BLESS III lead author Dr. Sue Ellen Cox said in a statement. “The BLESS III study included a comprehensive assessment of letibotulinumtoxinA’s efficacy on this important aspect of glabellar lines using multiple measures of psychologic impact.”
The South Korean parent company of Hugel America earlier this year appointed ex-Allergan chairman and CEO Brent Saunders as the company’s chairman of the board.
Hugel America was founded in 2018 as a joint venture between its parent company and Austrian aesthetic medicine company Croma-Pharma GmbH. Hugel America aims to develop and commercialize botulinum toxin, hyaluronic acid fillers, and additional aesthetic portfolio products in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Jihoon Sohn, CEO of Hugel’s parent company, has previously served as the chief executive of South Korean drugmaker Dongwha Pharmaceutical Co.
HQ MOVES
Octane, Orange County’s largest tech and medtech business accelerator, plans to move its headquarters from Aliso Viejo to Newport Beach, near John Wayne Airport, CEO Bill Carpou said.
“We’re almost tripling the amount of space that we have,” Carpou told the Business Journal. “On a hybrid schedule, we just require more space.”
The new location, at 4041 MacArthur Blvd., is part of LPC West’s Redstone office campus, near the Irvine and Newport Beach city line. It will better allow Octane to be closer to the companies it supports, Carpou said.
Over 60% of Octane’s startups are based in Irvine, he said.
Octane, founded by Dwight Decker, Matt Massengill, Jim Mazzo, Tom Moebus and Mike Mussallem, recently celebrated its 20th year of operations. Octane says businesses it has assisted over the years have raised over $4.3 billion revenue and had over $3.5 billion in exits.
