Quibi reached a settlement this week in the long-running legal dispute over its signature "Turnstyle" feature.
Quibi
Quibi settled a lawsuit that lasted longer than the company did.
Appetize processed a sale of its own.
And Grow Credit raised more than a hundred million dollars to, well, grow credit.
Here’s what Los Angeles-area tech companies got up to this week:
Funding
- Whatnot Inc., the Marina Del Rey live-stream shopping platform and marketplace for collectors and enthusiasts, has raised $150 million in a Series C from returning investors Andreessen Horowitz and YC Continuity, as well as new investor CapitalG, bringing the company's total funding to $225 million to date.
- Grow Credit Inc., a Black-owned financial inclusion platform out of Santa Monica, has raised a $106 million seed round, including $6.3 million in equity financing from various investors and $100 million in debt financing from Arena Investors.
- Santa Monica-based peer-to-peer resale marketplace Tradesy Inc. has secured an additional $67 million in funding led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing total funding to $145 million.
Outer, led by co-founders Jiake Liu and Terry Lin, was named the fastest-growing home brand of 2020, experiencing a 1,000%-plus increase in sales amid the pandemic.
Sam Comen
- Outer Inc., the Santa Monica direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand, has closed a $50 million Series B investment round led by Kathy Xu of Capital Today along with Tribe Capital, C Ventures, TRAC VC and Upfront Ventures, bringing the startup’s total funding to $65 million.
- Culver City Influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ has secured a new $40 million funding round, bringing its total capital raised to more than $80 million.
- Venice-based Elodie Games Inc. has raised $32.5 million from Galaxy Interactive and a16z for its social, cooperative cross-platform games.
Exits
SpotOn's acquisition of Appetize will bring enterprise-scale software capabilities to small business clients, and loyalty and marketing products to enterprise customers.
SpotOn
- Appetize Technologies Inc., the Los Angeles-based cloud point-of-sale platform for enterprise businesses, was acquired to SpotOn Transact Inc., a San Francisco software and payments firm serving restaurants and retailers, for $415 million.
- Santa Monica media holding company MediaLab.Ai Inc. has bought the assets of Genius Media Group Inc. for $80 million, resulting in some job losses at the Brooklyn-based music-annotating company.
Settlement
- QBI Holdings, the successor to the short-lived short-content streaming app Quibi, reached a settlement with Eko in the long-running legal dispute over its “Turnstyle” technology. Under the deal, Quibi is handing over the IP and tech behind its signature feature to Eko. Terms were not disclosed, but media reports said no money changed hands.
