New Zealand-based Zenno Astronautics is coming to Los Angeles County to take a pulse of the space business, after another Auckland local, Rocket Lab Corp., found success in the North American aerospace scene.
The startup, which raised more than $10 million since its foundation, is known for making superconducting magnets used to stabilize spacecraft as actuators – commonly known as a mechanical “muscle” that converts energy to movement. Founded in 2017 by current Chief Executive Max Arshavsky, Chief Operating Officer Reuben Brown and Chief Product Officer Sebastian Wieczorek, it announced a headquarters move to L.A. in mid-July.
Though an exact location is not yet determined, Arshavsky told the Business Journal that the team was considering Santa Monica, Hawthorne and El Segundo, among others. He also planned to have facilities and personnel in L.A. “well before the end of the year.”
“We’re known globally for building the most powerful magnets for space, and we do it because we’re on a mission to build technologies that convert solar energy in space straight to useful works, because it’s essentially what we think is needed for the industry to prosper,” Arshavsky said. “We’re the only company on Earth that has done it so far.”
With the new headquarters come new business objectives. Zenno has launched two superconducting magnets to date, and Arshavsky said the team is building a “much larger” platform of technologies based on magnets and solar power.
A major portion of research and development was already done in New Zealand, he said. The new headquarters would be primarily a manufacturing center, with a design and engineering team working alongside its New Zealand counterpart. Furthermore, the move would place the startup closer to existing collaborators, such as Redondo Beach-based Impulse Space Inc., whose Mira satellite hosted a June demonstration of Zenno’s Z01 Supertorquer.
Foreign investment
Foreign aerospace investment is gaining traction across L.A., and Zenno is the latest example.
There was the massive expansion of Long Beach-based Rocket Lab, which has become the second-most active commercial orbital launch provider globally since coming to Southern California in 2013. It trails only behind Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
Smaller startups are also moving to the county. Morpheus Space Inc., dual-headquartered in El Segundo and Dresden, Germany, for example, relocated to California in 2021 to tap into the growing satellite business. Doodle Labs, a wireless networking company originally from Singapore, branched into the South Bay as well in 2018 to build long-range connectivity for commercial and defense partners in aerospace.
The presence of locally founded aerospace giants further created a startup mecca around El Segundo and Hawthorne. SpaceX, though having relocated its headquarters to Texas, catalyzed an ecosystem of venture capital and left behind a “SpaceX Mafia” of ex-employees and engineers. They have created more than 90 startups in the state, including Impulse Space, Santa Monica-based Epsilon3 Inc. and El Segundo-based First Resonance Inc. SpaceX’s recent initial public offering, which pushed its valuation over $2 trillion at first day close, also drew major investor attention to aerospace in the region.
With a long history of major space corporations and a large talent pool, L.A. County is considered by many an ideal space for an international aerospace enterprise to make its mark on U.S. soil. Andy Park, chair of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, told the Business Journal in May that infrastructure, talent and history are important factors for consideration; they bleed into each other to create an enticing ecosystem for growth.
“We have always been a very dominant aerospace and defense sector … and now it’s just the Renaissance, because the technology is allowing for innovation.” Park said. “I think this is a very exciting moment for Southern California.”
The growth in L.A. County matched a state-wide surge. The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found in a report last year that 18,963 foreign owned enterprises accounted for 814,102 jobs in the state, an increase of 14,018 from 2024. That brought about $89 billion in wages to Californians, with Southern California alone supporting over half of the businesses and jobs.
The surge in foreign-owned enterprises came despite the high costs of doing business in California. The local corporate income tax is 8.84% at a flat rate, doubled from that in Denver, not to mention that Texas has entirely waived the fee. Rent, utilities and salary are also more expensive.
But for Zenno, the costliness of doing business in L.A. is counteracted by what the county can offer – from investors to customers and staff.
“I know for sure I can make it work in Los Angeles,” Arshavsky said. “There is a lot of talent here, and there is a broad history of success coming out of this area, and there’s a great density of aerospace hardware companies in Los Angeles.”
Rising demand: market overview
The move also indicated where the aerospace market is moving, said Ali Javaheri, a senior research analyst at PitchBook Data Inc. The federal government is pushing to move manufacturing back to U.S. territory, launching campaigns such as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s “Made in America Manufacturing” initiative. That means an international company like Zenno would benefit from taking roots in the U.S. to win federal contracts.
“Zenno’s move to Los Angeles follows a playbook we’ve seen work before with companies like Rocket Lab. For a company developing mission-critical spacecraft hardware, proximity to satellite manufacturers, defense customers, investors and engineering talent can be a real competitive advantage, and Southern California remains one of the world’s deepest aerospace ecosystems,” Javaheri wrote in an email. “As the Department of Defense and commercial operators continue investing in larger, more resilient satellite constellations, having a credible U.S. presence makes it easier to pursue customers, government programs and strategic partnerships.”
The spacecraft stabilization market is benefiting from the sharp spike in satellite launches over the last few years, he noted. The capacity to point and position itself is critical to every satellite, which means stabilization technology is not a niche, optional choice but a must-have. With local firms such as Rocket Lab expanding into telecommunication and scaling an existing satellite constellation, what Zenno offers will likely come in handy.
Its commercial success, however, will depend on if it can show long-term reliability, feasible power and cooling requirements, “and a product that manufacturers can confidently integrate into operational spacecraft,” said Javaheri.
He noted that Zenno wants “to differentiate itself with a superconducting magnetic torquer that generates much stronger magnetic fields than conventional magnetorquers.” He added that “I also do not think Zenno needs to replace reaction wheels to build a successful business. It is more likely to find early traction by complementing existing systems in applications where stronger magnetic control provides a meaningful performance advantage.”
As the first company to make superconducting magnets in space, Zenno is facing a “blue ocean” opportunity. While superconductors are already critical for magnetic resonance imaging scanners (MRI machines) and particle accelerators, space magnets may yet aid the development of AI data centers and space stations in orbit. Compared to existing reaction wheels for stabilization, the magnets can mean saving fuel while offering more radiation protection in the meantime.
“On Earth mostly superconductivity makes something that was previously possible more efficient, whereas in space, superconductivity unlocks new opportunities,” Arshavsky said. “It literally makes new things possible that we feel it’s never possible before.”
