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XPocketList — A Renters' Guide to Apartments Before They're Listed — Launches in LA
Leslie Ignacio is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is a recent California State University, Northridge graduate and previously worked for El Nuevo Sol, Telemundo and NBC and was named a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2019. As a bilingual journalist, she focuses on covering diversity in news. She's a Los Angeles native who enjoys trips to Disneyland in her free time.

Rental app PocketList launched today after less than a year in stealth mode with the goal of making your next apartment hunt a lot simpler.
The app allows renters to see and share apartments that will soon be available before they're listed — reducing the time properties sit vacant and possibly heating up competition among apartment hunters.
The idea came to CEO and co-founder Nick Dazé after a lifetime of hassle renting apartments that he and his friends and family experienced when searching for a new place
PocketList co-founders.Nick Dazé's and Julian Vergel de Dios,
"Renting shouldn't be a dirty word, and it kind of is in American culture. Everybody sees it as a stopping point to being a homeowner off in the middle of nowhere," he said."The way we look at it is the average American spends over a decade being a renter — and they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in that time.
"The experience is horrible," he added.
The app is currently only available in Los Angeles, Dazé's hometown and the nation's second largest real estate market. The city abounds with horror stories about renting. Before the pandemic reduced demand, packed open houses were commonplace and many aspiring tenants armed themselves with reference letters.
A screenshot of PocketList's user interface.
But with $2.8 million in seed funding led by David Sacks' Craft Ventures along with Abstract VC, Wonder Ventures and angel investor Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow and dot.LA, the company has plans to launch in San Francisco and San Diego later this fall.
PocketList could be a boon for landlords as well. They lose $43 billion a year on properties that are in the process of being turned over, according to the company. The company estimates vacated properties sit on the market for about 26 days on average before they're rented.
Dazé's background in user experience design drove him and his co-founder, Julian Vergel de Dios, to develop what started as a simple Google Sheet listing that was shared among friends looking for leads on soon-to-be vacant apartments. The info proved so popular that the two began offering it up to others.
What made the list so attractive to renters was that it provided insight that landlords would never share and gave other renters anxious to move inside knowledge about when an apartment would be listed.
The app provides data such as how much sunlight a room receives or how responsive a landlord is. It also allows would-be renters to keep their names, numbers and other personal information private until they're ready to rent.
While the app and website is free to renters, the newly added landlord feature will allow them to be notified of when a certain number of their units might be listed, without giving away any personal information. The price for access to information can vary based on how often the landlord chooses to be notified.
"We want to take this model of transparency and honesty and kind of mutual collaboration and benefit," said Dazé. "And that's not just renter to renter it's also renter to landlord. We want to take that spirit of collaboration and we want to make over time, the experience of being a renter as easy, and as accessible as going to Disneyland."
Leslie Ignacio is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is a recent California State University, Northridge graduate and previously worked for El Nuevo Sol, Telemundo and NBC and was named a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2019. As a bilingual journalist, she focuses on covering diversity in news. She's a Los Angeles native who enjoys trips to Disneyland in her free time.
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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Spencer Dinwiddie’s Calaxy Taps New CEO, Nativo Lures New Marketing Chief
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.
“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.
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Calaxy, a Web3 social media app co-founded by NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, promoted former chief operating officer Solo Ceesay to chief executive officer. Former CEO Dinwiddie is now executive chair of the company.
Brand marketing platform Nativo appointed former Modern Luxury Media chief marketing officer Raquel Cadourcy as its first CMO.
AI platform Ferret hired fraud prevention industry veteran Greg Loos as chief operating officer, and former Fullsteam marketing executive Melissa Yearta as director of marketing.
Nonagen Bioscience, a cancer diagnostics company, appointed Wayne Hogrefe, as chief operating officer.
Health care startup Greater Good Health named Matthew Gagalis as chief commercial officer. Gagalis previously led business development at Eleanor Health.
ChangeUp, a financial software company, named Raj Kamachee as co-founder and chief technology officer. Kamachee previously served as CTO and chief information officer at Team Rubicon.
Arcules, a cloud video-surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS) provider, hired Steve Prodger as chief revenue officer. Prodger previously served as executive vice president of sales at Turing Labs.
Spanish language media company Estrella Media promoted René Santaella to chief digital and streaming officer. He was previously the company’s executive vice president of digital and streaming media.
Bluemercury founder and former CEO Marla Beck joined beauty brand BeautyHealth’s board of directors.
Clean energy veteran Tom Werner joined H2U Technologies, a developer of green hydrogen technologies, as chairman of the board.
