Tech roundup: Food robots, IHOP pancake apparel, Uber deals and more

by Hannah Levy
December 13, 2018
Los Angeles — The Riveter opens new female-focused co-working spaces
photo via riveter social

Startup The Riveter is bringing more ‘female-focused’ coworking spaces to LA

The Riveter, a coworking startup based in Seattle, announced $15 million in Series A funding this week. The company, which was founded by lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Amy Nelson, already has 2,000 members split across five coworking spaces in Los Angeles and the Seattle area. With the new funding, the company plans to open another 100. These new spaces, set to open by 2022,  are open to anyone but built with women in mind. “I want The Riveter to be the place people think of when they think of women and work,” Nelson told TechCrunch. [TechCrunch]

 

Los Angeles Postmates is building a robot
photo via postmates social

Postmates is designing a food delivery robot — with a genuinely on-the-nose robot name

On-demand food delivery company Postmates, which averages a staggering 4 million drop-offs a month, is rolling out a robot of its own — and we mean that literally. This robot rolls. The aptly named “Serve” delivery rover is being designed in the company’s new in-house lab and is expected to launch soon in Los Angeles. On the ethics of robot food delivery, the company’s VP of robotics opined: “Somehow, as a society, we are OK with the fact that we are moving a two-pound burrito with a two-ton car.” Thus, we have Serve. It’s small, lithe, shopping-cart-shaped — and honestly, whether or not it might be susceptible to malicious reprogramming or world domination, it’s pretty darn cute. [Wired]

 

Los Angeles AppOnboard breaking funding
photo via apponboard

Game developer platform AppOnboard raises $15M, buys a ticket to Seoul

AppOnboard, a demo platform for game developers, raised a $15 million Series B this week. The round was led by Breakaway Growth whose member, Paul Hayden, will be settling into a seat on the company’s board. “Our Series A was very focused on the platform — our engineering and technology. Our Series B is really about global expansion and growth,” COO Bryan Buskas said of the funding. That expansion plan includes the rollout of a new demo product and the opening of a new office in Seoul, South Korea. [Built In LA

 

Los Angeles — Evelyn Berezin, mother of the workd processor, passed away
PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

The tech world says goodbye to the woman who invented the first word processor

Evelyn Berezin’s work has had a lasting impact on generations of computer users — most notably, women. Berezin, who passed away this week, graduated from NYU with a physics degree in 1945 but her career path was not an easy one. After creating the first-ever computerized booking system for United Airlines, she accepted a job at the New York Stock Exchange, only to see that offer rescinded because, “The language on the [stock market] floor was not for a woman’s ears.”

She made her own success with the founding of Redactron, the company that went on to build the first modern word processor in 1969. Berezin’s machines were popular among secretaries in law firms and corporate offices, and were the first of their kind before IBM came to dominate the industry in the mid-‘70s. She was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2011. [Quartz]

 

Los Angeles car sharing companies Uber and Getaround merge
photo via shutterstock

Getaround and Uber grow partnership, expanding vehicle access in LA

Following a pilot run in May 2017, Uber and peer-to-peer car-sharing service Getaround are expanding their partnership into four new markets, Los Angeles and San Diego included. The deal follows the shuttering of Uber’s own internal car rental program, Uber Rent, last month — a trial that lasted less than nine months.

Vehicles enrolled with Getaround are equipped with hardware designed to unlock a car remotely using an iPhone, making it plum for integration with Uber’s app. The car-sharing company raised a whopping $300 million in funding earlier this year, with Toyota Motor Corporation among those participating in the round. (We spot a manufacturer, a distributor and a service provider — all tied up with a pretty bow.) [Tech Crunch]     

 

Los Angeles - Google Maps and Lime integrate
photo via shutterctock

Today in e-scooting: Google Maps integrates with Lime, and Razor joins the fray

The art of getting around changes every day, perhaps nowhere so much as in Los Angeles. Just this week, a new e-scooting company, Razor, entered the ride-sharing fray. (Razors aren’t technically “new” — they’re how most millennials learned to scoot — but they’re certainly new to this space.)

Also this week, Google added a new transit feature that directs users to their closest Lime scooter or bike and factors the device’s route into the user’s overall time estimate. It’s a huge feather in Lime’s cap — one that’s quite literally putting its scooters on the map. Los Angeles is one of 13 cities where the integration is being piloted, so stay tuned. [LA Biz Journal & The Verge]

 

Los Angeles brands are working together to create iHop pancake apparel
photo via ihop social

IHOP launches new pancake-related e-commerce arm — yep, you read that right

They’re fluffy, syrupy, a little pricey — and they look great on pajama bottoms. What are we talking about? IHOP’s classic short stack of pancakes, of course! The famously steepled pancake house is developing an IHOP-themed online retail business, the latest in a series of unconventional branding campaigns, which included a rebranding farce (IHOB, anyone?) earlier this year. The online push is led by Los Angeles-based marketing firm Bamko.

“There’s a universal, deeply rooted love for pancakes – and that was really the inspiration for a line of IHOP clothing and accessories that celebrate the best food ever,” IHOP’s executive director of communications said in a statement. [LA Biz Journal]

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