IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - October 27, 2015) - Today, LightSpeed Innovations, The Aerospace Startup Factory, graduated its first cohort of new companies. Businesses went through a three and a half month intensive mentor driven, business boot-camp program culminating in a pitch to investors and aerospace industry players. At the time of the pitch event, all companies had secured lead investors as initial validation of their business model, market and growth potential, and had collectively raised $2.5 million.
This event demonstrates that aerospace start-ups are starting to get noticed by the seed/early stage investment community. They are differentiated from traditional industry players in that they move fast, fail early, fail often, learn fast, innovate- all a sure bet to ensuring the aerospace ecosystem remains vibrant.

The LightSpeed Innovations Accelerator helps aerospace innovators develop and launch their ideas into investable companies by providing mentoring, help with market validation, and access to private investment.

The five graduating companies were:
Deep Space Industries: an innovative space technology and resources company, engaged in maturing technologies for deep space, in-orbit services, and asteroid mining. www.deepspaceindustries.com.
Phase Four: a nanosat micro-thruster company using plasma at its core. Small Satellites, Big Propulsion. www.phasefour.io

Kubos: a company developing the first open source OS and community for space software. www.kubos.co
Atlas Space Operations: the first managed satellite ground services company focused on facilitating the space-based big data play. www.atlasground.com

Additive Rocket Company, a UCSD based company leveraging sophisticated designs, know-how and technologies to develop 3D printed rocket engines.

Industry attendees included representatives from Northrop Grumman, Ball Aerospace, Boeing, Booz Allen and IBM. Inventor attendees included representatives from the Wharton Angel Network, Tech Coast Angels, the Space Angels Network, Pasadena Angels and Keiretsu Forum. Several university partners also attended.

About LightSpeed Innovations
LightSpeed Innovations is the Aerospace Start-up Factory that offers startups access to a large network of experts, mentors, and investors in the industry during an intensive three-month business bootcamp. LightSpeed Innovations is dedicated to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. aerospace sector.

LightSpeed Innovations: http://www.lightspeedic.com
Apply for LightSpeed Accelerator Program:https://www.f6s.com/lightspeedacceleratorprogram/apply
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Contact Information:
LightSpeed Innovations
Ellen Chang

LightSpeed Kicks Off Aerospace Accelerator Program for New Space Companies

Release Date: 
July 3, 2015

For Immediate Release
LightSpeed Innovations Press Office
Contact: Ellen Chang, [email protected]

Los Angeles, CA– 5 exciting NewSpace companies commenced a 12-week business accelerator program last weekend.  Of these, 4 companies were selected from a larger pool to participate in a program curated around the new space start-up ecosystem; one company joined as a guest and customer of Deep Space Industries.  The LightSpeed Innovations Accelerator program will help aerospace innovators propel their companies’ success by providing early market validation, mentoring, and access to private investment. 

David Barnhart, Director of the Space Research Engineering Center of USC’s Information Sciences Institute, attended as a mentor and also provided the conference facility at the USC ISI in Marina Del Ray.  He said, “It’s wonderful that so many new space start-ups have a chance to learn from each other as well as improve the opportunity for business financing and success. USC is dedicated to helping the transition from pure research to application, and see the NewSpace community as a vibrant transition partner."  Dan Faber, CEO of Deep Space Industries was excited to meet other companies in the ecosystem. He stated, “This shows that the new space start-up ecosystem is growing as it pulls increasing numbers of talented individuals from the industry to innovate and create new businesses with new technologies. Let's disrupt!"

The startups selected by LightSpeed Innovations for this program come from around the country, and are ready to leverage the deep aerospace experience and bench strength of the Southern California region:

Deep Space Industries: a space technology and resources company, engaged in maturing technologies for deep space and in-orbit services, ultimately focused on asteroid mining.
KARMAN Aerospace: a Space Diving company that is harnessing brain control technology in their BCI 2.0 product.
Kubos: a software company developing open source software for nanosats.
Phase Four: a nanosat micro-thruster company using plasma at its core.
Argus: a company developing a constellation of nanosats using hyperspectral sensors targeting the oil/gas, and other markets.

About LightSpeed Innovations 
LightSpeed Innovations is an aerospace focused accelerator that offers startups access to a large network of experts in the industry during an intensive three-month program.   LightSpeed curates its start-up cohorts in 5 sub-verticals: NewSpace, Drones, Robotics, Big Data/Analytics, and Cyber Security.  For more information on the LightSpeed Innovations Accelerator program, please visit http://www.lightspeedic.com and follow (Twitter), FB, Linked In.