San Diego Tech News Weekly – October 1, 2021

And welcome everyone. Happy Friday, or whatever day it is that you're listening to this. I am Neil Bloom with Fresh Brew Tech and Interlock Capital. Entrepreneur, investor, community builder. And this is Jonah. What's up, everybody?

Ops guy building marketplaces, spending time at Lime handy Postmates, and just generally enjoy helping startups in the San Diego area. Um, what do you think, Neil? Should you dive into this week's stories? There's some good ones in here.

This is a meaty week, that's for sure. Um, but starting with our favorite story, one of my favorite basketball players of all time, Magic Johnson. Uh, Magic Johnson's getting in on the tech wave. I love this. So he is helping close the societal digital divide by bringing together some smart, smart tech from. From smart cities. So, article by Mike Freeman. The ut we need a little like Mike Freeman sound. Ding, ding. Yeah, right. Great article by Mike. Where Qualcomm just held their third Smart Cities Accelerate event. So 300 city officials and tech partners came together, 700 virtually. And they kicked it off with our man Magic, who with his group, JLLC Infrastructure, committing $75 million into urban projects, specifically, specifically around smart tech. And this is more than just like bringing tech to cities. This is talking about, you know, especially during the pandemic that the poorest Americans were really left out of virtual learning due to just lack of infrastructure and not just talking iPads, like everything, access bandwidth, all of it. So, you know, Magic, he's. He told a story about.

I was just going to tell you the story in case you haven't seen it. I thought this was really interesting because, you know, he's. I mean, he's in a good position, but he was talking about his father needing to get a digital appointment. So obviously need bandwidth there because he's having a leg issue, but because he was able to get online to get this appointment, they were able to say, hey, man, like, rush into the hospital and get here now. And as a result, they're able to save the, Save the leg. So, you know, they're in a position of fortune able to do this, but there's a whole population that can't. And Covid kind of unearth that a little bit.

Wow. So cool. Love seeing that. All this investing for good, that's for sure. So a few ways that Qualcomm and others are looking at this, the ecosystem in general. They're looking at connecting municipalities with companies who are building out hardware and software, talking about transforming transportation venues, campuses and warehouses, specifically around accessibility for WI fi and just wired up in General, but using it, I would imagine as public hotspots too, and then smart campuses. So Qualcomm, Starting with its 40 campus Sorrento campus, has like a demonstration of a smart city where, you know, through an app you can look for available parking, search license, place. If you forget where you parked, look for smart trash bins with solar. Gotta ask them what that's about. And then the in person virtual collaboration, you know, like from simple example like connected whiteboards where everyone can connect and collaborate to a bunch of other things. So it's super cool that Qualcomm's making themselves a first spot, especially because, man, smart cities have been really talked about a lot, but not a lot of doing, I would say.

You know what's interesting, speaking of smart cities, I think you made a good point. I think if you go a little deeper into the trash bin, it sounds funny. It's like maybe they do help you find it. I'm sure it's all connected, but they use the solar to help compact them down. And then they can alert their teams and their staff to say, hey, come check this one. Or you need to check that one. And so these are sort of some simple examples of what smart cities can do. And we kind of think about it as like put a WI fi beacon on every corner, which is great, but there's other things. Where are we dispatching resources where they don't need to go? And maybe this turns into, you know, trash isn't just on Thursday, but maybe it's, it's on demand and when needed based on the weight of the bin or whatever. But you know, there's some simpler applications that we don't really think about that could actually add a ton of value. Pretty, pretty cool stuff. So that was one example there.

Yeah, no, I love it. I love that we're just one. The company itself is investing to try out new business models and new applications. So thank you, Qualcomm for leading the way. Obviously it'll lead to more revenue for them. So they want that, they want their tech in everything. Not just iPhones, but yeah, love seeing all the opportunities here. You know, there's one grouping town called that does a civic tech hackathon every year. You familiar with them, Jonah?

No. That sounds sick.

I'd love to check it out, man. It's gonna escape me until for about three seconds. Yeah, throw it into Google scale. San Diego, they put on a civic tech hackathon once a year where the city of San Diego teams up and provides three challenges. They want them to Tackle this year. You know, it's in the past. It's been how do we use, what do we do to with the parking meter data? Come up with ideas, Boom. Teams will apply and come up with ideas. I've mentored the last few years. And there are some cool ideas where one team said, let's put vision system cameras on every city vehicle, like talking street sweepers, trash cans, to start mapping, you know, city streets every week. It would not just tell you when potholes and you can over lifetime see when potholes are getting worse or maybe even eventually they see that they're about to happen. But then other things, right? Like, like in the holiday season, oak Christmas trees are out. Like, we need to start working on that. So cool ideas around that. And I honestly do think San Diego is a city leader in the smart cities initiative. So it's great to see Qualcomm step up. Hopefully more happen to.

