Belgium-based Aerospacelab, a manufacturer of satellites, said it has set up a new facility in Torrance. According to the company, the new facility will increase the production of its satellite technology. The company also has an office--but not manufacturing--in Palo Alto. Aerospacelab said its new facility has 35,000 square feet of high-bay and cleanroom environments, and has the ability to produce an average of 2 satellites per week on a single shift schedule.

Westlake Village-based Bidpath, which develops technology for the auction industry, said it has named David Brindley as its new CEO. Brindley joined the company in 2016 as Managing Director (UK). According to the company, Brindley takes over from founder and Executive Chairman, Adam Alexander. Bidpath says it provides its technology to over 850 auctioneers, retailers and manufacturers in more than 30 countries, offering up online live, timed, hybrid, and sealed bid auctions, as well as e-commerce functionality.

Irvine-based Fisker Automotive will be liquidated, in an an agreement with creditors on Friday in bankruptcy court. According to reports, there are likely to be over $1 billion in secured and unsecured claims against Fisker, meaning a total writeoff for investors who invested in the company. Fisker went public in 2020 via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

Santa Barbara-based Sonos says that it can't bring back its old app, despite the huge customer backlash over the company's app design, according to its CEO, Patrick Spence. The company has been suffering from major customer complaints, major sales impacts, and delays of product launches after a failed redesign of the app in May. The app foul-up has resulted in layoffs and lowered sales projects for Sonos, and has left users unable to use their existing speakers or even add new hardware, in many cases. Sonos makes whole-home speaker systems which (usually) allow users to stream music from the Internet to their home.

Irvine-based voicemail services provider YouMail said this morning that it has inked a partnership to keep people from being hit by deepfaked artificial intelligence (AI) calling campaigns. According to YouMail, it has partnered with Pintrop, to identify and stop calls utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) or deepfake technologies targeting the public to interfere with US elections. Financial details of that partnership were not announced. The company said Pindrop's "Pulse Inspect" tool is being used to detect AI-generated speech in phone calls gathered from the 20 million phone numbers that YouMail's sensor network collects and analyzes.

The Gould School of Law the law school at the University of Southern California, says it is adding a new certificate on Law and Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to the school, the certificate will "enable students to navigate the various legal issues related to the development and use of AI programs, including privacy, IP, antitrust law, ethics and more." The cost of the certificate program as a standalone was not announced, however, the cost of the certification is offered concurrently to those gaining a degree at no additional cost.

In a sign of the eagerness to jump on the artificial intelligence bandwagon, Simi Valley-based Chatsworth Products--a maker of enclosures, racks, mounting hardware, cable management products, and more--says it has launched some products specifically for meeting the need for GPU and AI-based applications. According to the company, its new high-power rack PDU configurations are specifically designed to meet the need of applications running the chips and systems that power AI. The company said the enhancements to its existing line of eConnect PDU products are specifically "designed to support...high-power densities". The rapid increas in AI computing equipment is expected to drive very large increases in data center power demand, with a recent Goldman Sachs report saying "On average, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search".

Santa Barbara-based satellite developer Umbra says it has sent two more of its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites into space on a SpaceX rocket. According to the company, it sent a new pair of satellites, Umbra-09 and Umbra-10 into space on August 16th, on the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission. Umbra's satellites used a technique called Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to image things on earth from space. The technology can look through clouds and is particularly well suited for detecting structures and objects made of metal or other hard substances on earth -- which is particularly useful for both government and multinational corporations. The technology has an advantage over normal, visual spectrum satellites as images can be obtained even during cloudy or stormy weather, and at night.

Irvine-based University Lab Partners said this morning that it has named the winners of its annual pitch competition. The nonprofit, wet-lab incubator said it had over 40 applications for this year's pitch competition, and named Hybrid Biotherapeutics Inc. and Cellecho Biotech as its Life Sciences winners; Syntr Health Technologies, Inc. and iPill Dispenser as its Medical Technology winners, and Remmie Health as its Pediatric winner. The winners will each get a one year sponsored lab bench at its incubator. The Pediatric winner also gets $2500 from th Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP)—an FDA-funded pediatric device accelerator. Judges for the competition came from Johnson & Johnson, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, CHOC, General Inception, Woodgreen Ventures, Xinetix, and D2M Venture Development.

The New York Times has a lengthy article on the current trials and tribulations of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Brock Pierce, who got his start as part of the Los Angeles startup community. In The Unraveling of a Crypto Dream, the New York Times says that Pierce is now "mired in legal disputes and fighting with his business partners" in Puerto Rico, where he moved--for tax reasons--after gaining a fortune from his cryptocurrency efforts.

