FUNDING
Mica Energies Inc., an Irvine-based semiconductor company, said it’s raising funds on SmartEngine for the development of a chip that automatically charges smartphones, laptops, tablets and game consoles.
The company, which reports a valuation of $38 million, says it is developing tech that harvests atmospheric radio frequency energy to charge smart wireless devices, allowing them to become “self-sustaining,” without the need for charging plugs and pads. It aims to have a working model of its chip by mid-2023.
“Our competitors are designing solutions using Near-Field Communications (NFC) that can recharge the battery yet require immobile positioning for lengthy periods of time, effectively negating the intended mobility of the device, and the purchase of emitter devices to place additional energy into the environment for NFC RF harvesting,” Mica Energies founder and CEO Judah Ben Hur, the former CTO and CEO of wireless communications firm Gaiacomm International, said in a statement.
Tech firm GoMe.ai launched a crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine for its AI-driven professional development coaching software.
GoMe.ai, founded this year and based in Irvine, aims to reduce costs and increase scalability of leadership developÂment programs in organizations, GoMe.ai officials said.
After collecting data from users as they attend online meetings and consume content, the GoMe.ai software then delivers analytics on a dashboard providing personalized professional advice.
The software “is a game-changing platform that enables organizations of all sizes to provide their workforce with high-quality, cost-effective leadership development and coaching,” CEO Jim Hart said in a statement. Hart previously led Huntington Beach-based business management consulting firm Senn Delaney, a Heidrick & Struggles company.
“Our platform’s unique capability is to use AI/Machine Learning to align coaching with each organization’s priorities,” Hart said. “And, because it’s driven by AI, it breaks the traditional coaching barriers of cost and scalability by providing personalized, private coaching anytime, anywhere, with just-in-time recommendations to help individuals be more successful.”
PARTNERSHIPS
Origence, an Irvine-based provider of lending tech to credit unions, inked an agreement with Los Angeles-based underwriting software company Zest AI.
The brand, which falls under the portfolio of lending software company CU Direct Corp., will integrate Zest AI’s credit scoring tech into the automated underwriting software for its lending platform, Origence officials said.
“Incorporating Zest AI’s advanced machine learning technology greatly enhances overall loan decisioning capabilities of our consumer lending platform,” Origence Chief Product Officer Brian Hendricks said in a statement. With “unmatched automated underwriting and credit scoring capabilities,” the groups aim to “further simplify the lending process, benefitting both our credit union partners and their members.”
Over 1,100 credit unions implement Origence’s technology. The brand, founded in 2019, said its technology helped credit unions issue $57.4 billion in loans last year.
LAUNCH
Newport Beach-based YouAttest, a provider of cloud-based identity auditing and compliance tools, whose founder and CEO Garret Grajek started SecureAuth, kicked off its security system for companies and organizations, YouAttest Enterprise.
The new software aims to transfer data between YouAttest and audited resources in a quick, secure manner.
“Since our inception in 2020, customers have been asking YouAttest to incorporate two major features: the ability to scale to the millions and for a flexible and a product-expanding API,” YouAttest CEO Grajek said in a statement. “This release, now in general availability, meets both of these criteria.”
The company’s product is designed help enterprises complete a range of regulatory and compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA.
Irvine-based medical device company ORHub Inc. will unveil its spine surgery-focused bone growth product, the PUR Pillars, in early fourth qaurter this year.
The PUR Pillars intend to combat the typical migration of bone graft materials by securing them in place, company officials said. The product will provide a bio-active solid matrix structure that patients’ cells can bind with. It’s made from Fibrous Collagen created by PUR Biologics, a biotech regenerative-oriented company ORHub acquired in April.
The market for bone growth products like PUR Pillars is worth over $8 billion, according to company officials. About 950,000 surgical spine fusion procedures take place every year, ORHub officials said, with an expected annual growth rate of 6%.
BOARD MOVES
Irvine-based medtech GATC Health Corp. has appointed Dr. Jayson Hymes to its board of advisors.
Hymes counts over 30 years of experience and is a clinician in the fields of addiction, pain management and anesthesiology. He is currently the chief medical officer of Conservative Care Specialist Medical Group Inc., which treats patients with pain management and addiction medicine.
Hymes previously served as an advisor to the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the executive office of the U.S. president, as well as on Medical Board of California, the California Narcotics Officers Association and the Los Angeles Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Dr. Hymes’ decades of real-world experience and evidence from treating patients with substance-abuse issues will prove invaluable as GATC continues investigating the causes of and treatments for addiction,” GATC President Jeff Moses said in a statement.
Founded in 2021, GATC’s 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.
