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 Acceleratorhelps 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 Factor 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