EvoNexus to Close Downtown Incubator, Consolidate in University City

EvoNexus, San Diego’s nonprofit tech incubator established seven years ago, is closing its downtown offices and consolidating its operations in a newly revamped space in University City, a suburban neighborhood about 13 miles to the north. The pro-bono incubator program, which provides tech-oriented startups with free office space and related amenities, has helped re-energize the … Continue reading “EvoNexus to Close Downtown Incubator, Consolidate in University City”

Nvidia Joins $20M Deal in Chinese Self-Driving Startup TuSimple

Nvidia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NVDA]]), the Santa Clara, CA-based maker of specialized graphics processing chips that have become workhorses in artificial intelligence, has joined a group of investors that put $20 million into TuSimple, a Chinese startup developing self-driving technology for long-haul trucks. In a blog posted Wednesday, Nvidia says TuSimple has used Nvidia GPUs, the Nvidia … Continue reading “Nvidia Joins $20M Deal in Chinese Self-Driving Startup TuSimple”

Athena Survey Probes Gender Issues in San Diego Innovation Ecosystem

A San Diego survey on professional women working in tech and life sciences offers some insights on the recurring debate over gender diversity in venture-backed startups and big companies, as well as a related incident that boiled over this week at Google. When asked, “What do you aspire to be, professionally?” nearly 29 percent of … Continue reading “Athena Survey Probes Gender Issues in San Diego Innovation Ecosystem”

Social Web Startup Signs Deal with AP to Distribute Sports Scores

ScoreStream, a San Diego area startup providing a crowdsourced social media platform for reporting high school sports scores, said Thursday it has agreed to distribute high school game scores under a new collaboration agreement with The Associated Press. Under their agreement, this fall ScoreStream will begin distributing and publishing high school football scores across 42 … Continue reading “Social Web Startup Signs Deal with AP to Distribute Sports Scores”

Cibus Readies Enhanced Crops for Push into Canada, and Beyond

After raising $57 million in a Series B round of venture funding, the San Diego agricultural biotech Cibus Global is laying the groundwork to introduce its first commercial product in Canada. Cibus introduced its first enhanced crop—an herbicide-resistant strain of canola—in the U.S. about two years ago, CEO Peter Beetham said Wednesday in an interview … Continue reading “Cibus Readies Enhanced Crops for Push into Canada, and Beyond”

San Diego’s Amplyx Raises $67M to Advance New Anti-Fungal Drug

After completing an early stage evaluation of its broad-spectrum anti-fungal drug, San Diego’s Amplyx Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday it has raised $67 million in a Series C financing round led by a new investor, Sofinnova Venture Partners. Ciara Kennedy, who succeeded Mike Grey as Amplyx CEO late last year, said in an interview with Xconomy that … Continue reading “San Diego’s Amplyx Raises $67M to Advance New Anti-Fungal Drug”

CyberTech Founder Andersen Named to Head Nxt Robotics Startup

Nxt Robotics, a San Diego startup developing robots for private security, has named San Diego CyberHive and CyberTech founder Darin Anderson as CEO. Jeff Debrosse, the San Diego cybersecurity expert who founded Nxt Robotics in 2014, will continue as CTO, according to a statement from the company. Andersen and Debrosse worked together a decade ago … Continue reading “CyberTech Founder Andersen Named to Head Nxt Robotics Startup”

Effector Raises $38.6M to Advance New Class of Anti-Cancer Drugs

San Diego’s Effector Therapeutics, a five-year-old cancer drug developer, has raised $38.6 million in new venture capital funding. The Series C financing, led by Pfizer Venture Investments, brings total funding for Effector to about $150 million, CEO Steve Worland said late Monday. The company said it plans to use the new funding to advance testing … Continue reading “Effector Raises $38.6M to Advance New Class of Anti-Cancer Drugs”

After Mobile App Success, Rock My World Introduces Fitness Chatbot

Adam Riggs-Zeigen has come a long way since 2013, when he co-founded San Diego’s Rock My World and introduced the mobile app RockMyRun to provide upbeat music playlists to motivate smartphone-equipped runners. “We found that it expanded into other avenues, like fitness studios,” Riggs-Zeigen recalled in a recent interview. The following year, the startup created … Continue reading “After Mobile App Success, Rock My World Introduces Fitness Chatbot”

