San Diego Tech News Weekly – August 20, 2021

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Neal: Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News by Neal Bloom and Jonah Peake from Fresh Brewed Tech. Every Friday at 12:30pm Pacific we’re on Clubhouse and now we record them for you to enjoy as well. 

I’m Neal Bloom, entrepreneur, investor, and community builder 

Jonah: And I’m Jonah Peake, serial tech operator and investor both, both of us are big fans of growing the San Diego tech community. Let’s dive into our five stories of the week

1. 1. Demand for Lab Space Increased 280% in San Diego During Pandemic
      1. JLL put out a report 
      2. surpassed pre-COVID levels in San Diego
      3. Expected to continue on this trajectory
      4. This is driving increased leasing and investment
      5. Demand is so high that offices buildings are converted to lab buildings
      6. Driven by confidence in reopening
      7. I can imagine WFH is much harder for businesses requiring lab space as part of their business
      8. Additionally, there is a demand for nice office space
         1. To encourage workers to come back
         2. To help with hiring and recruiting
      9. Demand is up but techmost activer:
         1. wireless technology companies, 
         2. semiconductor, 
         3. computer technology
         4. gaming firms
      10. General trend to quality with office –
          1. life science 
          2. And growth of big tech
      11. Especially for the most modernized buildings

   2. Harpoon Ventures seeks to unlock federal contracts for startups
      1. Harpoon started 2018 as a $3mm fund by 2 ex servicemen
      2. William Allen and Larsen Jensen
         1. Allen was a Marine
         2. Jensen a Navy Seal before 
         3. Before entered the business world
      3.  getting itself into some big deals with contacts in Washington, D.C.
      4. They are finding that one of the biggest enterprise buyers has been overlooked
      5. Not just the top 1000 global corporates
      6. The US Government, or one of the biggest companies in the world
      7. Gov contracts is part of their thesis
      8. Harpoon helped its first 10 portfolio companies close $25 million in government deals
      9. They co invest with companies like
         1. GV
         2. A16Z
         3. Sequoia
      10. They want to help startups win $682 billion a year in government contracts
      11. It can be helpful to have experts in the room when looking to close GOV contracts
          1. Longer sales cycles
          2. Contract uncertainty 
          3. Compliance requirements
          4. Much more rules than commercial markets
      12. But if you win these contracts
          1. Federal GOV has a huge budget
          2. DOD: 700B
          3. US VC: 164B invested in startups for comparison
      13. Since Harpoon’s inception three years ago,
          1. Help startups access $496 million 
          2. 52 federal contracts across 
          3. eight different agencies
      14. We talked about this last week in our UCSD AI story:
          1. US is fighting to be the leader in AI
      15. But also needs to consider
          1. Autonomous weaponry (drones)
          2. Cyberwar
          3. Infowar
      16. And there is a huge budget for this

   3. Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute Gets $3.1M for Glucose Device Study
      1. From The National Institutes of Health  
      2. Study for T2D
      3. Help patients have better control while admitted to the hospital
      4. CGM is expanding out of T1D in some really cool ways
      5. The intention is to build on research of Covid 19 patients with diabetes
      6. test CGM in the acute-care setting under rigorous, gold-standard research conditions
      7. Overall helping to take better care of hospitalized patients with diabetes.
      8. FDA cleared the way for this early in the pandemic
      9. Normally, a patient would need finger sticks 6x per day
         1. Painful and annoying
         2. access glucose data remotely without entering a patient’s room saves personal protective equipment
      10. CGM approved for out patient in 1999, but in patience limited
      11. Some notes on BG and what happens when it gets too high
          1. Risks: 
             1. Heart attack
             2. Kidney damage
             3. Nerve damage
      12. Care teams now have 288 measurements to advise on treatment

   4. More Chargers Needed for EVs.. GOAL IS TO GROW MORE THAN 10X
      1. San Diego has a fantastic climate for electric cars
      2. Epic sun, tons of solar
      3. But we need more charging
         1. The region needs 150k new charging stations
      4. To support CAs massive goal
         1. 1. 100% zero-emission vehicle sales
            2. To meet this goal: all new cars sold in the state must have zero emissions by 2030
            3. gas-powered cars can stay on the road for 20 years or more, every year without a zero-emission sales requirement means a substantial addition to total emissions.
      5. As of 2020, there are
         1. 69k EVs
         2. 6500 EV Chargers
      6. Not to tangent too much but what do you think gas stations will turn into?
      7. Estimates 50 billion to build out US charging network
         1. To accommodate the expected growth by 2030
      8. As part of the infrastructure bill 7.5b to be spend on charging
         1. Around 10k in CA alone
      9. Is good for the economy and the planet
      10. SDG&E’s vice president of energy procurement and sustainability.
          1. “The gaps in our fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles are so large, no single entity can solve the problem on its own. Regional collaboration is critical.”

   5. San Diego software unicorn Seismic raises another $170 million on road to a possible IPO
      1. Seismic’s sales enablement software allows large companies to create and send digital materials that help salespeople
      2. After this funding, value of 3b
         1. Raised 440m 
         2. over 11 years
      3. With this funding Seismic will be buying Lessonly
         1. This will help to bulk up coaching/training on platform
      4. Lessonly: Amazing customer service and sales training starts with Lessonly.
         1. Raised 29mm
         2. Out of Indianapolis
         3. 200 workers
      5. Price was not disclosed
      6. The entire team will be joining Seismic
      7. Seismic actually offered sales training through 3rd party until now
      8. Working with Lessonly for at least 2 years
      9. We talked about the advantages of timing
         1. Create/send Digital Sales materials
         2. Bringing Outside sales inside
         3. Retention
      10. Things are looking good for seismic, but no IPO announcement yet
      11. Are you buying?

   6. Some fundings/acquisitions from this week’s Fresh Brewed Tech newsletter:
      1.  Fundings
         1. XinThera, drug discovery company, $50M Series B with Foresite Capital and TTM Capital
         2. Engrail Therapeutics, nervous system disease medicine developer, $32M Series A with Nan Fung Life Sciences
         3. Aardvark Therapeutics, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, $29M Series B with Sorrento Therapeutics and Korea Omega Investment
         4. Debut Biotech, biotechnology company, $22.6M Series A with Material Impact Fund and KdT Ventures
         5. Entando, open source software company, $11M Series B with Vertis SGR S.p.A. and United Ventures
         6. junolive, community-building software company, $3.5M Seed with Jerry Murdock and Walter Scott
      2. Acquisitions
         1. Monster Tool by GWS Tool Group acq, based in Vista
            1. carbide cutting tools – erospace, automotive, medical, energy, heavy equipment, and die-mold
         2. Vivideon Therapeutics for $1.5B
         3. Lawn Love by LawnStarter, team is staying in SD

 

That’s our show! Make sure to subscribe to the FBT newsletter at FreshBrewedTech.com and follow us on twitter: NealBloom and JonahPeake