It seems as though a number of San Diego tech companies saw the week before the Memorial Day weekend as a time to clear the decks, launch a few online products, and to raise some more capital. We also highlight the emergence of wireless healthcare and add some perspective to San Diego’s homegrown venture capital firms.
—I got my hands on some data that makes it clear that San Diego’s homegrown venture capital firms now represent a small fraction of local venture deals. Last year, 93 percent of the VCs doing business in San Diego were from out of town; they accounted for 87 percent of the 561 deals and 87 percent of the nearly $1.43 billion that was invested here, according to data from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Data from the National Venture Capital Association shows that just seven San Diego-based VCs have raised new funds since 2005: Avalon Ventures, BSD Venture Capital, Finstere Partners, Mesa Verde Venture Partners, Mission Ventures, Revolution Ventures, and TVC Capital.
—I had a chat with renowned cardiologist Eric Topol, who was named in March as chief medical officer for San Diego’s new West Wireless Health Institute, and who says we are on the cusp of revolutionary change in healthcare. Topol, who also is the chief academic officer at Scripps Health, says wireless technologies can now be used to remotely monitor patients with such ailments as Alzheimer’s, asthma, depression, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, and sleep disorders.
—There’s a new cleantech startup in town: Viryd Technologies, a spinout from San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies, is developing Fallbrook’s proprietary transmission technology exclusively for use in power-generating wind turbines. Viryd says it has raised more than $2.2 million so far in a $4 million round of equity financing.
—I had never heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” until X Prize founder Peter Diamandis told me his foundation is thinking of creating
