This Week in San Diego Tech News - December 13, 2023

Hello. Hello. Happy December everyone. This is Neil Bloom and Fred Greer here for another edition of this week in San Diego Tech News. We are thrilled to be with you. Hey Fred.

Hey Neil. Glad to be back.

Yeah. Another one Holiday edition. Maybe we might do another one before or during the holidays but we just love being together here and sharing what's been going on. It's been busy holiday season already since Thanksgiving it's been non stop. I'm. But real quick our intros. I'm Neil Bloom with Fresh Brew Tech and the Tacos and Tech podcast as well as Interlock Capital, a community investment venture fund and Fred.

And I'm Fred Greer, tech journalist here in San Diego covering tech startups and some of the large companies in San Diego and happy to be back here talking about the biggest news in tech.

Yeah, well we've got some as always, some funding news, some acquisition news and some event news that'll take us through the last recent times. Let's do you want to dive right into to Pet Desk funding?

Let's get right into it. Yeah. So Pet Desk is a tech company. They create software that are used by, you know, veterinarians and pet pets or pet service providers and they've been around for some time. Founded by Taylor. He is a kind of a OG in tech community and yeah to see them raise 100 million growth funding really speaks to the growth of the company. They started as a tiny startup and I think they have over, you know, hundreds of employees now and peak span was also an early investor which is backed seismic and cloud beds and other other companies. So it's, it's good to see Pet Desk continue to raise and find success in the tech community here.

Yeah, pet man Taylor Kavanaugh and I go back maybe even 10 years in the community. When I met him it was him and his partner who had just moved out from Dallas. I think his CTO actually still been living in Dallas at the time and he was kind of incubating in oh man, Ari Trous Co. Right above the Carl Strauss over in downtown. I forget the name there that company. But yeah, they have boomed and grown this vertical SaaS platform for the veterinary industry and then took I think actually a majority buyout. PE buyout, not buyout but majority capital. The last round that then kind of reorganized the company into a parent company called Pet Visor where they then started buying up different software and services and building a bigger brand. So Pet Desk is actually one of the sub brands under Pet Visor I believe. And so the parent company Pet Visor has taken this new hundred million dollars in capital by Apex Digital Funds. But Taylor and and and team still are involved. I still see they're they're building over there. I believe they still have over in Bankers Hill which we have done many Startup Week events there. So it's great to see them continuing to to grow especially in these times. So congrats Taylor and team another and speaking on the funding side, it's great to see more venture funds raising funds. You put out a great article highlighting all the funds that have raised this year. You know we Interlock Capital are closed are finishing our raise now before year end. And Harpoon Ventures just, just announced their raise on fund four I believe. Right Fred?

Yeah. So they raised 125 million for fund Harpoon Ventures. They were based in Menlo park but expanded here in San Diego in 2021. The managing partner is actually based in Coronado so he has some ties to San Diego. And so this new fund is really to continue backing tech companies that have relationships with government or commercial uses. And so what's interesting about Harpoon Ventures is they tend to do a lot of follow on investments. What you know, tier one VC funds like Andreessen Horowitz for example. Some of his LPs include Michael Phelps and a partner A16Z and they raised you know they, they've definitely done a lot of deals. I think they've done over 50 investments over its lifetime and they have over 300 million in management. So a huge fund and a lot of people don't know that they have presence in San Diego.

So yeah they, Larson is the the partner. Can you hear me Fed?

Yeah, I can hear you now.

