LAUNCH
Irvine-based My Car Auction unveiled its technology platform and website that allows users to sell cars from their home. Rather than pricing used cars with a two-week moving average, My Car Auction examines thousands of daily car transactions to give customers real-time prices on their vehicles, the company says.
The software then lists the vehicle to over 50,000 potential buyers.
My Car Auction, formed in 2020, is the latest entrepreneurial venture for co-founder Mark Moshayedi.
Moshayedi and his family made their first fortune through Santa Ana-based computer storage device-maker STEC Inc., which he co-founded in 1990 with brothers Manouch and Mike.
In addition to holding more than 50 patents to his name, Mark served as the company’s chief executive for a time.
STEC was sold in 2013 to a unit of Western Digital Corp., then based in Irvine, for $340 million.
Irvine-based CLIA-FDA accredited lab Innovative Health Diagnostics has introduced a COVID neutralizing antibody (CNAB) test that measures antibodies that target the virus and neutralize it.
Unlike COVID PCR and antigen tests, CNAB tests are not used to determine whether the user has been infected. Rather, a positive test result signifies the user has had an immune response, meaning they are protected or have immunity.
Antibody testing is typically done after the second or third COVID vaccine dose, so recipients can check whether their body has produced neutralizing antibodies in response to the vaccine, according to company officials.
Innovative Health Diagnostics provides CNAB tests for companies as well as individuals. An individual test costs $85.
The lab also produces PCR tests to notable businesses such as Irvine’s Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Nasdaq: EW) and Amazon Studios. In the first year of the pandemic, when it ramped up the distribution of its PCR tests, its business grew tenfold, the company said. The privately held firm doesn’t disclose revenue.
Irvine-based medical fintech company ORHub Inc. kicked off its surgical resource management platform, called FutureOR, last month.
The platform aims to grant users digital connectivity, faster vendor payments and accountability for surgically implanted medical devices, company officials said.
ORHub “intends to eliminate the deficiencies faced by hospitals and their vendors, replacing outdated documentation and legacy processes with [the company’s] business automation and fast-pay software,” founder and CEO C.J. Wiggins said in a statement.
The software can reduce the hospital to vendor timeline by over 90%, he added.
The company will turn FutureOR’s focus to the ortho-spine surgical market for the next year, since hospitals implant about $2 billion in ortho-spine devices, according to Wiggins.
ORHub, founded in 2016, comprises of four segments: surgical resource management, digital payments regenerative therapeutics and AI.
The company acquired Irvine-based biotech regenerative-oriented company PUR Biologics in April. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
BOARD MOVES
Irvine-based semiconductor company Mobix Labs Inc. has tapped Jim Carol for its strategic advisory board.
A longtime tech CEO and serial entrepreneur with experience scaling ventures to market valuations past $1 billion, Carol will advise the company on product development and fundraising, as the chipmaker focused on next-generation 5G wireless communications expands its global operations.
“Carol is the latest A-lister to join our strategic advisory board at an important juncture for the company,” Mobix Labs advisory board chairman and board of directors member Rick Goerner said in a statement. “Jim Carol’s tech expertise and decades of involvement in raising capital will be instrumental as Mobix Labs integrates new acquisitions and broadens global connectivity solutions.”
Mobix Labs said it appointed longtime industry executive Jim Aralis as chief technology officer in May.
OC business giant Jim Peterson, who once served as chief executive and chairman of Aliso Viejo-based chipmaker Microsemi before its 2018 sale, is the executive chairman of Mobix Labs.
The company, founded in 2020, is one of the most closely watched tech startups in Orange County.
Irvine-based medtech GATC Health Corp. has appointed Dr. Waldemar Lernhardt to its board of advisors.
Lernhardt’s expertise in pharmaceutical development will support the firm’s preclinical research and help scale the clinical development for the company’s future pipeline of drug treatments, GATC Health officials said.
“I was very interested to work with GATC Health after learning how its platform has the power to discover and validate meaningful targets for new therapies and diagnostics that serve unmet clinical needs,” Lernhardt said. “With my experience, I would like to support the company from its very successful path of discovery to the efficient transition to pharmaceutical/diagnostic products.”
Lernhardt is the COO for biotech company ProSci Inc. He has previously served as the CEO of Proveri Inc., a company that manufactured in vitro and in vivo diagnostics substances.
GATC, founded in 2021, says its business involves whole genome analysis and multiomics-based artificial intelligence, for disease detection and drug discovery. It is currently developing treatments for opioid addition, stimulant use disorder and PTSD. Its first drug candidate, created by the company’s AI platform, was a treatment for cocaine addiction.
FUNDING
Irvine-based medical device company Vascular Dynamics Inc. (VDI) secured $20 million in equity financing last month. The round was led by an investment partner of VDI shareholder Rainbow Medical, which the company did not immediately identify.
Lawrence C. Best and existing investors Invus and HBM Healthcare Investments also participated in the equity round.
The funds will support the development of an endovascular device that will help patients suffering from heart failure. At least 26 million people worldwide are affected by heart failure, according to VDI officials.
The device, the MobiusHD, presents a minimally invasive transcatheter approach, company officials say. It’s designed to reshape the carotid artery to improve heart function.
The MobiusHD saw recent success at the CSI Frankfurt 2022 Congress, where Dr. Horst Sievert, director of the CardioVascular Center in Frankfurt, Germany performed a procedure with the device on the 30th patient of the ongoing clinical trial, VDI officials said.
The “results have shown impressive efficacy and demonstrated that the MobiusHD device provides a safe option to treat heart failure patients,” Sievert said of the trial.
