This Week in San Diego Tech News - April 8, 2024

Hello, Hello. Hey, Fred, how you doing?

Hey, Neil. Doing pretty good.

Yeah, same here. We're both coming off an early morning founders hike, which was fun to see you at. Thanks for coming out to a nice early morning hike here.

It's always a fun time. I was really impressed. I think we had about 45, 50 people, founders, lawyers, angel investors. It's, it's, it's, it was, it was a great morning.

Yeah. And then a few of us jumped in the water, which was a little colder than I was expecting, but still refreshing to do so. Next one will be second week in May. Normally it's first week, but second week in May, May 10th. And the link's already out there on the socials. I usually post on LinkedIn, but I'm also using Luma this time around as well. We'll see how people like can find all that, but we'll get it kind of broader linked on that Luma San Diego page, which we should also link to. There's kind of, I think the SDX team. I don't know if you've seen this, but the SDX team talked to the Luma team and they created like a San Diego event page for events happening using Luma, which is cool. So let's make sure to link that here.

Yeah, I haven't heard about that. That's really cool.

Yeah. Well, we got plan to talk to. Let's dive into our show here.

Start get the party Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keeper Countins counting beans Contador Quentan Frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a craft beer and coffee My coding yoga posse fold the body you're a We be surfing Coronado eatin tacos El Gordo the taco stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero Gotta shout out to coast angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana est Be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders be shooting for the Moon hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos, Tacos in tech, you know we got it.

Hey.

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it.

Hey.

You know me.

Welcome to the Tacos in Tech podcast where we interview tech leaders in the San Diego tech ecosystem. We also read the latest tech news on this Week in San Diego Tech news. Follow us and subscribe online to your favorite podcast network. Thanks to our partners. My name is Neil Bloom, I am with Fresh Brew Tech, the Tacos in Tech podcast and in our capital the operator investor community. And this is Fred Greer and I'm.

Fred Greer, the startup journalist in San Diego covering tech and VC firms. I'm also the author of Business of San Diego Substack covering the startup scene.

Awesome. Well, plenty to cover. You put out an article this week about TechCon SoCal which we'll get to in a second but let's dive into some raise news. Biolink, which is a medical device company, man I go back with These guys like 11 years when they were actually known as Electrozyme. They were an evo Nexus, they were spin out out of a lab at UCSD where they were able to on the surface of your skin detect things about the body. Whether that was salinity count or what they really want to do was blood glucose sensing but without actually tapping into the blood. Eleven years later they have built products towards this and have a sensor with micro needles. So they are starting to just get below the surface of the skin to determine glucose levels or blood sugar levels. So they raised a new round of funding. They had already prior to this I think they raised like hundreds if not hundred plus million in funding. Have you covered by link in the past? You know the team.

Yeah, so that's correct. Biolink, they raised I think 100 million Series B back in 2021. And so the Wall Street Journal had a great piece on the new fundraising round where they raised 58 million more. And so they're really interesting startup. I remember at the time, I think they were founded in 2012 and they had about 12 employees roughly three years ago. And so this is a huge, huge, huge, huge round. They actually have an investor that is well known, Mark Cuban, he was an early investor in the company as well. And yeah, glucose monitoring is interesting area because Dexcom is obviously here in San Diego, a big company that's in the space, and so they're finding success. And this funding raise will help them, you know, hopefully push out their products to treat type 2 diabetes with their device.

Yeah, yeah, you nailed it on the talent aspect. There's so much good diabetes tech, medical device talent in San Diego. Between Dexcom and Tandem Diabetes, which is a. A insulin delivery company, we had an exit with Companion medical where and people have cycled through all of these companies now as well too. So great to see and kudos to Jared and the team there. There's a company new to town named Natilus in defense tech space that I kind of teased about on the last episode here that Interlock was looking at and we have officially committed to investing in. They are a autonomous cargo company. The first real plane to be designed specifically for commercial cargo. It's really never been cargo at the forefront. It's always passenger planes that then get repurposed for cargo uses. And they're one of the first to really take a total different design to the body. It's called a blend wing body. And it's maximizing kind of a diamond shape for pallets, which are like square cubes. Right. And so they are recent transplants from San Francisco, moved from San Francisco to San Diego. And they moved here for three reasons. Tap into the General Atomic Shield AI and north of Grumman Talent Aerospace. They also found a really old legacy wind tunnel at the San Diego airport. It's been around since the late 40s that they got access to to test their early components in. And they were given hangar space at Browns Field, which is an airport down in the south county area. So they moved their whole company up from SF to San Diego. We've been spending the last few weeks with them at an Capital and we pulled the trigger and are participating in their latest round. So we're super stoked to be involved there. We had a big aerospace crew and a big logistics tech crew who helped us on diligence. So I felt like, you know, we were able to connect them with more than just capital, but access to a lot of industries as well, too. So you heard. You met the Nautilus team yet at any of the defense tech meetups yet.