So Larson is the partner there. It's been great to see them continue to build in that regard. A lot of I think when they first came out they got a lot of press around like their gov tech but even more like a veteran fund. And, and you know while they are like Larson I believe is a former Navy seal, I don't believe they have gotten exclusion to only invest in veteran founders though I think they would love to. They, they seem to be more on kind of this dual use focus. So do you have a commercial product that could do really well selling into big government as well? They can help or vice versa. Do you have kind of an already government use case that could then find commercial viability as well. So yeah, great to see. I believe that you mentioned a partner at a 16C. I think it's known that it is Mark Andreessen who is on Their board and you know, personal LP maybe in that regard. And so yeah, they do a lot of co investment with Andreessen recent because of that. So amazing deal though in that regard. And great to see another fund here with new cash to be deploying, which a great time to be deploying over the next year, I'm sure. Just like, just like us, they're busy through the end of your writing checks. Like we got three more to write before the end of the year. So it's great to see more funds locally deploying capital. Let's talk about kind of the other end of the spectrum, which is kind of the M and A side, a local biotech, kind of a consumer biotech EVO them. They are a women's health product, really an alternative to birth control. And I had Sandra pelletier on the P.O. my podcast about two years ago. Honestly, I'm so inspired by her 30 plus years women's health like entrepreneur. She started her whole career working for Big Bio on selling the pill, if you will, and really got fired up saying that, you know, women who have, who have to take the daily pill for birth control are, don't have any other alternatives. And she was sought out to change that and found kind of a whole new product line to offer women alternatives to the birth control bill. So they went to market, they had a really public, great public launch with an amazing spokesperson, an actress, I'm forgetting her name right now, but a really great, funny video with this spokesperson and have just because they're public, been really hit hard from the impact the activist investment market and Big Bio honestly hitting at them hard, going after their bread and butter, which are, you know, pills that women are on for life pretty much. So, you know, this was a $100 million acquisition that still keeps EVOFEM around and their product out. But I don't know if it was great financially for everyone in that reg. I, you know, I've seen the stock really dwindle because they've been hammered so hard. So stuff to see. But at least they found a home and not just completely shut down because I believe Sandra is still out to change the world. So we'll keep an eye on them. An amazing event that happened last week. We've been, we've been techstars San Diego powered by sds. You had their, their demo day of the first cohort and, and this was, you know, kind of event we've all been waiting for. They had the, it's been a very public kickoff of the accelerator coming to town more than A year ago they kicked it off at Startup Week and then released the names of the companies in September. And whole bunch of us in town, nearly 90, 100 of us became mentors and got to meet these companies between September to December. And to see the progress that the companies made from September now was what demo day was all about. Showcasing where they're at now. And they really put on an amazing show at Snapdragon Stadium. There was, you know, hundreds of people in attendance, really amazing cross section of the ecosystem. We at Interlock actually did a pre event lunch where we hosted a number of out of town VCs and the 12 cohorted companies. And it was cool to see the VCs were coming into town just to meet these companies. So yeah, 12 companies all pitched or really demoed. It wasn't like a pitch competition. There was no winner per se. Honestly, everyone did really, really well in presenting. I was really impressed with every company, just like how they came out. If anything, I say we need this more often. We have to wait a whole nother year for demo day next year. And I just think we need more demo days so we see more of these companies, what they're up to. I Fred, I know you've missed it, but I know you've been watching it from afar and you've been watching techstars. Like what's your, what's your take of what this did for the community?

Yeah, I just want to do a quick shout out to Ryan Cooter. You know, he was starting the accelerator program at Qualcomm back in the early days in 2016. And to see him bring tech stars, you know, fully immersed this year for the first cohort it was a 13 week program. They had, you know, a dozen companies from different sectors and they're bringing investors and bringing the community together for this demo day. Although I wasn't able to attend, you know, the quality of companies that techstars brings, it brings through really speaks to the quality of similar to Y Combinator Trust and Will has went through Tech Stars, Crafters Box has been through there. There's been a few, you know, really blue chip companies have gone to the accelerator program. And so if you're interested in what's happening in the ecosystem, definitely look out to Tuck Star San Diego. They're just getting started.

Yeah, exactly there. This is year one. Have at least year a three year commitment and we're really hoping this, this becomes, you know, every year thing. You know, I was actually talking to Jonah Peak about this. Jonah, shout out to Jonah who's got the Social Coyote newsletter where he highlights the events of the week. And you know, we loved that this event happened. And more recently, Evo Nexus brought their demo day back over the summer, which was awesome to see. We need more of this. Like we want to see what companies are up to and gathering to talk about them publicly. So I call on, you know, Launch Factory to do their public yearly demo day. I call on Even Connect who has springboard to show us the companies. I know they do cool companies, but a demo day is just different. You put people on stage, you know that you people got to get ready and present and show the best version of themselves. So, you know, kind of a public, public call here, if you will, to get more events like this happening because it was great for the ecosystem more than just those 12 companies. And those are our stories for now. I know there's a few other. There's not too much happening through the end of the year. You know, there's a few maybe like here and there meetups, but people are kind of winding down and doing their holiday party stuff internally with companies. I know right after the new year we'll get right back into the founders hike. So first Friday of the month we'll do the founders like. And now the new bolt on event, the Founders Plunge, where we, a few of us after the hike, jump into the ocean, which was kind of fun. Four of us did that after the last hike. What else do you have? Anything else do you have on your radar coming up early in 2024?

Fred, stay tuned for maybe a, you know, a wrap up report of the biggest fundings in San Diego. And yeah, let's, let's finish off the year with the Bang. And 2024 will be a great year.

Yeah, excited, excited to finish out the year. We'll do another episode with that wrap up, which I'm excited about, Fred. And to all of you, thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon. Cheers.

Cheers.