March 2, 2021
THE LOCAL BUZZ
Your one-stop newsletter on all things tech in San Diego.

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BLOOMBITES
March is National Women’s History Month and San Diego is the place to be. We have one of the deepest support systems for female founders and professionals.

Organizations like Athena and Ad Astra’s Get To Even bootcamp are enriching our leaders.


Investors such as Ad Astra and Stella Angels are supporting female founders.

Spaces like Hera Hub and The Rosie Network are supporting a female-focused communities. 

Meanwhile, events like San Diego Tech Women’s Summit on March 8 and SD Women’s Week March 15-19 will bring us all together to inspire, empower, and connect - for everyone, not just women. See you there virtually!

Throughout the ecosystem, below are FAST FIVE stories I am watching:

  • Coworking spaces Hera Hub and CommonGrounds partner to create Learning Lounges.
  • Pillsbury law firm launched an $11M commitment to advance civil rights and equal justice.
  • Anzu Partners, a VC firm in SD & Boston, filed a $250M SPAC to take an industrial tech company public.
  • San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC) announced its 7 finalists: Verity, Chargenet, Advocat, Digital Proteomics, Fluid Power AI, Hempress Hygienics, Uplyft.
  • More than 180 companies have been founded by UCSD Rady School of Business alum since 2003 with an economic impact of $2 billion. 

The San Diego tech ecosystem continues to thrive, which is great to see!

Cheers,

Follow @FreshBrewedTech on Twitter for daily SD tech news.
TACOS & TECH PODCAST

Meet some of Human AI Labs’ co-founders, Kristie Kaiser and Sharon Zhang, who seek to empower all humans with an affordable, unbiased AI-based memory “bank.”
ORIGINAL BREW
Our team of local writers gives a fresh look inside the San Diego tech ecosystem past and present.
When international students Carl Dumesle and Bria d’Amours came to University of San Diego (USD) for graduate school, they realized there was a serious market gap for international student housing. That inspiration led to the creation of Housing for Undergraduates and Graduate Students (HUGS).
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.
Director, Payment Risk & Fraud Operations, Housecall Pro (San Diego)

Strategy & Operations Manager, Fintech, Housecall Pro (San Diego)

Account Manager, Housecall Pro (San Diego)
Sales Engineer

Senior Manager Accounts Payable Acadia Pharma

Embedded Software Engineer Alarm.com

Product Manager

UX Research Intern
Senior Full Stack Engineer

Senior Manager, Demand Generation Groove.co

Recruiting Specialist

Product Internship

Head of Design
RECENT DEALS
Artiva Biotherapeutics, Merck-partnered biotech, raised $120M to advance a pipeline of allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies

DTx Pharma, rare disease treatment, $100M Series B with RA Capital, Access Biotechnology, Cormorant, Janus Henderson, Logos Capital

Truvian Sciences, blood testing tech, $105M Series C with 7wire Ventures, Wittingtong Ventures, TYH Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures

ShieldAI, defense drone tech, $90M Series C with Point72, Silicon Valley Bank

Pipeline Therapeutics, neurological disease therapies, $80M Series C with Sectoral Asset Management, Versant Ventures, Franklin Templeton

Vividion Therapeutics, novel drug discovery, $80M Series C with Alexandria Ventures, SoftBank, Logos Capital, Boxer Capital

Workiz, field service software, $13M Series B with Aleph, New Era Capital, Magenta Ventures

SpineZone, orthopedic therapy, $12M Series A with Polaris, Providence Ventures, Martin Ventures

Aptera, electric vehicle maker, $4M Series A

Micronoma, cancer detection, $3.5M with Seerave Foundation, SymBiosis

Spinogenix, neurodegenerative therapeutics, $1.5M Series Seed

JackRabbit Mobility, electric bikes, $500k
ACQUISITIONS
Beacon Discovery acquired by Eurofins Scientific

Ashland Hard Seltzer acquired by Anheuser-Busch
SD INVESTORS IN THE NEWS
JMI Equity, backer of many late stage San Diego startups, raised a new investment fund of $1.7B

Howard Lindzon of VC Social Leverage launches $300M SLAC SPAC

Blueprint Equity invested in Winnipeg’s RocketRiz CA $8.4M Series A

Tech Coast Angels invested in Berkeley’s New Age Meats $2M Seed+
UPCOMING *VIRTUAL* EVENTS
Enjoy these events from the comfort and safety of your own home.
General Assembly's
Connecting Startup Ecosystem
Zoom webinar

Naturally San Diego
Pitch Slam on April 8th

General Assembly’s
Womxn at Work
Week-long tech conference

SD Tech Women’s Summit
International Women's Day event
SD Women’s Week
Stories, panels, networking

Airport Innovation Lab Application
1 year development program

SD Angel Conference
By the Brink SBDC

General Assembly’s
Design Week
Week-long tech conference
TACO TO YOU LATER
When you think about March 2020...
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