Santa Barbara-based Sonos appears to be continuing to have issues, and has laid off around 100 of its employees, according to the company. The layoffs come as Sonos has been struggling with a mobile app design it rolled out last year. It's unclear how many employees in Santa Barbara are affected by the cuts. Sonos develops "whole home" music streaming hardware.

Carlsbad-based Viasat has had two of its satellites delivered to space -- to provide Internet access to the Artic. According to Viasat, two of its satellites were successfully launched by SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday at 7:02pm PT. The launch resulted in a sonic boom heard in Santa Barbara and Ventura County, and was briefly visible. Viasat said the mission was led by Space Norway subsidiary Heosat will offer up commercial broadband in the Arctic region.

Los Angeles-based Resecurity, which develops cybersecurity and risk management software, says it has unveiled a new, AI-based Fraud Prevention Platform. The company said its AI product is designed to "combat fraud across banking, virtual asset service providers (VASPs), gambling, e-commerce, and online marketplaces". Pricing on the software was not announced.

Irvine-based GoDocs, a developer of commercial loan document automation software, says it has partnered with a specialty banking company, EverBank. According to GoDocs, it will 'streamline multifamily lending operations" for EverBank. Financial details of the link were not announced.

Irvine-based Helpt, a provider of technical support services, says it has raised $850,000 in a seed investment round. The company said the funding came from Dealbrook Holdings II. According to Helpt, the investment will go to expand its service offerings, plus sales and marketing, along with platform development. The company's founders are Matthew Pincus and Davis Sohn.

A non-profit arm of the Lithuanian government, the Innovation Agency, says it has tapped UCLA Anderson School of Management to help companies launch into the United States. According to the Innovation Agency, a non-profit organization under Lithuania/s Ministry of Economy and Innovation, it is funding a project which will fund the project. The company said the Lithuanian companies involved in the the project this year are Doclogix, Feetsee (Diabetis JSC), Oixio, Optoman, Reiz Tech, and TeleSoftas. The Consulate General of Lithuania said that 18 Lithuanian companies have participated in the project from 2018 to 2023.

Westlake Village-based Anchor Operating Systems, a developer of ticketing and point of sale systems, says it has signed a number of customers. The company said it signed Miami's Art XSpace, The Teaching Zoo at Moorpark College, the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, and Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City. The company says it is also providing its ticketing products at such high profile attractions as the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, and Alcatraz. Financial impact of the win was not announcecd.

Thousand Oaks-based Latigo Biotherapeutics, which is developing non-opioid pain medicines, has named Nima Farzan as its new Chief Executive Officer. Frazan was previously CEO of Kinnate Biopharma, and also was at PaxVax, among other companies. Farzan replaces Desmond Padhi, who was serving as interim CEO; Padhi is the operating partner at Westlake Village BioPartners.

A worldwide IT outage--which resulted in chaos in airports, delayed hospital procedures, and more--has been blamed on a end of week update pushed out to Windows machines worldwide by IT management software company Crowdstrike. The update apparently resulted in a "Blue Screen of Death" for millions of corporate Windows computers, resulting in a need for manually removing a file on every single computer impacted. The outage hit systems across the world, with critical systems impacted from Australia and New Zealand, to India, the UK, and the US, and beyond. Crowdstrike has offices in Irvine, and was founded in Irvine, but has since moved its headquarters to Austin.

The founder of Los Angeles-based Fandango, J. Michael Cline. has died after a plunge from a Manhattan hotel, according to the NY Times. Cline--who was living in Palm Beach, Florida--reportedly fell from the 20th story of the hotel. Cline was also managing partner of venture capital firm Accretive.

Los Angeles-based dating app developer Tinder has rolled out a new, AI-powered feature which helps its users find better photos. According to Tinder, the new Photo Selector feature will look through a user's camera roll to find photos which might work as a user's best profile photo, based on lighting, composition, and more -- and also filters out photos that Tinder says may appear to violate its Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.

Santa Monica-based DOG PPL, which operates a "canine social club", has received an investment from venture capital investment fund Ani.VC, the two said on Wednesday. Size of the investment was not announced. According to Ani.VC, the investment in DOG PPL is its very first. The investor said it is investing $35M over the next three years to companies in the pet longevity, health, and nutrition/consumables markets. DOG PPL was founded by Liam Underwood and Alexander Esguerra, and has a location in Los Angeles -- the company said it will be expanding to New York as a result of the funding.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX will be moving from the Los Angeles area to Texas, according to a post by Elon Musk. Musk cited a new law which prohibits school policies that require parents to be alerted if their child wishes to change pronouns or identifies as transgender. It's unclear when that move might take place, and what operations might remain in the state. Musk has made inflammatory statements about the LGBTQ community in the past, including his own daughter, who identifies as transgender.

