Qualcomm Creates Open-Source Subsidiary, SDG&E Gets $28M for Smart Grid & More San Diego BizTech News

San Diego’s tech sector got some money and glory during a week that was overshadowed by news from two life science conferences: TEDMED and the annual Biocom Investor Conference. Get your tech news now while it’s still hot.

—To stay connected with open-source development for smart phones, San Diego’s Qualcomm created a subsidiary, the Qualcomm Innovation Center, that is focused on making sure the chipmaker’s technology works smoothly with Android, Symbian, and other open-source wireless platforms. Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) also joined the Symbian Foundation and is supporting the open source systems used by Nokia and others.

—One of the big selling points for algae-based fuels is that algae absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide before it gets harvested and turned into biofuels. Yet San Diego-based Sapphire Energy and other algae biofuel companies say they are having a hard time getting enough carbon dioxide at an affordable price to support their research and development efforts.

—Federal stimulus funds will help cover almost half the cost of a new $60 million wireless communications system that San Diego Gas & Electric is developing as part of its smart grid program. The $28.1 million grant is part of $3.4 billion to be allocated nationwide.

—Carlsbad CA-based Verdezyne, which is applying advanced biotechnology tools to the development of industrial chemicals and biofuels, raised nearly $3 million of a planned $15.2 million round of venture capital.

—JMI Equity, the venture firm based in San Diego and Baltimore, led a $5 million investment in Axeda, the Waltham, MA-based startup that makes a cloud-based system for wireless tracking of company assets. Axeda also raised $4 million in venture debt from MMV Financial of Toronto.

—TechAmerica San Diego, the local chapter of the industry group previously known as the AeA, issued nine awards at its 16th annual high tech awards luncheon. The group named winners in nine categories: MadCap Software (Software); InterKnowlogy (Internet); Verari Systems (Hardware); Quake Global (Communications); SeaBotix Inc. (Defense); Peregrine Semiconductor (Integrated Circuits); OneRecovery (Medical Device) IPS Group (Cleantech); Legend Films (Emerging Growth).

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.