SoftBank-Led $114M Round Puts Qualcomm’s Brain Corp. on New Path

San Diego’s Brain Corp., founded in 2009 as a Qualcomm-incubated startup to develop software and computer systems that emulate the human brain, seems to have found a new path forward. SoftBank’s new Vision Fund has led a $114 million investment to advance the company’s artificial intelligence technology. Qualcomm Ventures, which previously invested about $11 million … Continue reading “SoftBank-Led $114M Round Puts Qualcomm’s Brain Corp. on New Path”

What Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf Sees in San Diego (and Other Hubs)

The Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf came to San Diego recently on an unusual quest—to meet with dozens of local technology leaders and assess what the region has to offer in terms of innovation. It was Veni, Vidi, Vinti. He came. He saw. He Cerfed. The visit was unusual in part because of Cerf himself. As … Continue reading “What Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf Sees in San Diego (and Other Hubs)”

Teradata Acquires San Diego’s StackIQ to Strengthen Cloud Business

Dayton, OH-based Teradata (NYSE: [[ticker:TDC]]), which has roughly 1,000 employees at its Teradata Labs engineering unit in San Diego, says today it has acquired StackIQ, a six-year-old startup near San Diego that specializes in software used to automate datacenters in the cloud. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. But reading between the lines, … Continue reading “Teradata Acquires San Diego’s StackIQ to Strengthen Cloud Business”

VCs Invest $406M in 61 SD Startups; TP Therapeutics Leads Q2 Deals

TP Therapeutics, which raised $45 million in May to advance its work on drug-resistant cancers, raised the most venture capital in San Diego County during the three months that ended June 30, according to regional data released today. Altogether, venture firms invested a total of $406.4 million in San Diego companies during the second quarter, … Continue reading “VCs Invest $406M in 61 SD Startups; TP Therapeutics Leads Q2 Deals”

Bayer Signs Deal with San Diego’s SlantRange to Analyze Farm Data

SlantRange, a San Diego startup that specializes in providing agricultural data and analytics for farmers, has landed its first strategic agreement with a major agribusiness company. In a statement today, SlantRange says it is now working to collect and analyze crop data for Bayer Crop Science, a division of Bayer’s North American operations based in … Continue reading “Bayer Signs Deal with San Diego’s SlantRange to Analyze Farm Data”

What’s the Business Model for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare?

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare. Other stories cover big-company efforts, a genomics hackathon, and the impact on doctors and patients. These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare data—in particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics … Continue reading “What’s the Business Model for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare?”

U.S. IPOs Surge Amid Nettlesome Risks; Top 10 Deals So Far in 2017

[Updated 6/27/17 5:00 pm. See below.] Improving economic fundamentals are stoking the IPO pipeline in the United States and elsewhere, according to a report issued Tuesday by the global consultant and accounting firm EY. Eighty companies raised a total of $22 billion on U.S. exchanges during the first half of 2017, according to the report … Continue reading “U.S. IPOs Surge Amid Nettlesome Risks; Top 10 Deals So Far in 2017”

Initiative to Boost SoCal’s Startup Scene Teams With GV Founder

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur has set out to boost the startup ecosystem in San Diego and the rest of Southern California—and he already has scored a coup by partnering with Bill Maris, the founder and former CEO of Google Ventures, now known as GV. Steve Poizner, who sold two of his startups to Qualcomm (NASDAQ: … Continue reading “Initiative to Boost SoCal’s Startup Scene Teams With GV Founder”

Lilly Adds Chemistry Capabilities in San Diego Lab Expansion

Eli Lilly (NYSE: [[ticker:LLY]]) has completed a $90 million expansion of its biotechnology R&D center in San Diego, added new automated synthesis equipment, and plans to build out its next-generation chemistry capabilities here over the next two years. The new facility adds 180,000 square feet of space to Lilly’s laboratory in La Jolla—a 145 percent … Continue reading “Lilly Adds Chemistry Capabilities in San Diego Lab Expansion”

Cloudbeds Raises $9M to Expand its Technology, Brand Awareness

Cloudbeds, a cloud-based provider of hospitality management software, said today it has raised slightly more than $9 million in Series B financing to expand its software-as-a-service platform and broaden awareness of its brand. The San Diego company describes the financing as its first institutional round, and said it brings total funding for the five-year-old startup … Continue reading “Cloudbeds Raises $9M to Expand its Technology, Brand Awareness”

From Startup Week San Diego: The World According to Jason Calacanis

Silicon Valley angel investor Jason Calacanis has some advice for the millennial generation: Get your name on a cap table. In a keynote talk Tuesday night that was a headliner event for Startup Week San Diego, Calacanis observed that it doesn’t feel like the millennial generation is doing as well financially as their parents’ generation. … Continue reading “From Startup Week San Diego: The World According to Jason Calacanis”

