Recently, A new, nonprofit organization, Gift A Plate (www.giftaplate,org), launched effrts in Los Angeles, to allow people to donate to help both restaurants and families in need. The organization said it is looking to help aid restaurants and families who have been greatly impacted by COVID-19 in LA. The new nonprofit is was created by software company PlateIQ (www.plateiq.com), and is led by Bhavuk Kaul, who who chatted with about the new effort.

What is PlateIQ, and how did you come up with Gift a Plate?

Bhavuk Kaul: We are an accounts payable payments platform for the restaurant industry, and we are transitioning to serve other industries, such as the hospitality industry. We work with over 10,000 restaursnts, a lot of them in Southern California. When COVID happened, our industry was the first one to be hit, and we're now trying to recover from COVID. People are only now starting to eat out, and there is a lot of employment, and from that perspective, we wanted to see how we could help. What we are good at, is building technology and technology platforms. People want to help, but don't know what to do. Our goal, was to create a platform where individuals can donate money to cook food for people who don't have access to good, healthy meals. We started in San Francisco, where we are based, and recently launched in Los Angeles with our restaurant platform....

San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals says it has added Dr. Katharine Knobil, MD, to its board of directors. Knobil is the current Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research and Development at Kaleido Biosciences. She also spent more than 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), most recently as Chief Medical Officer. The company says Knobil has more than 20 years of experience in a wide range of areas, including global clinical development, health outcomes, and medical affairs.

Marina Del Rey-based online, floral delivery retailer The Bouqs Company announced today that it has named a new CEO, Alejandro Bethlen. The company said that founder and former CEO John Tabis will become Chairman of the Board. The Bouqs--which is a direct-to-consumer floral delivery brand which runs its own, vertically integrated floral supply chain--says Bethlen was most recently General Manager for Amazon Flex Europe and Asia Pacific, and had been at Amazon for eight years; he also had served at Procter & Gamble. The Bouqs said it raised $30M in funding earlier this year.

Los Angeles-based LegalZoom, which provides online legal help and documents, says it has named Nicole Miller as the company's General Counsel. Miller was most recently General Counsel at The Honest Company, and also had previously served at Cooley and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. LegalZoom said Miller will lead the company's legal organization and provide strategic guidance on compliance, risk management, and corporate governance. LegalZoom offers up legal help to individuals, families, and small businesses.

San Diego-based Qualcomm Technologies has launched a new program to help small businesses move towards the "mobile-first" world, the company said last week. According to Qualcomm, its Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program will offer up products powered by Qualcomm Technologies solutions, plus collaboration tools and technical and integration support, so they can continue to maintain operations throughout the current global pandemic and beyond. The company said the program--being run with the support of Best Buy Business, Microsoft, Verizon Business, and others--will provide up to $25,000 in products and technical support to approximately 25 small businesses. The company said the products will include cellular-connected laptops, Wi-Fi systems, mobile phones, Bluetooth enabled headsets and active mobile hotspots, along with technical / device integration and support.

San Diego-based fintech provider Kyriba, which provides cash and liquidity management for cross border firms, says it is expanding its efforts in the Middle East, Central Europe, and Africa, with a new partnership. The company said it has partnered with Midis Group, to provide localized services and support in those regions. Kyriba offers up its products for managing payments, cash and liquidity management, supply chain finance, and foreign exchange risk management. The company offers up its products to the banking, finance, and government market.

San Diego-based Avidity Bio, a biopharmaceuticals company working on oligonucleotide-based therapies, priced its IPO last night, saying that it will offer up 14,400,000 shares of its common stock at $18.00 per share. The company priced above its initial estimated offering range of $14.00 to $16.00 per share. The company said it will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market today, June 12th, under the ticker symbol RNA. Avidity Biosciences is venture backed by RTW Investments, Cormorant Asset Management, Eli Lilly and Company, ALETHEA Capital Management, and EcoR1 Capital.

Sonos, with a patent infringement lawsuit, saying that Sonos has illegally used a number of Google patents in the development of its wireless audio technology. The lawsuit, Google LLC v. Sonos, Inc., was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday. Google accused Sonos of violating at least three patents-- 7,899,187 Domain-based digital-rights management system with easy and secure device enrollment; 8,583,489 Generating a media content availability notification; and 7,065,206 Method and apparatus for adaptive echo and noise control. The patent infringement lawsuit is in response to another, patent infringement lawsuit filed by Sonos against Google January, where Sonos sought both financial damages and a ban on the sale of Google's speakers, smartphones, and laptops in the United States.

Irvine-based Panoramic-VetPro, a developer of software for state and county governments used to manage disability claims, said it will offer up its software to free to veteran service organizations. According to the company, it will offer up its disability claim management system, VetPro, to any organization that works to support disabled Veterans apply for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs during the COVID crisis. The company's software-as-a-service system helps agencies meet virtually with Veterans, fill out VA forms, digitally sign documents and electronically submit claim packages to the VA.