I'm looking forward to meeting them. I mean, I've been following Bay Area companies who've moved to the area. This is new on my radar. You know, defense tech is really popping off. I was actually at Harpoon's defense tech meetup earlier this week. They had over, you know, 150 people in the audience, they had four portfolio companies, many of them working in defense tech. And I'm just really excited about this sector. I think the military is all in on this space and there's a lot of opportunity for companies to, you know, find solutions and support the military and transfer this. Interesting, Natalie. Looks interesting because it's, you know, supply chain, the next generation of cargo aircraft. I'm looking forward to learning more about that, what they do.

Yeah. And, and the CEO Alexi was actually at our VC Outlook event. That's the first time I met him in person, even though we had already been entered by email and things just kind of moved from there at that meeting. At our VC Outlook event, we put time on the calendar for me to come see their facility. And here we are investing. So we love that. So proud to be a part of that part. And you mentioned the defense tech ecosystem, which is massive in San Diego. And in fact the, the budget for the Pentagon has just been released. It's a massive budget, like an $825 billion spending budget for the next year, which definitely benefits the San Diego ecosystem in a huge way, both land, air and sea. This is a good article that Brad Graves put out from the Business Journal. He's kind of a defense writer there. Talks about kind of a triple fold increase in funding over the last year that will come benefit San Diego, which is great from we do ship building, ship repair, obviously the housing of soldiers and armament, you know, and through the many bases. But a lot of actually technology innovation and kind of land, air and sea and cyber as well. Actually had a meeting this morning with Scott Tate, who is part of UCSD's Defense Tech Innovation community. And he was telling me about how much space force is actually investing within the standard community. In fact, UCSD has been tapped to kind of head up in space experimentation and research for astronauts. So they're kind of becoming the hub for in space experimentation too. So what else comes to mind for you in terms of how defense sector kind of grows And Boston's here.

Two things. Well, earlier this week I think SpaceX sent another rocket into, into. Into space. I saw a lot of photos on Twitter, people sharing it from Carlsbad to, to downtown, which is pretty cool. And then Ryan from SHIELD AI when I talked to him, he said this fundraising climate has never been more favorable for defense tech companies. You know, was taboo in many circles and you know, in the early days they were rejected by media investors. Today there's growing recognition that investment in defense Tech by security. You know, security industry is really flourishing. So in San Diego, there's a number of defense tech companies. We write about them, talk about them on the podcast. You know, everyone's moving here because we have direct relationships with the military, all different organizations. And I'd see it as being a growing opportunity for these companies.

Total. Yeah. Well, stay tuned, we'll do more. You were at the defense tech meetup by Harpoon this week. How was it? Who were the speakers that they kind of highlighted?

It was Harpoon's portfolio company. So many of them weren't based in San Diego. They had one that was based and you know, basically the conversation was around just the defense tech industry and the momentum that's, that's building. So as I mentioned with show the AI, there's a lot increased, more, increased appetite for this industry and how it used to take 20 years before the military took this stuff serious. And now it's taking, you know, you know, one to two, three years to really get moving on this new latest innovation. And so definitely, you know, a lot of good momentum and positivity around the space.

Awesome. Well, I think even more will come, that's for sure. Our weekly update on new biotech fundings, you know, feels like Left and right. 100 million here, 100 million there. Alternum Therapeutics raised a 132 million Series B company. Another one here, Fred.

Yeah, this one was pretty, pretty huge. There's 132 million. I cannot pronounce this therapeutic name. Maybe you can. Maybe you can pronounce it Altero, Alterom Therapeutics. So there are series B oncology startup. And you know, really just the theme here is in the last few weeks there's been massive series B funding in Grail. They raise 140 million Series B as well. And it's just popping off. You know, life sciences from IPO perspective and then also startups being able to raise capital. Last year was tough for a lot of these startups who weren't able to raise capital. And I'm just seeing a lot more companies starting to close rounds and I think the rest of the year might, you might, it might continue. So it's a good time to be a life science founder because there's oversubscribed $100 million rounds happening which will fuel innovation and growth.

And it's exciting to see definitely a non biotech company. It was exciting to see come out of stealth. And their announcement was Splash, which is a pool service. Both roll up and technology play. So Jeremy Yamaguchi, a Serial home care services founder previously did Lawn Love and went through Y Combinator with it and sold it and had a previous one to that. Also in home care services now is doing kind of a roll up model buying up these pool services companies and plans to build the largest pool services brand and tech play nationwide. Kind of full, full disclosure why Analog Capital participated in this round. We invested a few months ago and so this is a four and a half million dollar round. They got some really strong other investors on the table here as well too which I know you saw Fred in the announcement on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Yeah, just I mean a cool fact is Jeremy, he's a rockstar CEO. He's built multiple fast growing software startups. His last foray or last success was Long Love which like Uber for, for Lawn Services which got acquired a few years ago. He's now starting his new thing a holding holding co. A holding co for full service companies. I think this is going to be a huge business and I'm going to be following very closely.