I really like that. And it's funny, kind of reminds me of a super simple example way back in New York City. I remember my mom telling me this, but they actually put the plows on the trash trucks in the middle of New York City. And so you can kind of start to roll some of this stuff together. It's kind of interesting. I know that's like a super analog example, but like you're saying if you can, you know, mapping the city and keeping an eye on kind of what's changing and you could kind of pounce on some, some of those opportunities and then maybe we throw it into the city owned app. Why am I forgetting the name? Get it done.

Get it done. Yeah, exactly. For sure. Well, we will see the Iot of everything continue to roll in and. But let's talk about another area that Sano is a powerhouse. Life sciences. We are number three in the world. Like literally we are biotech. And a new report. Yeah, a new report. Two new reports are out. There's one by JLL and one by Biocom out just in the last week. So you probably saw a lot of like rankings and an economic impact stuff maybe in the news. And so we're going to digest it for you a little bit. The big thing to know is that 1 out of every 30 employed San Diegans works in life sciences, which is pretty big. They do say to give you some a little context though I have heard for the military side, it's one in five people work related to the military. So, you know, because biotech is military is, you know, six times larger in San Diego as well. But in either case, biotech is big and we're the number three in the world in terms of a number of things that we will talk through here. Well, first of all, the report found not only was biotech largely unaffected during COVID it was a boom. Like, like things are just booming from everything from real estate to funding to exits as well too. So this JLL report, they looked at a few things to rank the cities where people are living, number of people that are living there, people who have advanced science degrees, number of employees in life science companies, total investment, dollar amount and total lab space. And only after Boston and San Francisco Bay area San Diego ranks third, which is pretty massive related to the world. You want to dive into some of the numbers that the Biocom report talked about.

Yeah, this is awesome. So I'll dive into Biocom. I'll throw a quick Handicode in here too. I was at a happy hour last night with a guy who actually he helps lease commercial real estate. He's talking about how it's shifting so dramatically that the balance is coming back because basically all this unused labs or real estate's turning into lab space. And he's saying he's got less space to lease because of all that. But kind of cool to hear it here live, you know, reading all these reports. Yeah, the Biocom report, really interesting. 500,000 employees in the industry in California, that's up half a percent. And what's interesting about that is, doesn't sound like a lot, but the state workforce actually shrank by 7%. So that makes that half a percent growth pretty significant. But in San Diego alone, it's up about 6% for biotech. So actually that half percent is a statewide average. And we're actually really booming in biotech here. And then if you look at San Diego, we actually were hit a little harder by the decline in unemployment -10%. So that was kind of a pretty major swing in that direction. And if you look at our local economist, Lynn Razor from Point Loma, Nazarene actually said there's $48 billion in economic activity in San Diego based on biotech, and that's up from 41 billion last year. So that 48 number is literally just this last year. So that's kind of a pretty significant growth. And then one last, last thing to point out too. You know, when we take life science and, you know, it includes a lot more than maybe you might realize. I mean, obviously, you know, science people working in, you know, in the labs, but you also need to think about, you know, medical Device smart biotech, you know, your dexcoms of the world, people who actually make the test tubes and glassware. So let's not forget that the suppliers for this industry are also a major part of this economy. And add to that, you know, that growth, that $48 billion in economic activity. So let's just really hope that we got number three locked in and it stays, it stays in that position.

Yeah, no, it's a massive driving force. And honestly just feels like we're just beginning. Some of the things that you mentioned in terms of like the other jobs are related. You know, there's a lot of tech jobs in biotech as well too. Right. There's, there are software developers, data scientists, all of that is included. But then the, the subcontracting you mentioned too, like even the clean room cleaners and not just. And construction builders and everything that goes into that. It's a pretty massive area. I will point out I recently got schooled in what is economic activity? The definition of it. Yeah. So I, you know, someone wrote a report that let's say aerospace has a, this dollar impact in San Diego. And I said, you know, like there's one company alone that's got a bigger market cap than that, but it's not market cap that makes up economic activity. There's a few things that go into it. There's an equation apparently that economists do. So when you see 48 billion in economic activity, these companies themselves are worth way more than that and are probably doing way more in total revenue. But that is not all that contributes to economic activity. That flows down to the region itself. So worth wor noting just because it was top of mind for me. Yeah.

