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        Zonar, a smart fleet management solutions provider, has laid off 57 employees. The layoffs are part of a restructuring effort by Zonar's parent company, Continental Automotive.
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        The 57-employee lay-off represents a significant portion of Zonar's workforce, given it&nbsp;employs only around 300 people across North America. The company stated that while Continental Automotive is changing its focus on several Zonar-supported projects, Zonar's core business and markets remain unchanged. The company continues to provide GPS and telematics solutions for fleets in various industries, such as construction, transportation, and utilities.
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    <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2024/zonar-systems-lays-off-57-employees-as-parent-company-continental-considers-restructuring/">
      GeekWire
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Truck Industry Tech

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 <p>Fleet management solutions provider, Zonar, has laid off 57 of its employees as part of its parent company, Continental Automotive's restructuring initiative. Given Zonar's North American workforce of approximately 300, this lay-off represents a significant percentage.</p>
 <p>Zonar, despite these changes and Continental Automotive's shift in focus on certain projects, maintains that its core business and markets remain unaffected. Zonar still continues to serve various industries including construction, transportation, and utilities with its GPS and telematics solutions.</p>
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Zonar Systems lays off 57 employees amid parent company restructuring

Additive manufacturing makes objects by systematically adding material via a CAD program

Additive Manufacturing

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 
 <p>6K Additive, a supplier of additive manufacturing materials, has been chosen by America Makes, an institution that collaborates on 3D printing projects in the US, to participate in the "Powder Alloy Development for Additive Manufacturing (PADAM)" project.</p>
 <p>The project, endowed with six million dollars from the Air Force Research Laboratory, aims to enhance the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of the production of niobium C-103 powder for laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition (DED) 3D printing processes. Additionally, it aims to extend the source pool and utilize a wider range of particle sizes for C-103, a niobium alloy utilized in high-temperature applications. The project will also include collaboration with Castheon, NASA Glenn Research Center, NSL Analytical, Lockheed Martin, and Firefly Aerospace.</p>
 <p>&nbsp;6K Additive plans to use its proprietary UniMelt microwave plasma process to generate C-103 powders from revert sources, reportedly enhancing efficiency in high-temperature and space applications.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst Quicktake:<br>
 </b> This news marks the second time that American Makes has selected the company to participate in one of its projects. Last month, the company <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/32452"> partnered with RTX Technology Research Center and the University of Arizona </a> as part of the EARTH project under America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining to make aerospace and defense product manufacturing more sustainable.</p>

6K Additive awarded project to develop C-103 powder for additive manufacturing

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>

<p>Innovative Space Carrier (ISC), a company in Tokyo specializing in space transportation systems, has entered into a partnership with WAAM3D, Cranfield University, and Aichi Sangyo. All these organizations bring different specialties to the table - WAAM3D is a metal AM solutions provider, while Aichi Sangyo is known for their metal 3D printers. The collaboration aims to develop reusable space transportation vehicles.</p>
<p>The partnership will allow ISC to procure 3D printers from WAAM3D in Japan for the purpose of creating propellant tanks and other necessary components for space transport. This should contribute to the flexibility and efficiency of the development process.&nbsp;</p>

</div>

WAAM3D partners with Innovative Space Carrier, Cranfield University, and Aichi Sangyo for space transport development

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

<div>
 
 <p>The DeFi infrastructure provider, INFINIT, has successfully procured USD 6 million in a funding event. This round of funding was spearheaded by Electric Capital and Mirana Ventures, with contributions from other entities such as Hashed, Lightspeed Faction, Robot Ventures among others.</p>

 <p>INFINIT provides a unique DeFi abstraction layer to facilitate the creation and expansion of decentralized applications across unified blockchain networks. This layer allows users to create a variety of DeFi applications, such as decentralized exchanges, yield protocols, and perpetual platforms. It also simplifies the development process by removing the need to code in intricate languages like Solidity or Rust. Instead, users can utilize TypeScript to add new features to existing applications or even create brand new applications.</p>