Economic Study Ranks San Diego Near Top in Genomics Innovation

An economic impact study of San Diego’s emerging genomics industry counted 115 genomics-related companies operating in the region that directly employ over 10,000 people, and drive about $5.6 billion worth of annual economic benefits throughout the area. “San Diego is really end-to-end in genomics, from start to finish,” said Kirby Brady, who oversaw the study … Continue reading “Economic Study Ranks San Diego Near Top in Genomics Innovation”

Synthetic Genomics’ “Breakthrough” Algae Produces Twice as Much Oil

[Updated 6/19/17 1:17 pm. See below.] The San Diego biotech company Synthetic Genomics and supermajor ExxonMobil (NYSE: [[ticker:XOM]]) said today they have successfully inserted a gene in a particular strain of algae that more than doubled its oil content without slowing down the algae’s rate of growth. The two companies described the work in a … Continue reading “Synthetic Genomics’ “Breakthrough” Algae Produces Twice as Much Oil”

Startup Pioneers EV-to-Grid Technology in Pilot at UC San Diego

Nuvve, a San Diego cleantech startup, has begun a pilot project with UC San Diego that is intended to demonstrate the feasibility of using electric vehicles as a kind of collective energy storage reservoir for the power grid. After securing a $4.2 million grant from the California Energy Commission this week, Nuvve and UC San … Continue reading “Startup Pioneers EV-to-Grid Technology in Pilot at UC San Diego”

Changes at UC San Diego Emphasize New Role as “Innovation Engine”

A new program intended to teach engineering and business students how to drive innovations from concept to commercialization reflects a new imperative at UC San Diego. The business of tech transfer, which generates revenue by licensing technologies invented at UC San Diego, is giving way to a broader mission for the university as an engine … Continue reading “Changes at UC San Diego Emphasize New Role as “Innovation Engine””

With GreatCall Deal, GTCR Looks to Expand Healthtech for Boomers

With this week’s buyout of GreatCall, the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR just placed a big bet that healthtech for the aging wave of baby boomers will be a big business. GreatCall operates a virtual telecommunications network that provides healthtech products and services for more than 800,000 older consumers throughout the United States. The company, … Continue reading “With GreatCall Deal, GTCR Looks to Expand Healthtech for Boomers”

Countering Cybersecurity Turnover: 57 Companies That Do It Best

What does it take to keep highly skilled cybersecurity employees? Salary and benefits are table-stakes. Challenging work, ongoing training, an opportunity to advance without having to become a manager, and a talented peer group all help companies recruit and retain these sought-after “ninjas”—the individuals who can do what artificial intelligence security tools can’t. Research from … Continue reading “Countering Cybersecurity Turnover: 57 Companies That Do It Best”

RNA Specialist Arcturus Therapeutics Gets $3M R&D Grant for CF Drug

San Diego-based Arcturus Therapeutics said today Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics has agreed to provide $3 million to fund research and development of a new messenger RNA drug that could be broadly used to treat cystic fibrosis patients. The four-year-old startup has previously raised $37 million in research grants and other “non-dilutive” funding, and another $13 … Continue reading “RNA Specialist Arcturus Therapeutics Gets $3M R&D Grant for CF Drug”

Zesty Reinvents Itself With New Cash for Automated Web Tech

Zesty.io, a San Diego Web development firm, has raised $1.3 million in seed funding to spin out its consulting business, and focus instead on providing its core Web content management technology as a subscription-based software-as-a-service. CEO Randy Apuzzo said Zesty changed from a Web development firm to to SaaS in 2015, with the guidance of … Continue reading “Zesty Reinvents Itself With New Cash for Automated Web Tech”

ViaCyte Raises $10M, Moves to Human Trial with New Diabetes Product

San Diego-based ViaCyte said it is ready to move into human testing with a new product intended for patients with Type 1 diabetes who are at high risk for acute, life-threatening complications from severe episodes of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). ViaCyte said Monday that healthcare regulators in both the United States and Canada have permitted … Continue reading “ViaCyte Raises $10M, Moves to Human Trial with New Diabetes Product”

Aira Raises $12M to Expand Services for Blind and Visually Impaired

After beta testing technology that provides remote assistant services for the blind, San Diego-based Aira has raised $12 million in a Series B round that it says will enable the company to expand its service to thousands of visually impaired users this year. Aira takes advantage of the gig economy by connecting online independent contractors … Continue reading “Aira Raises $12M to Expand Services for Blind and Visually Impaired”

