Startup Automaker Aptera Gets Back in Gear, Streaming Video Companies Vie for Attention, MeLLmo Gets Better at Mobile Graphics, & More San Diego BizTech News

The noble cause of technology innovation is a great race. Just look at Aptera Motors, which appeared to be running out of cash last fall as it laid off much of its workforce. Now—after refueling with $10 million in VC funding—the Vista, CA, carmaker revealed plans to hire 500 people for its new assembly plant in Oceanside, CA. Get that and the rest of your race updates here.

—Vista, CA-based Aptera Motors staged a comeback media briefing that dispelled worries about the startup automaker’s cash crunch—at least for now. Aptera just raised $10 million in venture funding and plans to raise more, CEO Paul Wilbur says. He also unveiled the latest version of the Aptera 2e, an all-electric, two-passenger car, which was then shipped off to compete this summer in the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.

—With the increasing popularity of Internet streaming video, we saw a flurry of announcements from a variety of companies during the annual National Association of Broadcasters’ conference in Las Vegas. Qualcomm, for example, announced plans to add Web-based content and social media tools to its satellite-based mobile TV service-–and to allow Flo TV customers to record TV shows on their mobile devices for later viewing. San Diego’s VMIX said it has broadened its relationship with Cambridge, MA-based Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) by standardizing its online video capabilities with Akamai’s HD Network.

—Upon seeing the previous news, Sorenson Media Jacob Moon reminded me by e-mail that the Carlsbad, CA-based company has shown 40 percent revenue growth for the past two quarters. He added that its Internet video technology, including

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.