</div>

INFINIT raises USD 6 million in funding to enhance infrastructure

Automation to improve business efficiency

Workflow Automation Platforms

<div>
 
 <p>Salesforce announced the introduction of Agentforce, a range of automated solutions powered by artificial intelligence. These solutions are intended to facilitate automation across various domains such as service, sales, commerce, and marketing.</p>
 <p>The platform is built on Salesforce's existing platform and utilizes the recently developed Data Cloud. This technology unifies customer data and metadata in real-time. Included in this suite are ready-to-use agents for assorted roles like sales development, service, marketing campaign optimization, and an Agent Builder which allows users to create their own agents.</p>
 <p>The platform is user-friendly, enabling users to define topics, create natural language instructions, build an action library using low-code tools, and customize the AI to meet their unique requirements without needing advanced technical skills. Additionally, Agentforce plans to feature a broad partner network of prominent companies including AWS, Google, Honeywell, IBM, Workday, Zoom, Coupa, and Box. These partners have developed over 20 agents and agent actions that will be available on the Salesforce’s AppExchange marketplace.&nbsp;</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> This launch has entered Salesforce into the Gen AI-powered agent-building space, which has seen rapid growth in popularity over the last few months. It joins some leading automation players as well as similar incumbents, which have made recent strides via new product launches. This includes 1) <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/companies/256440"> Pipefy </a> , which <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/32584"> launched an AI agent solution </a> to enhance service delivery; 2) <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/companies/60912"> Automation Anywhere </a> , which <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/30479"> launched an AI studio </a> for users to create and manage custom AI Agents; and 3) <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/companies/6554"> Zendesk </a> , which <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/28594"> launched an AI agent solution </a> for customer service automation.</p>

Salesforce announces suite of AI-powered autonomous agent solutions

A concentration of wealth and a willingness to adopt age-in-place technologies present new opportunities.

Age Tech

<div>
 
 <p>The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sanctioned a software update enabling Apple's AirPods Pro 2 to serve as over-the-counter hearing aids.</p>
 <p>Post Apple's announcement of a novel hearing aid feature for the second-generation AirPods Pro, the FDA approval followed. Apple deemed it as "the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device, Hearing Aid Feature." In a clinical study encompassing 118 subjects with mild to moderate hearing impediments, the feature exhibited comparative perceived benefits similar to professional fitting of the identical device.</p>
 <p>Such advancement aligns with Apple's commitment to hearing health. It has also introduced a new Hearing Protection mode and a Hearing Test feature for AirPods Pro users.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> In <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/23600"> November 2023 </a> , Soundwave Hearing obtained FDA 510k clearance for Sontro, its OTC hearing aids. While Soundwave’s hearing aids are designed specifically to be hearing aids, Apple’s AirPods are considered the first wireless earbuds that have also been cleared as FDA-approved hearing aids.</p>

FDA approves Apple AirPods Pro as over-the-counter hearing aids

Incorporating technology to improve efficiency and success rate of clinical trials

Clinical Trial Technology

<div>
 
 <p>Paradigm Health and Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital in Israel, have formed a partnership along with ARC Innovation to create a global clinical research network. The team intends to leverage Paradigm's AI-driven platform to revolutionize clinical trials, making them more efficient and patient-centric.</p>
 <p>The aim of this partnership is to bring the site of these trials closer to the homes of patients, to improve recruitment and retention, and to automate processes. Through this strategy, trial costs could potentially reduce while accelerating the development of novel treatments.</p>
 <p>Sheba and ARC are also planning to broaden the reach of this clinical trial platform to their global network of hospitals to improve accessibility to innovative treatments and to standardize methodologies. Their ambition is to become one of the first fully integrated AI-based hospitals in the world.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> This marks the second international partnership Paradigm Health has secured in 2024. In <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/32922"> August 2024, </a> the company partnered with Fujitsu to enhance clinical trials and tackle drug loss in Japan. Additionally, earlier this <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/33191"> month </a> , Paradigm partnered with Florida Cancer Specialists to expand clinical trial access.</p>