Holoportation company Proto named comedian and “America’s Got Talent” judge Howie Mandel as an advisor.
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.
‘Raises’: Tom Brady’s Production Company Lands $50M, Wavemaker 360 Closes $64M Health Care Fund
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.
This week in “Raises”: San Diego led the way with big funding hauls for a pair of biotech and aviation startups based there, while yet another L.A.-based Tom Brady venture landed a raise of its own. Meanwhile, a Pasadena health care VC launched its second fund.
Venture Capital
Resilience, a San Diego-based biomanufacturing company, raised a $625 million Series D financing round from undisclosed investors. The company also disclosed a previously unannounced $600 million Series C round raised last year.
Shield AI, a San Diego-based developer of AI pilots for aircraft, raised a $90 million Series E equity round led by Snowpoint Ventures’ Doug Philippone.
Religion of Sports, a Santa Monica-based sports media production company co-founded by NFL legends Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, raised a $50 million Series B funding round led by Shamrock Capital.
Trovata, a San Diego-based open banking platform, raised a $27 million Series B funding round led by Fin Capital.
Calaxy, an L.A.-based Web3 social media app co-founded by NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, raised $26 million in new funding co-led by the HBAR Foundation and Animoca Brands.
Just Women’s Sports, an L.A.-based media platform dedicated to women’s sports, raised a $6 million funding round led by Blue Pool Capital.
Adim, an L.A.-based Web3 content creation platform co-founded by actor Rob McElhenney, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon.
Gander, an L.A.-based ecommerce startup, raised a $4.2 million seed round co-led by Harlem Capital and Crossbeam Venture Partners.
Aliso Viejo-based medical device company Bright Uro raised $4 million in seed financing from Academy Investor Network, Fred Moll, and other angel investors. It also received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
IndieFlow, a Santa Monica-based platform for independent music artists, raised $4 million in funding led by State of Mind Ventures.
Curio, a Santa Monica-based NFT analytics startup, raised a $3.7 million seed funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s 776.
Ivella, a Santa Monica-based fintech startup targeted toward couples, raised $3.5 million in funding from Anthemis, Financial Venture Studio and Soma Capital.
Revolution RE, an L.A.-based data and analytics platform for residential real estate companies, raised a $3 million funding round from investors including 29th Street Ventures, Moderne Ventures, Techstars, PLG Ventures, Silicon Badia and Jason Calacanis' LAUNCH.
De Oro Devices, a San Luis Obispo-based startup specializing in devices for people living with Parkinson’s disease, raised a $2.8 million seed funding round led by True Wealth Ventures.
L.A.-based blockchain gaming site Haste Arcade raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Logic Boost Labs CEO Jonathan Cogley.
Funds
Wavemaker 360 Health, a Pasadena-based venture fund focused on seed-stage health care startups, closed its $64 million second 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).
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.
Fintech Startup Albert Lays Off 20-Plus Employees: Sources
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
Albert, a Culver City-based fintech startup backed by investors including General Atlantic and Alphabet’s growth fund CapitalG, is in the process of laying off a chunk of its locally-based staff, dot.LA has learned.
At least 20 Albert employees were informed Friday that they were being laid off, multiple sources inside the company told dot.LA. The cuts affected members of the company’s Genius customer support team as well as its engineering, operations and legal staff.
Albert employees were notified that the company would be holding an internal meeting at 2 p.m. PT Friday. The six-year-old company—part of a wave of fintech startups that help customers plan and budget their financial lives—recently celebrated hitting 250 staffers, sources noted.
Representatives for Albert did not immediately return requests for comment on the layoffs.
Some Albert employees who were among those laid off have already posted on LinkedIn about looking for new work. According to sources at the company, Albert is looking to offshore jobs on its Genius customer support team to remote locations that offer cheaper labor. The startup already operates a team in the Philippines that handles customer support and is planning to launch another team overseas, they said.
One source with knowledge of Albert’s fundraising efforts said the company has been struggling to raise its upcoming Series D round amid an ongoing slowdown in venture capital funding. Albert most recently raised a $100 million Series C round last January led by General Atlantic that took the company’s total funding to more than $170 million.
Like its fellow L.A.-based fintech startup Dave, Albert is among a cadre of so-called “neo-banks” that provide digital financial services targeted toward millennial and Gen Z consumers. Albert’s offerings include a mobile banking app, access to cash advances, an investing platform and a savings tool.
Have a tip? Email samsonamore@dot.LA.
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