Santa Monica-based meditation app provider Headspace has raised $47.7M in an equity funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the company, filed this week. The funding--an extension of its Series C funding--was announced at the Snap Partner Summit. According to the filing, the funding came from 10 different investors. The funding comes on top of an earlier, $53M in equity the company announced in February from such investors as blisce/, Waverly Capital, Times Bridge, The Chernin Group, Spectrum Equity and Advancit Capital. Mindspace develops mindfulness and meditation software, used to help users reduce stress. Headspace and Snap said today that they would be bringing Headspace's mindfulness tools directly to Snaps users. The company said it now has raised $100.7M in its Series C funding.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX is planning a new launch of a payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base, just north of Lompoc, the first since June of 2019. According to NASA, it will be launching a new, international ocean measurement satellite, Sentinel-6. NASA said that Sentinel-6 will collect data on ea level, a key indicator of how Earth's warming climate affects weather and coastlines. SpaceX's last launch in Vandenberg was a set of three earth observation satellites for the Government of Canada.

San Diego-based Cue Health, a developer of rapid molecular testing products, has raised $100M in a Series C funding round, the company said this week. The funding came from Decheng Capital, Foresite Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., ACME Capital and other investment firms, according to the company. Cue Health develops rapid molecular testing products, aimed at use in nursing homes, emergency departments, and community health clinics. The company said financing will go towards complete development, validation, and scale-up of manufacturing of the Cue Health Monitoring System and Cue Test Cartridges. The company's products include a molecular test for COVID-19, which is currently under review by the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Ayub Khattak.

Huntington Beach-based rocket launch provider Rocket Lab is again delaying its launch for this week, to June 13th. According to Rocket Lab, the delay--the second for the DontStopMeNow mission--is due to high winds at its LC-1 launch site. The company says the launch is now targeted for no earlier than 04:43 UTC on June 13th. The company's Electron rocket carries three payloads designed by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which provides imagery and other information to U.S. intelligence agencies. Rocket Lab's rockets are designed to put up small satellites (Cubesats) into space.

Los Angeles-based Slingshot Aerospace, a startup which normally develops situational intelligence software, is helping to address some of the major issues to emerge out of the global COVID-19 pandemic, by helping to create an online mapping tool for finding food help. The company said it has partnered with 211 Los Angeles County, the official information and referral source for health and human services in LA County, to launch an online mapping tool helping LA county residents in need locate over 2,000 free or low-cost food resources. The tool--211 LA FoodFinder--lets residents of LA County find child food resources, meal services, grocery and food pantries, senior food programs, and also government food benefit programs. The company said it used a customized version of its Slingshot Earth mapping tool to provide all of those resources.

Westlake Village-based inVia Robotics, which develops warehouse automation robots, is in an expansion into Asia, with its first deployment in Osaka, Japan. According to inVia Robotics, it will supply its autonomous mobile robots to automate fulfillment operations in the primary distribution center of Kantsu, a provider of logistics and warehousing services to the e-commerce industry. Financial details of the deal were not announced. inVia said it will provide a fleet of 200 autonomous mobile robots, which will help automate the picking process at Kantsu's warehouse, overcoming limitations of manual picking. inVia Robotics--led by Lior Elazary--offers up its robots in a service-based model, monitoring the operations of its robots remotely at its own monitoring center, proactively replacing and repairing robots as they run into issues.

Los Angeles-based Dimer LLC, the maker of the "GermFalcon" germicidal lighting, has entered into a strategic partnership with Honeywell to the aviation market, the company said on Wednesday. According to Dimer, Honeywell will sell the GermFalcon as the Honeywell UV Cabin System for "airline recovery". Dimer's system uses ultraviolet light for disinfection of surfaces, something which has been used in the healthcare industry for years. UV light reduces various bacteria and viruses on exposed surfaces. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. Dimer says it has been working on its GermFalcon for six years; the company's technology has become very relevant in the era of COVID-19

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has bailed on a pending deal to lease space at the Port of Los Angeles, the second time it has done so in the last year. The withdrawal of SpaceX's lease comes after a massive scramble by the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners to approve a 10-year agreement with SpaceX in February. SpaceX did not give a reason for withdrawing from the lease, however, it comes after Elon Musk threatened to leave California because of the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Port of Los Angeles location was supposed to be the manufacturing site for the Starship, which SpaceX eventually wants to take to Mars. SpaceX had rejected another, approved lease back in January of 2019, saying it would rather manufacture the spacecraft in Texas.

