San Diego Tech News Weekly – March 11, 2022

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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 on Clubhouse and now we record them for you to enjoy as well. Find these episodes on Freshbrewedtech.com and favorite podcast player for Tacos and Tech Podcast

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

Jonah: Hey I’m Jonah, fmr ops guy at Lime, Handy, and Postmates, loving San Diego life, new dad and and going head first into crypto and NFT apparel. 

For March 11, 2022:

1. ‘A laboratory on the skin’: UC San Diego lab works to make new wearable health sensors part of our daily look – La Jolla Light
   1. Joseph Wang from UCSD’s Department of Nanoengineering 
   2. Very close (months away) to what they call a wearable laboratory
   3. Think of it as a patch that goes on the skin
   4. These are could be a key piece of overall health tracking in the future 
   5. Current devices (wrist or finger) can track
      • Heart
      • Other vitals
      • Hardware: watches or Oura Ring
   6. What’s missing is molecular info
      • Glucose
      • Cortisol – stress hormone
      • Electrolyte levels
   7. Glucose can be tracked but generally requires a small wire under the skin
   8. Wangs sensors are looking to collect data in a non invasive way
   9. Other important requirements that these sensors possess
      • Low cost
      • Low energy
   10. To simplify what they are doing, these sensors are analyzing sweat 
   11. They can also measure alcohol oxidants
       • Telling if you’re drunk via smartphone
   12. But more importantly, help to tailor ones diet to the individual to optimize the bodys performance
   13. In the future they are looking at sensors that could go in the month and use saliva to track even more markers
   14. The goal will be to license the tech out when ready 
2. New cannabis testing lab opens in Miramar area
   1. One of the largest testing labs in CA opens in Miramar
   2. Founded by two Ph.D. chemists
      • Josh Swider 
      • Dave Marelius
   3. Think of it as a biotech company
   4. Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs, or InfiniteCAL
   5. 16,000-square-foot facility
   6. They have a facility in Michigan
      • Opening one in arizona
   7. Per CA regulations, all products sold must be tested
      • Looking for Cannabinoids
      • Pesticides
      • Heavy metals
      • Residual solvents
   8. They employ 30 scientists
      • Ph.D. and master chemists
   9. State of the art Thermo Scientific instrumentation
   10. They are the only lab to hold an annual license in CA
3. Making It In San Diego: Robot server helps Tofu House restaurant overcome pandemic challenges
   1. Love Tofu House
   2. added the DAASH XL Robot
      • Company has 12000 deployed
      • 14hrs on a charge
   3. Helping overcome pandemic challenges
   4. It can’t take orders or refill drinks (yet)
   5. It has:
      • four trays
      • can carry up to 80 pounds
   6. Staff only needs to unload the robot
   7. The robot is rented for $600/mo
   8. Much less than a min wage employee 
   9. More importantly, it’s helped overcome labor shortage
   10. He said, even if everyone calls in sick, the robot can still deliver food and customers can take it off the tray themselves. 
   11. Humans still cook and are an important piece of the business
   12. Tech is a friend 
4. Qualcomm, ESL Gaming launch mobile Esports tournament
   1. Esports is huge – according to Qcomm, 500m fans (!!)
   2. Qualcomm is helping power a huge part of the esports experience, from watching, streaming the data, powering the game engines, and more
   3. Now Qualcomm is enabling the industry to grow, by backing the league itself with $2m in prize money called the Snapdragon Pro Series
   4. The goal is to do the branding that shows participants and watchers what tech goes into making it happen, Snapdragon, and therefore make sure their next device has it in it too
5. EV Charger maker Beam acquires Chicago battery maker and doubles company
   1. Beam Global ($BEEM), Formerly Envision Solar, is the maker of solar chargers for private & public use
      • EV ARC, a self-contained, free-standing electric charging station that is delivered by truck, powered by solar photovoltaic panels mounted on its roof that rotate with the sun, and is independent of the electric power grid. Each one costs about $65,000.
      • Sounds like them and Chargenet should talk!
   2. They acquired AllCell Technologies out of Chicago, all stock deal
   3. Doubles team to 87, based out of Miramar
   4. TCA funded and Keshif Ventures backed
   5. Bringing the bater manufacturing to California to take advantage of grants and tax benefits, other incentives
   6. It’s not connected to anything at all. It’s not connected to the utility grid because it generates all of its own electricity and stores it,” Wheatley said. “It’s not bolted down, it’s not glued down.” No construction is required to install the EV ARC, built to withstand winds of up to 120 miles per hour and flooding up to nine feet, and it can be up and running in about one hour, Wheatley said. “New York City is our biggest municipal customer. They’re electrifying their entire fleet of 36,000 vehicles,” Wheatley said.
   7. They went public in 2019 and shares have traded between $6 and $72, now at $14
   8. Annual revenue of $6m

 

Shout out section: 

• San Diego Angel Conference on March 24th
• inaugural SD NFT Conference on April 9 & 10 (use discount code NFTINCLUSION for 20%)
• Startup San Diego Convergence on April 13 & 14
• 5.10.30 Innovation Day at Petco Park by Connect on April 28th
• San Diego ranks second for California’s most supernatural sightings
• Blueprint Equity’s new fund
• Cox is making all calls to Ukraine free