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It's officially more than halfway through 2015 and as the summer doldrums take hold, we thought it was time to look back at how LA tech has been doing so far.
We created a list early in the year of the top 50 startups (that were less than five years old) we thought could make some big moves in 2015. Today we're looking back at who has had news so far:
Launches:
DogVacay expanded their services to cat-sitting with the launch of CatVacay in March.
Kin Community launched it’s Kin Studios in July followed by their launch of “Makers and Bakers,” a year-long program that will have select Kin creators producing videos featuring unique baking and DIY creations.
Playsino launched Bingo Home for Samsung Smart TVs in January.
Pluto TV launched a Hulu add-on to their platform in July.
RadPad partnered with ApplePay in March to allow roommates to easily split rent.
TasteMade was added to AppleTV’s lineup in March.
WhipClip announced a partnership with TBS to launch new content.
Funding in 2015:
AssetAvenue: $11M, April 11
Cargomatic: $8M, January 29
Dollar Shave Club: $75M, June 21
Gem: $1.3M, April 3
Honk: $12M, March 26
Laurel & Wolf: $4.4M, February 10
Nativo: $20M, June 30
RadPad: $9M, April 22
SGN: $130M, July 23
Tapiture: $2.8, May 8
Tradesy: $30M, January 27
WhipClip: $40M, July 7
Zealot: $26.5M, July 7
Acquisitions:
Daqri acquired ARToolKit in May. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Yeti was acquired by an investment group in July led by Santa Monica’s JA Partners and Seattle’s Edgewater Ventures.
Zealot has had a busy seven months, acquiring ViralNova, Converge Media, Threshold Interactive, GoTee Records, KINGMgmt, SoutherMade, and others.
Leadership changes:
Cargomatic hired Sean Whiteley as their COO in June. Whiteley served as COO of TigerText, vice president of operations for Slingshot Labs, CEO and co-founder of RealtyTracker and vice president of operations of Xdrive Technologies.
Scopely hired Kixeye GM Bernard Chen as the company’s GM and VP of Production.
Whisper hired former Farmville lead Jaime Mendez to be the company’s new Head of Product.
New offices:
Daqri opened a new European headquarters in Dublin in May.
Hovelstay expanded overseas to offices in London and Dubai in May.
Have a tip for us or know of a company that deserves coverage? Email us via [email protected]
