Under The Radar Financings in San Diego: Envision Solar, Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, & More

Every month, New York-based CB Insights casts its net for “under-the-radar deals” that provide less than $1 million in capital for technology and life sciences companies, and shares its catch with Xconomy editors in the five cities where we operate.

In its survey for June, the private company intelligence firm brought up seven deals in the San Diego area that range from $577,000 to $100,000, including four that are focused on innovation. Of those four companies raising capital, data from CB Insights and related regulatory filings show two were life sciences companies and two were tech deals. Here’s a rundown:

—Ridge Diagnostics, a four-year-old San Diego medical diagnostics startup that specializes in neuropsychiatric disorders, raised $577,000 of a planned $3 million financing that includes debt, options, and securities. Ridge Diagnostics was previously known as Precision BioLaboratory.

—Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, an eight-year-old San Diego biotech developing a new class of small-molecule drugs, raised $500,000 in a combination of debt, options, and securities financing that is targeting almost $1.9 million in capital. Zacharon, which is targeting certain genetic diseases, is developing drugs to block the production of specific molecules in a class of complex carbohydrates known as glycans.

—Envision Solar, the San Diego firm that develops energy-producing shaded parking structures known as “solar groves,” has raised almost $207,000 of a planned $2.65 million equity round. The solar development planning and design company also is pairing the installation of its “solar tree” in parking lots with battery storage and charging stations for electric vehicles. Envision Solar went public in May through a reverse merger, and the funding was arranged through a broker-dealer.

—Ambient Control Systems, a Poway, CA-based developer of self-powered sensor network technologies, raised $205,000 in equity investment. The company’s lead product is a network of solar-powered sensors used in backcountry areas to detect wildfires, triangulate their location, and transmit the information by satellite to regional fire or land management agencies. The company also is developing its sensor networking technology for perimeter security and other applications.

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.