Back in November, Bruce gave San Diego readers a preview of our list of “under-the-radar” deals—startup transactions worth less than $1 million, based on data provided to us by private company intelligence platform CB Insights. We’ve been tracking them in our other cities for months, but we didn’t see much activity in San Diego again until February, when there were enough of those smaller deals to merit a story. Good news: we’re back again this month with a roundup of March’s under-the-radar funding.
In March, the San Diego area also saw four under-the-radar deals, ranging from $250,00 to $750,000. Three transactions were based in debt, and one was an equity offering ($450,000 that went to BeamOne, a provider of electron beam sterilization services for medical and pharmaceutical companies). All four financings went to companies in the healthcare space.
The number of under-the-radar financings in the San Diego area in March remained fairly constant, compared to February. In contrast, both Boston and Seattle had under-the-radar lists that ballooned compared to February, while the number of startup deals they inked that were worth more than $1 million shrunk for the month. So we’re seeing a degree of consistency in San Diego for February and March not seen in Seattle and Boston.
San Diego’s top under-the-radar deal, at $750,000 in an offering of debt, options, and warrants, went to Tracon Pharmaceuticals, a company whose website says that they’re developing treatments for cancer and age-related macular degeneration. The under-the-radar lists in other cities have often attracted startups that are too young and stealthy to have put out any information on themselves yet. One such company showed up on the San Diego list: Digital Healthcare Systems. I couldn’t find a website for the startup, but the SEC filing for the deal says it was incorporated in 2009 and used to be called MyAfterCare.
The one familiar startup on the list was Novocell, a biotech company that Denise wrote about in October when it attracted a $20 million award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to fund its developing of cell therapy for type 2 diabetes. The San Diego-based company raised $304,242 in debt and warrants funding.
Below is the full breakdown of San Diego’s under-the-radar funding in March.
| Tracon Pharmaceuticals | San Diego, CA | A developer of treatments for cancers and age-related macular degeneration | Debt* | $750,000 |
| BeamOne | San Diego, CA | A provider of electron beam sterilization services for medical and pharmaceutical customers | Equity | $450,000 |
| Novocell | San Diego, CA | A developer of stem cell engineering technology designed to treat diabetes and other chronic diseases | Debt* | $304,242 |
| Digital Healthcare Systems | San Diego, CA | A stealthy company formerly named MyAfterCare | Debt | $250,000 |
*Includes some options or warrants
