Los Angeles’ aerospace companies looked to the stars this week. Literally.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. on Thursday launched NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite, designed to measure the polarization of X-rays from space phenomena such as black holes and supernova remnants.
Meanwhile, Rocket Lab USA Inc. launched its 109th satellite to orbit on Wednesday, three weeks after its last mission on Nov. 18. The two missions for BlackSky would occurred just 20 days apart, marking Rocket Lab’s quickest turnaround in the company’s history.
On the ground, Bird Global Inc. unveiled two new scooters — the Bird Flex e-scooter and Birdie Glow for kids — which will be available for purchase online and at Target stores, along with the newly public Santa Monica micromobility company’s new e-bike, Bird Bike,
Here’s what else Los Angeles-area technology companies got up to this week:
- NZXT, a PC gaming hardware and services company in City of Industry, has secured a strategic investment of approximately $100 million led by Francisco Partners to hire more senior talent, expand its product offering to include new hardware categories and expand its direct-to-consumer offering in new global markets.
- Los Angeles-based First Resonance has landed a $14 million Series A investment led by Craft Ventures for its Factory Operating System, ION, which has been deployed across more than two dozen companies including Joby Aviation, Astra, Reliable Robotics, and some of the world's largest manufacturers.
- Vault AI, the Santa Monica-based machine-learning audience-prediction company that analyzes stories to deliver actionable business insights for content marketing and development executives, has raised an $8 million Series A.
- Los Angeles-based Oda Studio has raised $2.8 million to take global its real estate visual commerce platform that automatically optimizes real estate photos.
- Los Angeles game design and publishing studio Sequoia Games Inc. has closed undisclosed Series A funding to create games that connect physical and digital experiences, such as its first product, the board game FLEX NBA.