Paradigm Health and Sheba Medical partner to optimize clinical trials

Managing employee health-related benefits

Health Benefits Platforms

<div>
 
 <p>XP Health, a vision care platform, has raised a total of USD 55.3 million funds with its latest Series B funding round fetching USD 33.2 million. The round was led by QED Investors with participation from Canvas Ventures, American Family Ventures, HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group, and Manchester Story.</p>
 <p>The raised funds will likely be used for further advancing and expanding XP Health's AI-driven platform. This platform provides employee eye exams and eyewear benefits at a cost lower than traditional vision insurance plans.</p>
 <p>XP Health has managed to increase its business customer base to over 3,000 in the last two years from an original 30. Customers include companies such as DocuSign, Navistar, Chegg, and Sequoia Consulting. According to XP Health, its members can make savings of as much as 69% off retail prices when purchasing eyeglasses virtually via its platform.</p>
 
</div>

XP Health raises USD 33.2 million in Series B funding to expand vision care platform

A decentralized version of the web powered by the blockchain

Web3 Ecosystem

<div>
 
 <p>Stablecoin and payments infrastructure provider, Circle, has expanded its Web3 Services product suite to fully support the Arbitrum One blockchain. This means its full-stack blockchain infrastructure platform, which already accommodates chains such as Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon PoS, and Solana, has increased its range of support.</p>
 <p>For Arbitrum, Circle's Web3 Services suite includes programmable wallets, a smart contract platform, and a gas station.</p>
 <p>The firm believes that this integration will provide significant support to the rapidly growing community of developers on Arbitrum. It will enable them to create multi-chain applications for DeFi and other enterprise use cases, and benefit from near-instantaneous transaction settlement at substantial scale with minimum costs.</p>
 
</div>

Circle expands Web3 Services product suite to Arbitrum

Empowering efficiency, visibility and collaboration throughout supply networks

Supply Chain Tech

<div>
 <p>Exiger, an AI company focusing on supply chain and third-party risk, recently announced that its Exiger Federal Cloud has obtained Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate Authorization.</p>
 <p>This FedRAMP Authorization is set to improve and expedite the process for government and Defense Industrial Base customers who use Exiger's AI solutions and 1Exiger platform for securing vital supply chains.</p>
 <p>The achievement of FedRAMP Authorization, which is the result of a multi-year initiative and investments in improved cloud systems, complements the company's existing ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications.</p>
 
</div>

Exiger achieves FedRAMP Moderate Authorization for Federal Cloud

A new wave of meat, fish, and poultry alternatives are driving this hyper-growth industry into the mainstream.

Plant-based Meat

<div>
 <p>Schouten Europe, a Dutch firm that specializes in creating meat substitutes, has launched a new plant-based chicken schnitzel. The product is made using the company's novel fiber technology, NewTextures, and forms part of its Classics range. The ingredients for this alternative meat product include wheat and soy proteins, bamboo fibers, rapeseed, and sunflower oil.</p>
 <p>The company developed the NewTextures technology in-house. It replaces traditional textured proteins with fibers, purportedly improving the texture and appeal of products. The plant-based chicken schnitzel, which is made using this technology, exhibits a juicy texture and the typical white color associated with chicken.</p>
 <p>According to Schouten Europe, the NewTextures technology can also reduce the environmental impact of products. It avoids the need for conventional texturization processes that use high amounts of energy. The firm also believes that, by improving the appeal and texture of meat substitutes, this new technology can take the product category to new heights.</p>
 
</div>

All Updates

Zonar Systems lays off 57 employees amid parent company restructuring

6K Additive awarded project to develop C-103 powder for additive manufacturing

WAAM3D partners with Innovative Space Carrier, Cranfield University, and Aichi Sangyo for space transport development

INFINIT raises USD 6 million in funding to enhance infrastructure

Salesforce announces suite of AI-powered autonomous agent solutions

FDA approves Apple AirPods Pro as over-the-counter hearing aids

Paradigm Health and Sheba Medical partner to optimize clinical trials

XP Health raises USD 33.2 million in Series B funding to expand vision care platform

Circle expands Web3 Services product suite to Arbitrum

Exiger achieves FedRAMP Moderate Authorization for Federal Cloud

Schouten Europe launches plant-based chicken schnitzel with new fiber technology

Truck Industry Tech

Zonar Systems lays off 57 employees amid parent company restructuring

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