A weekly roundup of must-read L.A. tech investments and acquisitions.
Soothe
$35 million
Type: Equity
Location: Hollywood
Investors: Riverside Company led the round with participation from several former, undisclosed investors
Description: On-demand massage app Soothe has raised a round of capital to help it expand from 22 cities up to 50 by the end of the year. The Soothe app allows users to schedule massages in their homes from a network of about 3,300 independently contracted massage therapists. Soothe charges $99 for a 60-minute massage. Founded in 2013, Soothe’s on-demand massage business is growing quickly, said Soothe Chief Executive Merlin Kauffman. “In Q4 of 2015, our month-over-month revenue growth was between 23 percent and 31 percent,” he said. Soothe raised a $10.6 million Series A round in August.
Zefr
$5 million
Type: Equity
Location: Venice
Investors: 10 undisclosed investors
Description: Zefr has built its business on YouTube, scanning video and music content for material copyrighted by others and helping its clients claim a share of the advertising revenue generated against that material. The company also uses its technology to provide audience insights. In April, the company signed a partnership with SoundCloud, which hosts and plays often copyrighted music that has been remixed by users, to analyze the contents of its audio library.
Mucker Capital
$45 million
Type: Venture fund
Location: Santa Monica
Investors: Undisclosed institutional investors
Description: The venture capital firm will invest its latest fund in Internet-enabled software and services startups, with a focus on companies based in the greater L.A. region. The Mucker III fund will make seed-round investments of $250,000 to $750,000 each in startups and investments of less than $100,000 in participants in MuckerLab, the company’s accelerator program. Mucker Capital has invested in more than 50 companies since its founding in 2012, including the Black Tux, ServiceTitan, Surf Air, Retention Science and BloomNation.
Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.
