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XOpenDrives Hires Ex-Activision Esports' André Rievers as Operations Lead
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him

Digital storage company OpenDrives is planning a move into the lucrative world of esports and gaming and has hired former Activision Blizzard post production lead André Rievers to help lead the effort.
OpenDrives is a backend storage provider for some of Hollywood's biggest studios including WarnerMedia, Disney, NBCUniversal, Dreamworks, Paramount, Netflix and the Los Angeles Kings hockey team.
And it already has three hot names in gaming – Santa Monica-based Riot Games, Culver City-based esports team 100 Thieves and "Fortnite" maker Epic Games – as clients. OpenDrives raised $20 million in January.
OpenDrives' product is a physical drive enabled with software that lets production editors avoid the time consuming process of compressing and decompressing video files. That's especially valuable in increasingly collaborative workflows that require rendering and sharing large files extremely fast.
Rievers was named as vice president of operations, a role that will let him put these tools in the hands of editors producing live esports events, something he knows well.
"The pain point for us is really the storage not being able to handle the content, or not being able to provide the content fast enough, or at full resolution for the editor," Rievers explained. "It's not allowing the editor or the producer to focus on their creativity. With OpenDrives, it's like the system is not even there."
Rievers spent nearly four years at Activision as head of post-production, managing a team of editors that quickly turned around footage for live events like the company's annual BlizzCon showcase and esports matches in the Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues. Prior to that he was a post-production manager at Univision for four and a half years, and led live production on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
While producing these events, Rievers and his team quickly noticed that where the digital files were stored – and how quickly they could be accessed and edited – greatly impacted how the overall final product would look.
"As the end user, the last thing I want to have to worry about is what storage I'm working with, (and) the thing about open drives is that it's it's the best thing I've ever seen," Rievers said.
He joked that he tried many times to push OpenDrives' network-attached software's limits as a customer, and was impressed by how well it worked under pressure.
"Every chance I had to test or to demo OpenDrives, I did my absolute best to try to break it and fight it," Rivers said. "If it wasn't me, it was one of my editors… and nobody could break it."
OpenDrives chief operations officer Sean Lee.
Rievers argued that he was interested in the OpenDrives software not just because it was fast, but because when he used it he actually almost forgot it was there, but it did the heavy lifting in the background for his team as they rapidly edited, produced and shipped dense video files.
OpenDrives chief operations officer Sean Lee said OpenDrives wants to run in the background without disrupting the workflow.
Lee spent years working at NBCUniversal production prior to joining OpenDrives.
Often he'd have a problem that'd need "to be fixed within the hour because I have a deadline to meet. If my storage isn't working, and I'm not having this good experience, I may have hundreds of VFX artists or editors just sitting around waiting for this thing to work."
Lee sees opportunity opening up as pandemic restrictions ease. The esports leagues will resume live broadcasts from around the world as they compete in real-time, meaning they might benefit from upgrading their storage.
"If storage is doing its job, you should not even know that it's there," Lee said.
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Jam City Shakes Up Games Leaders, Viant Lures Amazon Vet
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
Cash ecosystem integrator Sesami named Nicolas Van Erum as chief marketing officer. Van Erum joins from creative agency Sid Lee.
8minute Solar Energy, a solar and energy storage company, hired Kip Larsonas chief technology officer. Larson previously led technology teams at Amazon and Convoy.
Advertising software company Viant Technology tapped Dustin Kwan as chief product officer. Kwan was most recently general manager of advertising products at Amazon DSP.
Tamara Armstrong joined Loyola Marymount University as chief information officer and vice president for information technology services. Armstrong was most recently associate vice chancellor and CIO at the Los Rios Community College District.
TigerConnect, a health care clinical collaboration platform, hired Melissa Bellas president. Bell was previously chief growth officer for Intelligent Medical Objects.
Visual effects and animation studio DNEG tapped Disney Animation and Dreamworks veteran Erika Burton as co-president of its animation arm.
Video game developer Jam City promoted Lisa Anderson to executive vice president, from her previous role as senior vice president of studio operations. The company also hired Dan Lipa to head its casino division and King’sBrent Blazek to lead its puzzle division.