Solana Beach-based Alvys, a developer of logistics and supply chain management software, announced today that it has raised $20.5M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by Titanium Ventures (formerly Telstra Ventures), and also included Picus Cpaital, RTP, and Bonfire. The company said it s working on becoming a "global standard logistics operating platform for logistics and supply chain management". The company's founder and CEO is Nick Darman.

Los Angeles-based Fugo Precision 3D announced today that it has launched a "centrifugal 3D printer", which it says provides layerless 3D printing, sub-30-micron accuracy and throughput up to ten times faster than traditional stereolithography (SLA) printers. The company said it plans to have production machines in Q2 of 2024. The company's founder is Bryan Allred.

Chispa, a dating app focused on US Latinos--part of Match Group--says it is launching a "summer college tour" as part of an outreach. The dating app said it partnering with Sorri Papi, "The Only Girls Party" to enable "vibrant cultural connections" facilitated by Chispa. The tour will include "music, dancing, and opportunities for attendees to connect and celebrate Latino culture". Match said Chispa has 10 million downloads and was created by Match Group in 2017 as a "Match Affinity' dating app.

Los Angeles-based software developer Atllas, a developer of real estate software, says it is launching a product hat uses AI to automated cold calling for real estate prospects. It's unclear from the company whether the AI is doing the actual cold calling and interaction with users. Atllas says it is venture backed by Charles Schwab, Great Oaks VC, Ambridge Capital, and angels. The company says it was founded by Neema Bardi.

Auto maker Volkswagen Group said this week that it will invest up to $5 billion in Irvine-based EV maker Rivian. According to the two, they are in a joint venture to create a "next generation software-defined vehicle" platform for both companies' future electric vehicles. The deal is split beteen an initial $1 billion investment in Rivian, and up to $4 billion in planned additional investments. As part of the deal, Volkswagen Group said it will use Rivian's existing electric architecture and software platform for its future vehicles.

Los Angeles-based ServiceTitan said it has partnered with Southland Industries, a commercial mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) contracting firm on Monday. According to ServiceTitan, they will partner to deploy its platform across its subsidiary, The Brandt Companies. Financial details of the partnership were not announced. ServiceTitan provides a cloud-based business used by the trades to manage their business. The company is venture backed by Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, CPP Investments, Dragoneer Investment Group, Durable Capital Partners LP, Generation Investment Management, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Thoma Bravo, TPG, and T. Rowe Price.

Los Angeles-based electric vehicle company Faraday Future announced late Monday that it has appointed a new, independent auditor to the firm. The company said that it has appointed Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP as its new auditor, succeeding Mazars USA LLP, which was its independent registered public accounting firm until May 31st. Mazars USA had resigned as Faraday Future's auditor on April 9th. That resignation came after the auditing firm issued a statement "related to substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern."

Los Angeles-based EVgo, which operates a network of electric vehicle charging stations, says it has appointed its very first Chief People Officer (CPO) to oversee its "employee lifecycle" efforts. According to the company, it has appointed Keith Hutchinson as Chief People Officer to head up those efforts. Hutchinson was previously Chief People Officer at Tritium, and also has served at National Grid, and has worked at companies both in the U.S. and U.K.

Los Angeles-based Roar Social, which develops a gamified app which helps users create videos to raise money for causes they support, says it has named Mike Dodge as President and Chief Operating Officer. Dodge had already been overseeing its finance, legal, operations, content moderation, and strategic partnerships. Dodge was previously Chief Operating Officer at Care Solace, and also has served at 101 Networks, theAudience, and Evolve Media. Roar Social is led by CEO and founder Robert Weiss. The company says its app is aimed at "Gen Z" and says it is "leveraging the video content users love to raise money for causes they care about."

Los Angeles-based Pomerium, which says it has created a secure, clientless way to control web applications without a corporate VPN, says it has raised $13.75M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by Benchmark, and also included Bain Capital, Haystack, SNR, and Oleg Rogynskyy, founder of People.AI. The company said that Benchmark's Eric Vishria will join the company's board as part of the funding. Pomerium's CEO and founder is Bobby Desimone. The company is focused on the enterprise security market.

Santa Ana-based Kinetic, a startup which provides maintenance and servicing for electric vehicles and vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems, says it has raised $21M in a Series B funding round. The funding was led by Menlo Ventures, and also included Lux Capital, Construct Capital and Haystack Ventures plus new investors Allstate Strategic Ventures and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures. The company said funding will go towards adding technology and engineering talent to its team. The company said it currently operates for "service hubs" for EVs, in Las Vegas, Orange County, San Bernardino, and Lake Elsinore. Those centers specifically focuse on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and work through revenue-sharing agreements with traditional collision repair centers, dealerships and rental fleets. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Nikhil Naikal.