WebSideStory Founder Returns with Anametrix, VMIX Gets Capital, Cannon Power Group Closes Record Wind Power Deal, & More San Diego BizTech News

Could San Diego’s software sector be strengthening? We’re seeing a couple of new companies and some new funding, and our roundup is here.

—Veteran software CEO John Mutch, who headed a bankruptcy reorganization of San Diego’s Peregrine Systems, is now at the helm of BeyondTrust, an IT security company that recently moved its headquarters to Carlsbad, CA, from Agoura Hills, CA. Mutch says BeyondTrust will hire 15 to 20 employees in coming months, including a new chief technology officer.

—San Diego-based Anametrix, which is developing cloud-based analytics technology for business customers, raised half of an intended $2.3 million round from private investors. Anametrix was founded last year by Blaise Barrelet, who is bringing together some local dot-com hall of famers as employees and advisers. The list includes DivX co-founder Jerome Rota, MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, iBaby founder Gavin Mandelbaum, and Neil Senturia, who founded internet kiosk maker Atcom/info.

—San Diego-based VMIX, a startup that provides an online video platform for mostly media customers, raised $2.5 million in a Series C round of venture funding. VMIX, which has raised $26 million since it was founded in 2005, plans to use the capital to expand into more markets and roll out service operations in Europe and Asia.

—Ryan talked with Jeff Bocan, a managing director for the Farmington Hills, MI-based private equity and venture firm Beringea for a profile of Mophie, a Santa Ana, CA-based startup that provides electronic accessories for smartphones and other mobile devices. Beringea was the first institutional investor in Mophie, which works with San Diego-based Qualcomm to develop a accessories for the iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry and other devices.

—MindTouch, the San Diego shareware startup that competes with Microsoft Sharepoint, Oracle, IBM Lotus, and SAP, is on track to triple its revenue this year. MindTouch has hired a new chief financial officer and plans to add about 50 employees in coming months.

—The Del Mar, CA-based Cannon Power Group, said it has closed a $547 million deal—believed to be the biggest deal of its kind—to provide electricity to a group of Los Angeles area municipal utilities from Cannon Power Group’s 262-megawatt Windy Flats project near Goldendale, WA.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.