Seth Rogan’s cannabis lifestyle brand Houseplant brought in Kelly Natenshon as senior vice president of housegoods. Natenshon was most recently a consultant for home brands including California Closets, Cravings by Chrissy Teigen and Wayfair.
Cancer research organization City of Hope named Philip Okala as system president to oversee its portfolio of clinical care and research entities. Okala was previously chief operating officer at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Law firm Perkins Coie added attorney Patrick Anding, who has previously provided legal counsel for tech companies, as a partner at its Emerging Companies & Venture Capital practice in its Los Angeles and San Diego offices.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
This Week in ‘Raises’: Metropolis Lands $167M, Alpha Edison Seeks $340M for New Fund
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
In this week’s edition of “Raises”: a local fintech startup raised $167 million to make it much easier to pay for parking spots, while software startups in Santa Barbara and Irvine also landed large funding rounds.
Venture Capital
Metropolis Technologies, an L.A.-based fintech and “mobility commerce” platform, raised a $167 million Series B funding round co-led by 3L Capital and Assembly Ventures.
Overair, a Santa Ana-based electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft startup, raised a $145 million investment from Hanwha Group.
Invoca, a Santa Barbara-based AI software platform, raised an $83 million Series F funding round led by Silver Lake Waterman.
Performio, an Irvine-based sales commission software company, raised a $75 million growth investment led by JMI Equity.
Moleaer, a Carson-based agriculture technology startup, raised a $40 million Series C financing round led by Apollo Global Management.
C-Zero, a Santa Barbara-based clean energy company focused on natural gas decarbonization, raised a $34 million financing round led by SK Gas.
Tango, an L.A.-based platform that streamlines process documentation, raised a $14 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global Management.
XENDEE, a San Diego-based software provider for distributed energy resources planning and operation, raised $12 million in Series A financing led by Anzu Partners.
Tellie, an L.A.-based sitebuilder for Web3creators, raised a $10 million Series A funding round from investors including Malibu Point Capital, Galaxy Digital, Osage Venture Partners, Dapper Labs, SXSW Innovation Fund and Gaingels.
Saysh, Olympic track and field athlete Allyson Felix’s L.A.-based lifestyle brand, raised an $8 million Series A funding round led by IRIS Ventures and Athleta.
Funds
Alpha Edison, a Westwood-based venture capital firm, is looking to raise $340 million for its third fund, per an SEC filing.
Kairos Ventures, a Beverly Hills-based early-stage venture capital firm investing in life sciences startups, raised $58 million for its third fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Kippo, the Dating App for Gamers, Is Selling NFT ‘Land’ in Its Metaverse
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles-based startup launched a virtual world within its app called the Kippoverse, which allows users to virtually go on dates and participate in shared experiences. While Kippo started out in 2019 as a dating app catering to gamers, it has since looked to cast a wider net to include people interested in platonically hanging out with friends and meeting new people virtually.
Land you can purchase in Kippo’s metaverse.
Courtesy of Kippo
“We found that the core experience people really love is just hanging out in groups and chatting,” Kippo co-founder and CEO David Park told dot.LA. “We hear people saying they had to go out and buy battery packs because they spend eight hours a day on Kippo.”
Beginning Thursday, Kippo users can purchase 5,000 plots of “land”—non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that give them a presence in the Kippoverse—for 4 SOL each. (SOL, the native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain platform, currently trades at more than $31.). Kippoverse landowners can then create in-app experiences like exclusive parties and get-togethers, and can also charge for admission to events that take place on their “land.”
Park compared the platform to Minecraft, the popular sandbox video game where gamers can build things in a virtual 3D world. “Minecraft is probably one of, if not the predecessor to this entire concept of the metaverse,” Park told dot.LA. “The core difference of what we’re building is that most of these platforms are gamer-focused; our core experience is the social aspect.”
There is no limit to how many plots of NFT real estate each Kippo user can purchase. The startup is keeping 500 of its 5,500 plots for itself, so that it can reserve that space for free and “cool” experiences within the app, according to Park. Kippo also plans to partner with different companies, including indie game studios, to create experiences on those plots.
While Kippo is currently only available via its mobile app, Park said the company is in the process of building a web version of its platform. Kippo is also developing an in-app currency that will allow users to more easily transact within the Kippoverse and purchase items to build out their “land.”
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Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.