As will we for sure as investors in it as well here. But we're excited for Jeremy to get back to, back into the entrepreneur founder game which is what happens so much. Entrepreneurs are serial in nature. You just want to come go build and solve the next problem. Last one here on our docket here is Tide Rock which is a local kind of micro PE fund. Right. What's kind of the news here on their latest acquisition which is interesting to see.

Yeah, Tyrock is, yeah is definitely like a PE shop. They're based in Solana beach and you know they're kind of, they're, they're kind of low key but they've been making a lot of strategic acquisitions lately. Their latest one is Cablenet which is Cablenet Aerospace which supplies, you know the space aircraft and military industries. And so they purchased this business and adding it to portfolio. This company was founded in 1990 and so Tide Rock is a company in the PE space. Definitely look into them. They are doing some very interesting stuff and just acquiring older businesses and scaling them up. So it's a local team and I think Washroom have written about them multiple times. They're one of the few PE shops in San Diego. There's also Seaside Equity Partners and a few others, JMI Equity which does more like software and late stage growth investing. Tide Rock has a different model where they're buying kind of different, different types of businesses.

Yeah, not as not many locally who are on kind of majority buy side, you know most of the RPE or VC is on minority investment. But yeah, it's cool to see Tyrock doing the full kind of majority PE kind of ownership model here. So we'll keep tracking their other investments here as well too. And maybe there's an angle that we see them also do a San Diego deal obviously in the backyard. Love to see that. A lot of events coming up, a lot that have obviously going on. Fred and I are usually at many of them and if not you can probably find the full listing event in the social coyote linked here. Coming up next week is or this week this week put out on a Monday is SAS Diego, which I love seeing happen. Event fully focused on early stage SaaS all about fundraising for a SaaS startup put on by Logic Boost Labs, which is a investment kind of investor and incubator here in town. And I just really like seeing them put on events leading here for early, early stage SaaS companies. You checked out this event. Are you going to it next week?

Yeah, I'm excited for it. I think it's happening on Tuesday from 6 to 8pm in Del Mar. It's in partnership with Chaos to Clarity and the Social Coyote. So two good friends that I know in the community and I think over 57 people RCP'd. We'll link that in the show notes if you're interested in checking that out.

Yeah, and they should. It'll be kind of a fun event. It's not kind of just like your sit and watch and learn. I think they've got some fun, fun stuff in play which you don't usually hear for Tech meetup. In that regard, my welcome to San Diego Virtual Gathering. I've moved that to mid month. Each month is coming up on April 19th, so if you are new in town or new doing something new like you know, move made, job shift or looking for something new, come introduce yourself. Come join in and get three minutes on the clock. Come introduce yourself and then we as a community will help connect you in wherever we can be helpful to you. And then you just put out an article on TechCon. So Cal, you want to tell us more about that coming up in May?

Yeah, so we mentioned it last podcast, but TechCon is kind of a a big tech conference. So think Qualcomm and Sony executives meets Bay Area VCs coming together under one roof talking about the, you know, latest in tech. So obviously AI is obviously hot topic right now. I expect many, many panels or will be on AI this year. But yeah, we're hosting this conference in San Diego so I got the Chance to talk to the mastermind behind it. Fastul and so you can check out the newsletter. We'll link it in below. Really just kind of talking about the inception of the conference. What's the goal behind it? And it's really to bring together Silicon Valley mines to San Diego. How do we, you know, kind of bridge the gap between the innovation scene that's happening in the Bay Area and also convene, you know, investors and other innovators in San Diego. And, you know, we're all working toward the same goal, which is to be at the forefront of emerging technologies and how that's going to impact industries and create, you know, greater impact for, for the world.

Yeah, I'm helping out plan a few of those talks. Who knows, you might get pulled in to moderate one or one of those as well too, Fred, hopefully. But it's looking like it's going to be some a really good like SF meets sd from what I'm seeing right now on who's coming to speak, both at the keynote level and at all these different talks, we're putting together some really good panelists for Future of Transportation, which I think San Diego can really speak to. And yeah, it's kind of a good cool group of organizers that are leading on their SF and San Diego network to get some good topics there. So looking forward to that in late May. And that's our show for the week. We decided to dive back in with you every week here on the Talkers Intent podcast. This week in San Diego Tech News. You can find more@freshbrewtech.com or subscribe to the Talkers Insect podcast. And as always, subscribe to Fred's Business of San Diego Substack and linked here in the show notes as well. Businessofsandiego.substack.com and everyone have a great week. Fred, always a pleasure.

Always a pleasure. Until next time.

Cheers.

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the the party started.

You want tech and tacos, Tacos in tech. You know, we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keeper Countins counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a craft beer and coffee My coding yoga posse fold the body the origami we be surfing Coronado eating tacos El Gordo the taco stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero got a shout out to coast angels by the ocean, watch the sunset La Jolla shows entrepreneurs trying to get funded when San Diego startup week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the the beach. Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started.

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it.

Hey.