Venture Funding Drops Sharply in San Diego; Life Sciences Deals Predominate in Our Top 10 List

Young accounting firm.

Regnier estimated that VC funding in local life sciences startups accounted for more than 76 percent of the overall funding in San Diego during the quarter, based on the Dow Jones data. Funding for life sciences ventures accounted for more than 80 percent of the funding here, based on the MoneyTree data.

Regnier added that there was “virtually no funding for consumer services and business services” in San Diego during the quarter. There were a couple of tech deals worth noting though: Zeebo, which makes video game players, raised $13.5 million, and Imagine Communications, which specializes in streaming digital video technology, raised $10 million.

Here’s a list of the top 10 deals in San Diego, based on the MoneyTree list:

1. Sonexa Therapeutics, San Diego. Alzheimer’s drug developer. $37.23 million. Investors: Alta Partners, Domain Associates, Scale Venture Partners.

2. Astute Medical, San Diego. Medical diagnostics. $26.56 million. Investors: De Novo Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Domain Associates, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

3. Nereus Pharmaceuticals, San Diego. Cancer and other diseases. Investors: $20 million. Advent International, Alta Partners, Astellas Venture Capital, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Forward Ventures, Gimvindus NV, HBM BioVentures AG, Pacific Venture Group.

4. Zeebo, San Diego. Wireless video game equipment. $13.50 million. Investors: Qualcomm Ventures, and undisclosed investor.

5. Tandem Diabetes Care, San Diego. Innovative insulin pump. $12.83 million. Investors: Domain Associates and undisclosed investor.

6. Aragon Pharmaceuticals, San Diego. Anti-endocrine cancer drugs. $12 million. Investors: Aisling Capital, The Column Group, OrbiMed Advisors .

7. Otonomy, San Diego. Novel drugs for inner ear disorders. $10.57 million. Investors: Avalon Ventures and undisclosed investor.

8. Imagine Communications, San Diego. Streaming Digital Media Technologies. $10 million. Investors: Carmel Ventures, Columbia Capital, Court Square Ventures.

9. Evoke Pharma, San Diego. Drugs for gastrointestinal tract diseases. $6 million. Investors: Domain Associates, Windamere Venture Partners, Latterell Venture Partners.

10. AltheaDx, San Diego. Improved diagnoses of pediatric and prostate cancers. $6 million. Investors: Telegraph Hill Partners.

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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.