Average PTO days taken rises again, but very few employees use all their time off
The average number of vacation days taken by U.S. employees is on the rise for the second year in a row. Problem is, the 16.8 days employees take off per year is well under the average of 22.6 vacation days they receive. According to a report by Glassdoor, just 54 percent of U.S. workers take their allotted time off. [LA Times]
Gamevice, FitnessGenes close out Series A rounds
Gamevice, an e-commerce startup that develops attachable gamepad controllers for smartphones, and FitnessGenes, a Beverly Hills startup using DNA to help people get healthy, both closed their Series A rounds this week. Simi Valley-based Gamevice pulled in $12.5 million, while FitnessGenes snatched up $5 million. [Built In LA]
Virtualitics wins U.S. Military-sponsored hackathon
Virtualitics, a Pasadena-based startup using virtual reality, machine learning and AI to help companies visualize data, was bestowed with the quite the honor recently. The startup took part in a hackathon challenge sponsored by United States Special Operations Command J24-Systems and took home the first place prize. The startup had to analyze incomplete data to predict the route of a simulated ship with hostages that was last seen somewhere off the coast of South Korea. Check out how the team conquered the event. [Virtualitics]
SuperMoney launches Kayak-esque loan search engine
SuperMoney, a Santa Ana-based startup that uses an aggregated approach to help users find the right loans, officially launched its search engine this week. The startup was founded by LA tech veteran Miron Lulic. [Finovate]
LA's richest neighborhoods revealed
In a collaboration with Redlands-based Esri, LA Biz revealed the wealthiest zip codes in LA County. The winner was the 90077 zip code, which consists of Bel Air/Beverly Glen. Palos Verdes Estates (90274) finished second, followed by San Marino (91108), Pacific Palisades/Rustic Canyon (90272) and La Cañada Flintridge (91011) rounding out the top five. [LA Biz]
InvolveSoft scores major award
InvolveSoft, a startup that helps businesses manage their social impact initiatives and boost employee satisfaction, was named the "best in social inno" by the Founder Insitute this week. The company is currently working out of the Mucker Capital HQ in Santa Monica. [FI]
Fundings of the week
GameMine, $20 million
Investors: Palisades Venture Capital
There's a new subscription-based service on the market, but this one involves mobile games. GameMine, a startup that offers subscribers a library of casual mobile games, added $20 million this week and reported operations in 135 countries with around 3.5 million active users. [VentureBeat]
GNARBOX, $8.5 million
Investors: Undisclosed
Santa Monica-based GNARBOX, a startup that develops a device that helps digital content creators to back up, edit and share their media from anywhere, revealed an $8.5 million Series A this week in the wake of the startup’s long-awaited device landing on shelves. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate research and development projects and grow the company’s roster. [Built In LA]
Images via social media and Shutterstock.
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