The Scott Sanfilippo Interview Media Optimization Firms Are Red Hot In Southern California in 2009 Proliferate - Aggregate - Integrate Startups Uncensored #4 - “Finding and Working with Partners” SoCal VC’s absent from Forbes Midas List Top Five Best Uses of an Entrepreneur's Legal Dollars What Data Crunchers Did for Obama An Evaluation of Web Strategy in the Musical Instrument Business Keywords Layoffs Fund Venture Capital Events Technology Angel Mahalo Zag MySpace Geni

Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has a funding round of undisclosed size. spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round, saying that earlier disclosures by TechCrunch were incorrect. A Apparently, the company was a victim of TechCrunch's Arrington's crusade against PR embargoes, and disclosed the funding based on preliminary discussions with the firm.

San Diego-based Nirvanix confirmed today that the firm has raised $5M in a new venture funding round. The funding was first covered by socalTECH M last week . According to Nirvanix, the funding brings the company's total raised to over $23M. The firm said the funding would go According to the firm, the new round came from original investors Intel Capital, Mission Ventures, Valhalla Partners, and Windward Ventures. Nirvanix is a provider of storage-as-a-service, accessible to both Internet companies and enterprises.

funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm Thursday. Details on the funding have not been announced. The firm--which has locations in both Carlsbad and San Francisco--has previously raised funding from ABS Ventures, Dolphin Equity Partners, and Encinal Capital Management. Tags: socaltech overtone customer feedback software saa Overtone , a developer of software-as-a-service tools for monitoring customer sentiment, has raised $2.48M out of a $5.3M The filing lists Dolphin Equity's Dennis O'Connell and ABS Ventures' Thayer Swartwood as current board

Los Angeles-based SightCine , a developer of digital overlay projection technology, told socalTECH today that the firm has raised an initial round of seed funding. Amount of the funding and source was not disclosed. Tags: funding seed capital venture subtitle theater content movie sightcin According to the firm, its initial product allows movie theaters to display subtitles in multiple languages on a single screen. The firm's product allows deaf, hearing-impaired, and non-native speakers to use special glasses to see subtitles on movies, which aren't visible to other theater

One way is to figure out what companies have strong financial backing, have cash in the bank, or have recently raised funding--despite the economy. socalTECH's socalTECH's High Tech Company Database provides you with the tools to locate and research companies in Southern California -- and beyond -- who might be in the market for your products or services. In this kind of economy, it's more important than ever to find and locate customers . How do you find customers who are still going strong--and are expanding and hiring?

Only three finalists made our category of emerging companies with annual revenues of $1-$8 million, and after attending the presentations, I can say that Nami is definitely the company which has come the farthest with the least external funding. Also, SoCalTech published an interview where Gary Mittman, CEO / Co-founder of Nami Media, and I offered our views on Nami Media’s progress, direction and benefits of being funded by the Pasadena Angels . A few days ago, we learned that Nami Media had been selected as a Finalist for the PricewaterhouseCoopers Entretech Entrepreneursip Award 2008.

A study of the venture capital deal flow in Southern California conducted by socalTECH shows that venture capital deals dropped for Q3, to around $720M in deals, in a market dominated by clean technology firms. The numbers, which were drawn from venture deals tracked and reported in socalTECH's proprietary venture capital database, found that there was $719.7M The numbers--which in venture capital deals in the third quarter, down dramatically from $1.2B invested in Q3 of 2007, and down slightly from venture numbers in Q2, when there was approximately $966M in venture deals. The

in a funding round. spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round. Apparently, the company was a victim of TechCrunch's Arrington's crusade against PR embargoes, and disclosed the funding based on an embargoed draft. Tags: automobile auto venture funding capita Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has raised around $32.4M A

Newbury Park-based Lottay , an online site focused on social "gifting" applications, has raised around $200,000 in a round from DFJ Frontier, socalTECH has learned. No details on the funding have been announced by the firm, however, DFJ Frontier now lists the company as a portfolio firm, and DFJ Frontier's David Cremin is listed as a board member at the company. Lottay's online web site allows people to help buy gift cards and collect money from friends and family for those gifts. The firm was started by a number of UC Santa Barbara students.