Report: San Diego’s Innovation Economy Shows Q2 Uptick in Startups, Patents, and Investments

A just-released report on San Diego’s innovation economy shows 102 new technology companies were created during the three months that ended on June 30—a 53 percent increase over the 66 startups launched during the first three months of 2009, and 34 percent more than the 76 companies started during the second quarter of 2008.

A key factor in the startup surge was a 90 percent increase in venture capital investments in the region over the three-month period, according to the report, which was released by Connect, a San Diego nonprofit group that promotes technology innovation and entrepreneurship. The report found that venture firms invested a total of $172 million in 22 San Diego area companies, based on regional data from the National Venture Capital Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Thomson Reuters.

Of the 102 startups counted in the area, 37 were focused on biotech, pharmaceutical, and biomedical technologies, 22 were software companies, and 14 specialized in communications, according to the report. Connect also counted 12 cleantech startups during the quarter, more than any other region in California.

Connect started the quarterly report to provide an indicator of the relative health of the innovation economy in San Diego. The indicators suggest things are getting better, but the startup climate remains cautious compared to past years.

We’ve seen much of this information before, notably the second-quarter VC investment data. Still, Connect offers some additional data, and its list of the top 10 investments varies from

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.