Study Stakes San Diego’s Claim in Genomics: $292M in 2016 VC Deals

Preliminary findings from an economic impact study show that genomics is emerging as a distinct innovation cluster in San Diego. The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. began collecting data for the report earlier this year in a bid to assess how genomics fits into San Diego’s innovation economy. Final results of the EDC study … Continue reading “Study Stakes San Diego’s Claim in Genomics: $292M in 2016 VC Deals”

Fake Photo Blocker: Truepic Introduces App to Verify Online Images

Craig T. Stack said the idea for Truepic came to him from a multitude of online sources. There’s the matchmaking service founded by his wife Greta, who insists on meeting personally with clients because the photos submitted with some online applications just don’t match—or the image seems decades out of date. There are tales about … Continue reading “Fake Photo Blocker: Truepic Introduces App to Verify Online Images”

Scientist.com Raises $24M for “Pharma Markets” that Outsource R&D

San Diego’s Scientist.com set out in 2006 to disrupt part of the pharmaceutical business by providing an Amazon-like approach to the business of hiring contract research organizations (CROs). The company, which operates a network of online markets for outsourcing biomedical research services and supplies, has raised $24 million in a new round of venture funding. … Continue reading “Scientist.com Raises $24M for “Pharma Markets” that Outsource R&D”

Edico Genome Raises $22M to Expand Data Processing and Web Services

San Diego’s Edico Genome, highlighted in Monday’s media debut of Dell Technologies Capital, said today it has raised $22 million in Series B financing led by the Dell investment arm. All existing investors, including Qualcomm Ventures, Axon Ventures, and biotech industry executive Greg Lucier, participated in the round. The new cash, which brings Edico’s total … Continue reading “Edico Genome Raises $22M to Expand Data Processing and Web Services”

Evolving Empyr Unveils Way to Link Online Ads with Offline Sales

When Jon Carder talks about online consumer trends, he speaks with some experience. Beginning with eHeaven, an e-commerce website that he founded in 2000 as a student at San Diego’s Point Loma Nazarene University, Carder has ridden a series of enormous waves as consumers moved online to shop, search for home loans, and find businesses … Continue reading “Evolving Empyr Unveils Way to Link Online Ads with Offline Sales”

ChromaCode Using $12M to Make Old-School PCR Tests More Powerful

The advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing has greatly accelerated biomedical research and discovery, and brought the cost of sequencing a whole human genome to roughly $1,000. But what if you don’t need the whole genome? Carlsbad, CA-based ChromaCode was founded in late 2012 with the idea of boosting old-school molecular diagnostics instruments used in clinical … Continue reading “ChromaCode Using $12M to Make Old-School PCR Tests More Powerful”

New San Diego Biotech Looks to Open Way for Anti-Cancer Drugs

In early 2002, the Finnish-born scientist Erkki Ruoslahti stepped down as CEO of what is now San Diego’s Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. He moved to Santa Barbara, CA, where he established what he calls “a little subsidiary” of the SBP institute, and joined the faculty of UC Santa Barbara. He continued his research … Continue reading “New San Diego Biotech Looks to Open Way for Anti-Cancer Drugs”

Smarr, Others Talk Healthtech, AI at Xconomy’s Impact of Innovation

In the not-too-distant future, a “planetary” computer will be able to create a computational model of your body, with the ability to run simulations of your health and to anticipate chronic disease before you show any symptoms. This is the direction we’re headed, according to Larry Smarr, founding director of the California Institute of Telecommunications … Continue reading “Smarr, Others Talk Healthtech, AI at Xconomy’s Impact of Innovation”

Epic Sciences Advances Diagnostic for Late-Stage Prostate Cancer

When San Diego’s Epic Sciences raised $30 million almost three years ago, CEO Murali Prahalad told me he saw a big opportunity to use the company’s technology as a diagnostic test to assess how well a cancer patient is responding to specific anti-cancer drug regimens. Epic said Friday it had raised an additional $40 million … Continue reading “Epic Sciences Advances Diagnostic for Late-Stage Prostate Cancer”

While You Were Sleeping: ResMed Builds an Empire in the Cloud

Over the past 28 years or so, ResMed (NYSE: [[ticker:RMD]]) has built an empire around its respiratory devices for managing sleep apnea and other forms of “sleep-disordered breathing.” In the fiscal year that ended last June, the San Diego maker of respiratory machines for maintaining continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) generated over $1.8 billion in … Continue reading “While You Were Sleeping: ResMed Builds an Empire in the Cloud”

