February 16, 2021
THE LOCAL BUZZ
Your one-stop newsletter on all things tech in San Diego.

Fueled by:
Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe by clicking on the button below:
BLOOMBITES
We love to talk about our startups, but we cover so much more with Fresh Brewed Tech, including our region’s thriving big tech and biotech scene.

Something exciting to watch is big tech getting into the startup game through investing, incubating, accelerating, and acquiring.

One example is Qualcomm Ventures, which has long been investing in a multitude of tech startups, some that don’t even have relevance to its core domain expertise. The investment arm of local behemoth Qualcomm has funded a number of San Diego startups, like AttackIQ, Airspace Technologies, Kneron, and Wiliot, which is great to see. 

San Diego-based Illumina also has a venture fund based in SF and startup accelerators based in SF and the U.K. Illumina Ventures just announced a new class of accelerator members, but unfortunately no San Diego companies were included in this round. 

San Diego’s latest corporate venture fund comes from Dexcom, a leading diabetes tech company. It’s great to see Dexcom Ventures investing beyond its own business and we hope some of those investments go towards deepening the diabetes tech cluster in San Diego.

Speaking of biotech, there’s some major growth happening in our ecosystem as life science companies build up and out in Carlsbad, Vista, Downtown, and more.

We are happy to see one of our top industries continue to grow and expand to other areas of the county. Check out this article by Mary Walshok about how downtown is reinventing itself with this biotech and innovation expansion. 


Cheers,

Follow @FreshBrewedTech on Twitter for daily SD tech news.
ORIGINAL BREW

Our team of local writers gives a fresh look inside the San Diego tech ecosystem past and present.
Tri-D Dynamics, founded by UCSD alumni Deepak Atyam, seeks to create more reactive pipes used across the energy, agriculture, automotive and aerospace industries.
Vista-based NewRocket, a software and services company, focuses on how the growing virtual workforce will impact businesses and affect the future of the company’s growth plans in Vista.
TACOS & TECH PODCAST

Ty Smith, the founder and CEO of CommSafe AI and retired Navy SEAL, launched a technology company in order to focus on conflict and violence prevention in the workplace, while promoting diversity and inclusion.
FAST FIVE

Some highlights from this past week in San Diego tech.
  • Black San Diego is helping connect African American business owners of San Diego through online community to offline business support.


  • Opinion: San Diego is reinventing itself as a global tech center, just look at downtown.

  • Is 2021 the year we embrace AI? Blooma CEO Shayne Skaff thinks so.

  • USD Business School and Access Community Center are working together to help small business owners and teach entrepreneurship.
JOBS SPOTLIGHT
During the current shift in the world of work, many San Diego companies are still hiring. This live job board by SD Life Changing, StartupSD, and Connect shows open roles. Companies can add their roles if they are hiring, too.
Influencer Programs Manager,

Junior Sales Representative,

Senior UX Researcher,

Engineering Manager,

Marketing Manager,

Director, Corporate Development, NuVasive
Senior Manager of Category Strategy, Perfect Snacks

Staff Engineer/Scientist,

Content Strategy Manager,

Photographer,

Product Marketing Manager,
RECENT DEALS
Tealium, $96M
Series G with Georgian, Silver Lake Waterman

Pardes Biosciences, $52M

Equip, $13M
with Optum Ventures, .406 Ventures, F-Prime Ventures
Nanome, $3M
with Bullpen Capital, Keshif Ventures

Trust Me Vodka, $1M
ACQUISITIONS
Cubic Corp by Veritas
for $2.8B

Decipher Biosciences by Veracyte for $600M
Cerna Solutions by Sunstone Partners

Sonic Boom Wellness by Premise Health
SD INVESTORS IN THE NEWS
JMI Equity promotes Peter Arrowsmith to Managing General Partner

Illumina Accelerator invests in 9 genomics startups in U.S. and U.K. (spoiler: none in SD)

Correlation Ventures invested in SF-based Sounding Board, $31M round

Finistere Ventures invested in SF-based Good Eggs, $100M round

Correlation Ventures invested in Dallas-based Slync.io, $60M round

Finistere Ventures invested in Chicago-based Tovala, $30M round

Correlation Ventures invested in SF-based Vendia, $15.5M round

dRX (joint venture with Novartis & Qualcomm) invested in Minnesota-based
Flywheel.io, $15M round

Dexcom launches Dexcom Ventures
UPCOMING *VIRTUAL* EVENTS
Enjoy these events from the comfort and safety of your own home.
Venture Outlook 2021
Annual event by Connect,

Hyperledger In-depth
1 hour session with Evernym, February 17

Data Science Alliance Conversation
Milestones in building Human AI,

AFWERX Applications
Open for SBIR and STTR until February 18

Ad Astra Ventures Get To Even Founder Bootcamp
4 day program,
The Bank of America Launch Academy
Nine-week program, apply by February 26

Connect's Cool Companies
Annual capital program, apply by March 1

SD Angel Conference
By the Brink SBDC,

Airport Innovation Lab Application
1 year development program,

Launch Factory Application
Now recruiting founders for their new startups,
TACO TO YOU LATER

Have a tip or want to share your favorite local taco?
Feel free to tell us about it: techos@freshbrewedtech.com