How do they think about that? So is that, does that mean in some cases money's leaving the local ecosystem or going to people working out of state or contracts maybe in other, other locations.

Right. I think that's why it dials down to economic activity locally. Like they find what is staying locally, whether it's, you know, take a number of employees that are local who are actually getting paid, then have buying power locally as well too. So I think it's more related to that as opposed to pure revenue and pure expenses.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. Especially with a guy like a company like Qualcomm. Right. Where it's like global in so many places. You know, a lot of salaries that aren't really hit in our region.

Yeah. So let's move on to the next story here. The next one's a fun one. Batteries, Batteries, batteries. Batteries, solid state, all silicon anode batteries offering potentially we're looking at 10x boosted capacity and charging rates. This is huge, huge news. It's still in the research phases at ucsd, but it's all about the silicone anode. And so coming out of the engineering department at UCSD they are looking at replacing graphite anodes with silicon anodes. This feels like the right time to turn it over to science. By Jonah.

Yeah, it's funny, I was like what is in a battery? I needed to really understand that. But yeah, graphite has dominated the anode material since the birth of lithium ion. And the reason that it has is really it's low cost, it's abundant, it is high energy density, power dense and has a lot of charge cycles capabilities. Charge it, deplete it, and so on. And as you mentioned, yeah, so this new silicon anode has potential to be 10 times more energy dense than lithium ion. And we all know that with the rise of all these electric cars, our devices are continually filled with batteries. I mean we are limited in some ways with the amount of material that we can use in batteries. But now if we're able to get 10 times the energy, we'll be significantly better positioned to transition to a fully electric car economy. So solid state, which I wasn't really sure what that meant is it means there's no liquid between the cathode and the anode. And that's, that's something that was causing problems in this technology because what would happen is during the cycles the batteries itself would maybe expand and contract, which you really can't have happen when you're charging and discharging a battery. So they've actually done is they've removed the liquid anode or electrolytes and they have actually come up with a new solution that's what they're calling solid state. And so it's actually a solid material. And what's cool so far, it's not commercialized yet, but so far they're actually able to retain about 80% of the storage after 500 cycles. So it's looking pretty promising I guess. Next step from here is commercialization and it's kind of neat. Looks like they're actually positioning themselves to spin it out of ucsd. Another big one for the university. Unigrid battery looks like the name that they're going with, all capitalized. Wonder if that means something. Unigrid battery should be interesting. But maybe these are, are going to hit the new lucid cars that are coming out. Maybe Tesla is going to Kind of poke around into this, this type of company. We don't know, but electric cars are everywhere. They're coming onto the scene fast and we need some new technology.

Feels like they're yelling at us Unigrid, which I get it, like it's a really big deal. You know, they're 10x so you know, fair point. Unigrid. Congrats and excited about this.

Let's do it.

Yeah, for sure. It feels like we've been using the same copper tops for 50 years. So here we go. Let's jump into our last story here. We had a buyout of Bayer stepping in and buying Vividion Therapeutics for $2 billion just before the bell hit for them to go public. So you know, adding another major stake for Bayer to have a foothold in San Diego. But bigger thing, Vidion having this major exit when they were just literally about to go public. They were founded in 2014 and they've been attacking disease causing proteins which apparently there's no treatment for 90%. Um, they look for small cracks into diseases causing proteins to bind and block, to block the diseases, block the diseases.

It's tricky, right?

It is. But you know, Vividion gets to, gets to operate kind of free and clear. They're kind of just a subsidiary here and search for new drugs to take these disease causing proteins applications too. So we didn't get another IPO out of it, but we did get a big exit for company which actually, you know, for 2014 purposes, like it's actually not that long ago. So actually have it within seven years of an exit to a $2 billion. It's pretty, pretty great. So congrats to the video on the exit.

You know what the founders were saying, they were positioned and they are positioned rather to be a huge company to be successful for a number of years. But they were saying if Bayer had come in and said, hey, we're just going to absorb you right into our company, they would have probably continued the IPO and just said, hey, let's go on and let's decline that off. It's great offer, but let's decline. They probably have a brighter future, but part of the deal was kind of like, hey, you know, you do your thing, you stay in San Diego, you keep building what you're building. We just, we just think that what you're doing is so incredible. And it seems like this might be kind of the model of the future in some ways for some of the bigger players. And we sort of touched on this last week with you know, some of the, you know, spinning up venture funds being kind of the R and D departments. But this might be another strategy to say, hey, let's just buy some really well operating high potential companies and just let them do their thing and not really be overbearing and coming in and kind of changing how they operate. I mean, come on, we're in San Diego. We like living here, we like operating here and we got our own style going on. So we'll see. They have a pretty bright future, it looks like.