Approved Opens for Business with $1M and Digital Mortgage Platform

Following a six-month trial of its digital mortgage platform, San Diego-based Approved has officially launched its Web-based software for home loan applications. In a recent statement, the 20-month-old startup also said it has raised $1 million in what co-founder and CEO Andy Taylor calls a “pre-seed round.” “Our goal is to create a platform [for … Continue reading “Approved Opens for Business with $1M and Digital Mortgage Platform”

TakeLessons CEO Discusses Chromatik Buyout, Why it’s a Good Fit

San Diego-based TakeLessons set out nine years ago to create a Web-based platform that helped match music students with qualified instructors. Since then, TakeLessons has raised a total of $20 million in venture capital, and expanded into new markets and services. The company’s last VC round in early 2014 raised $7 million.  TakeLessons also acquired … Continue reading “TakeLessons CEO Discusses Chromatik Buyout, Why it’s a Good Fit”

The Human Impact of Machine Learning in Medical Diagnostics & More

In January, UC San Diego announced that a group of scientists had succeeded in training a computer to tell the difference between a person with a “healthy” intestine from someone with inflammatory bowel disease by analyzing the genetic makeup of the microbes in their gut. Less than two weeks later, scientists at Stanford University said … Continue reading “The Human Impact of Machine Learning in Medical Diagnostics & More”

Lymber, Founded in Early 2016, Surprised by Mindbody’s Buyout Offer

Lymber was barely a year old when Mindbody (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MB]]) announced recently that it acquired the San Diego mobile app developer. Lymber, named as a 2017 Xconomy San Diego startup to watch, has developed a technology platform that enables mobile users to book openings in fitness and wellness classes. “We’re basically an Expedia for fitness … Continue reading “Lymber, Founded in Early 2016, Surprised by Mindbody’s Buyout Offer”

Clinical Research Expert Succeeds Organovo’s Founding CEO

San Diego-based Organovo (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONVO]]), which specializes in 3D biological printing technology, said Tuesday its board has named Taylor J. Crouch to succeed Keith Murphy as CEO. According to a statement from the company, Murphy, who co-founded Organovo in 2007, is “stepping down as chief executive officer to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, effective April 21.” He … Continue reading “Clinical Research Expert Succeeds Organovo’s Founding CEO”

Cirius Therapeutics Raises $40M to Expand Ongoing Liver Study

A $40 million transfusion led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Denmark’s Novo A/S is bringing fresh life to a Michigan biotech working to advance a new experimental drug for treating a type of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As part of the financing, Kalamazoo-based Octeta Therapeutics has been rechristened Cirius Therapeutics, and three San Diego-based biotech … Continue reading “Cirius Therapeutics Raises $40M to Expand Ongoing Liver Study”

Athena’s 19th Annual Pinnacle Awards Gala

More than 600 leaders in science, technology, and business are gathering for Athena’s 19th annual Pinnacle Awards gala. The event honors those who excelled in the recognition, promotion, and mentorship of women in STEM. The Pinnacle Awards offers a dynamic environment of high-value networking and inspiring exposure to best of the best in overall professional development and … Continue reading “Athena’s 19th Annual Pinnacle Awards Gala”

San Diego Social Media Startup Soci Adds Austin Office, Raises $8.5M

Soci, a San Diego startup that created a Web platform for managing social media, has closed on $8.5 million in Series A financing that will be used to build on the company’s recent growth, including a second office in Austin, TX, according to co-founder and CEO Afif Khoury. The five-year-old startup, which had 35 employees … Continue reading “San Diego Social Media Startup Soci Adds Austin Office, Raises $8.5M”

First-Quarter Venture Funding Slumps in San Diego, and Top 10 Deals

Thirty-seven venture-backed companies in the San Diego area collected almost $350 million in new funding during the first three months of 2017, according to data released this week as part of the latest Venture Monitor report from the National Venture Capital Association and Seattle-based PitchBook. That was down 39 percent from the $574.5 million that … Continue reading “First-Quarter Venture Funding Slumps in San Diego, and Top 10 Deals”

Arivale and Scripps Leaders to Chat at April 19 Xconomy Forum

A little over two years ago, President Obama laid out his vision for one of the nation’s most ambitious medical research programs—an effort to amass genomic data from at least 1 million Americans. The big idea behind the president’s Precision Medicine Initiative is to use data from genomics, biosensors, blood tests, and other sources to … Continue reading “Arivale and Scripps Leaders to Chat at April 19 Xconomy Forum”