Los Angeles-based Wheels, which provides on-demand, e-bike sharing services, has re-launched its operations, 3 months after pausing its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the service, it is re-launching in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, and Orlando this week, after re-launching its services in Stockholm and Madrid previously. As part of the re-launch, Wheels said it has introduced new "self-sanitizing" handlebars and brake levers, and also has added baskets to the front of its e-bikes, so that its users can use its vehicles to pick up essential items, go shopping, and run other errands, rather than use a car or public transportation. Wheels said the new "self-sanitizing" handlebars are through a partnership with NanoSeptic, whose coatings--according to Wheels--use "mineral nanocrystals" which continuously break down any organic contaminants on surfaces.

Los Angeles-based Wave, which develops software and hardware to enable live, virtual reality concerts, has raised $30M in a Series B funding round, the company said on Wednesday. The funding was led by Maveron Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners, and also included angels Alex Rodriguez and Scooter Braun. Wave is led by CEO Adam Arrigo. The company uses motion capture to power virtual, interactive concerts for music artists.

A new, nonprofit organization, Gift A Plate, is working with local restaurants in Los Angeles, to allow people to donate to help both restaurants and families in need. The organization--launched by Silicon Valley startup Plate IQ, HotSchedules, and others--said it is looking to help aid restaurants and families who have been greatly impacted by COVID-19 in LA. The organization said that local Los Angeles restaurants, including Pink Taco, Barcade, Solita, Tocaya, El Torito, Acapulco, The Stand, Holy Cow, Bacari and Sol will use those donations to produce meals for local shelters and food banks that are partnered with Gift A Plate. Gift A Plate says it is working with local restaurants, shelters and food banks in NYC, LA and San Francisco, with plans to expand to additional cities soon.

San Diego-based DelMar Pharmaceuticals announced this morning that it has acquired Adgero Pharmaceuticals. Financial details of the all equity deal were not announced. According to DelMar, it will change its name to Kintara Therapeutics, and change its NASDAQ symbol to KTRA. Adgero is a developer of late stage photodynamic therapy platform for the treatment of serious cutaneous oncology indications. DelMar said that current DelMar stockholders will own 50.5% of the company, and Adgero stockholders will own 49.5% of the total voting power of the combined company.

Los Angeles-based live streaming audio and video provider LiveXLive said this mornign that it has linked with music streaming provider Baeble Music, to distribute its content across Baeble's platform. Financial details of the content, distribution, and revenue share agreement were not announced. LiveXLive said the addition of Baeble expands its reach to a total of 35 platforms. The addition of Baeble is on top of existing deals with such providers as Apple TV, Android TV, Comcast X1, Roku, Samsung TV, XUMO, and XBox.

Santa Monica-based Grow Credit, a startup which helps people establish credit by paying for subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Disney Plus, and Spotify, has raised $2M in a seed funding round, the company said on Tuesday. The funding came from Mucker Labs. The startup, led by Joe Bayen, has a virtual Mastercard which lets users pay for services and establish a credit record using those payments. The company said that the funding also included angels Jason Robins (DraftKings), Ronnie Lott (former NFL player), and Sebastien Deguy (Adobe).

On-demand scooter companies in the City of Los Angeles have gained a new ally in their efforts to keep the data about their scooters private, after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) over its collection of anonymized electric scooter data. According to the complaint filed by the ACLU, the ACLU says that the collection of trip data by Los Angeles is "violation of their right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures in contravention of the United States and California Constitutions" and also says that data collection violates the California Electronic Communications Private Act (CalEPCA). Among other demanDs, the lawsuit seeks to stop the collection of that data by Los Angeles, to delete all "precise and identifiable location data" and alsO is looking for damages.

Los Angeles-based Flowly, a startup developing mobile apps to help manage chronic pain and anxiety, said today that it has launched a new app to help people relax using virtual reality. According to the company, its app offers up "beautiful and peaceful virtual reality and 360 degree worlds" which are tied into biofeedback for relaxation training. The company said that either a user's phone or a VR headset can be used to monitor and adjust how they breathe, focus, and learn how to better regulate their own nervous systems. Flowly is led by co-founder and CEO Celine Tien.

San Diego-based venture investor Versant Ventures has launched a brand new company out of its Inception Discovery Engine incubator in San Diego, saying this morning it has invested $50M in Lycia Therapeutics. According to Versant Ventures, Lycia Therapeutics will use the funding to develop lysosomal targeting chimeras, or LYTACs, as therapeutics for a broad set of currently intractable cell surface targets. Versant said it started Lycia in 2019 within its Inception Labs effort in San Diego, in a collaboration with Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and HHMI investigator at Stanford University. As part of the funding and announcement of the company, Versant said it has named Aetna Wun Trombley as CEO of Lycia Therapeutics, which will be based in San Francisco.

Valencia-based Fralock, which designs and manufactures specialty components for the aerospace, electronics, industrial life science, medical, satellite, and semiconductor equipment manufacturing industries, has acquired Chatsworth-based Career Technologies USA