Absolutely. Congrats. Vividion and team. But bigger thing, you know, let's go cure some diseases now with the backing of a larger company too. We got a fun little piece here from the San Diego Zoo. San Diego Zoo Safari Park. They need your help in naming their new baby rhino. So Jonah, you got some ideas?

Well, so, I mean, Rhino McRhino face is the number one. Obviously I'm still upset about the boat. If you don't know. We're talking about Google boating McBoat face. But oh man, I don't know. What do you want to name a unicorn?

Yes, it should be the multi horned unicorn as San Diego is. I love that.

Yeah, if you actually, I mean, if you're feeling creative, just throw a quick Google in. San Diego Zoo Safari park needs your help. Name a baby rhino and submit your name. Let me know what you submit or let us know. Maybe we'll vote for it if they have a voting component. But this should be pretty fun. Love to have a. A really cleverly named rhino and sd.

Yeah, I love it. Let's bring that conversation over to Twitter. We'll start a little tweet thread about that before this podcast comes out. But there's some funding news, there's some acquisition news all by the way, that came out today in today's this week's Fresh Brew tech newsletter. I was a little late to it. I've been working on Startup Month. We got it out today instead of Tuesday. So go grab freshbrewedtech.com's latest newsletter to find something like Bio link. These are friends of mine from man from 10 years ago. Been working on a biosensor specifically to try to change the way we do glue glucose sensing. So Joan, I know you're into this. They raised 62 and a half million in funding. So congrats to Jared and Biolink team. 858 therapeutics raised 60 million. Ventix Biosciences raised 51 million. So a lot of bio funding measurable. The ESG clean tech data management platform for real estate. Measuring the kind of your environmental footprint. 50 million Series C. So congrats to Matt and the team there on continuing to move forward. Salesforce Ventures involved in that one true EPIC or TruePIC camera technology to help mobile developers figure out. I think this is the one about looking for deepfakes. So they're able to determine if a picture has been doctored or not.

I mean, Adobe's in on it, so.

It'S got to be photo, right?

Maybe it is.

Totally. They raised $26 million Series B from Microsoft's venture fund M12. Sasha, were you in on that deal? And then Giga I.O. is doing some high speed interconnect hardware. Raised a $14 million Series B. Man, there's just so much going on.

I was going to give you a hard day. You're like, hey, I got the newsletter out a little late. I was like, well, yeah, because of all this info you got to come through. Makes sense. I was like, this list keeps going.

Yeah, this is not even everything. So go read the Fresh Brew Tech.

Newsletter of this week.

Fresh BrewTech.com but the bigger thing next week is Startup Month. Theoretically it starts today, but the big stuff starts Monday the 4th. We will see there for the kickoff, I think it starts at 4,5 o' clock for the new Unicorns panel, which would be great. We're going to hear from SHIELD AI and ClickUp Semi simultaneously. I'm also hosting Cloud Night, so if you're into building on the cloud and specifically on on the Edge, come check out Cloud Night, which will be from 4 to 5, which might bookend. You can go there, then hop right over to Startup Month. But man, October is going to be busy. You excited, John?

I'm super amped. And you know what? I'm amped for a little detail. San Diego Startup Month, the new URL. Love that you got that. It's funny that it wasn't even even there. But yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I love, I love the startup scene. I love that once you kind of discover it and you start to get into it, you. You find so many people that are either interested, you know, want to be kind of helped into the scene, or already have been operating here for years. And we went to a crypto meetup a couple of weeks ago and it was surprising how many people have been part of the San Diego startup scene who are also part of that scene. And so, you know, we're all intermingling. People love tech, biotech and sort of are thinking about getting into startups or have been in startups. For a while. I mean, we could learn a lot from each other. So definitely check it out if you got the time. Yeah.

Sandra, Startup month dot com. We'll get you there. And we'll see everyone. See everyone throughout the month of October. There is some in person. So we hope to see you in Carlsbad on the 8th or in Sorrento Valley on the 29th and then virtually throughout the month as well too. Thanks everyone. Have a good weekend.

Have a great weekend and make sure to think of the best rhino name you possibly can find us on Twitter. We're going to be joking around on that one too. So let's name a rhino this weekend.

I wish I had a good sound for Rhino for a sound off.

I don't know what they make.

Let us know in Twitter as well too. See everyone. Awesome.

That's our show. See ya.