Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Texas Investors Fund, Back Research Commercialization Venture

A long list of Texas investors--plus Google's Eric Schmidt--said Tuesday that they have backed an effort to commercialize the research out of HRL Laboratories, the former research and development arm of Hughes Aircraft, which is based in Malibu, California. According to MalibuIQ and HRL Laboratories, MalibuIQ will help accelerate the commercialization of HRL technologies in markets such as electronics, energy, life sciences, networking and communications. The effort is being funded by Texas-based oil and gas wildcatters Charlie Winn, via his firm Winn Interests, along with Lee Barberito, of Manti Resources. Other investors include Bravo Ventures, TomorrowVentures, Paul Candies, Philip M. Plant, and General Motors Holdings LLC. MalibuIQ's executives read as a who's who of Texas entrepreneurs and investors; the firm's co-founder and Chairman is David Moxam of Authentix; co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Sha-Chelle Devlin Manning is at Manti Ventures, having previously served at Authentix and the Texas Governor's Office; COO Gregory Corona is the CEO of Dallas-based Mozido.