San Diego Tech News Weekly – November 14, 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 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, ops guy building marketplaces spent time at Lime, Handy, and Postmates and I enjoy helping startups throughout San Diego. Let’s dive into our four stories of the week:

For Nov 12, 2021:

1. Consolidation in space: Carlsbad’s Viasat inks $4B deal to buy UK satellite outfit Inmarsat
   1. Mike Mike Mike!!
   2. Viasat is spending 4$ Billion on London based Inmarsat Group Holdings
   3. This strengthens their position on geostationary satellites
      1. Let’s define Geosynchronous
         1. This means rotating at the same rate as the earth spins
         2. They have the advantage of being “fixed” in the same place in the sky
         3. Used for communications 
   4. This will bring Viasat satellites to 19
      1. With 10 more in the next few years
      2. Viasat has
         1.  5 now
         2. 3 under construction
   5. This deal with double Viasats Revenue
      1. And add:
         1. 3k employees (8k total)
   6. Increase patent count to 2500
   7. This is largely a stock deal
      1. 850m cash
      2. 3.1b stock
         1. Fmr Inmarsat investors will own 37.5% stake in Viasat
   8. This could be a bit of a defensive play against Starlink
      1. Who launched 1700+ low orbit satellites 
         1. Goal of offering internet
2. For the first time ever, a life science company spins out of San Diego’s blood bank
   1. Companies can come from anywhere there is a good idea
   2. CEO leaving to run Community Bio
      1. Helping other biotechs develop therapies against deadly diseases
   3. This is the first time they’ve spun out a life sciences company
   4. This is an independent for profit company
   5. Customers are 
      1. Research Groups
      2. Life Sciences Companies
   6. Selling materials to develop and test therapies on cells
   7. Typically companies use teeny molecules or bulky proteins 
   8. When you give blood you can consent to donate some to research
   9. This partnership means that the blood bank has a stake in the new company
   10. There’s likely a high demand as SD grows further into a bio tech hub
   11. Spinning the company out will allow them to raise money
       1. The new company is currently bankrolled by a Bay Area VC Firm
   12. This spin out has the potential to fund the bloodbank for years to come
       1. They currently operate at around a 2% profit margin
3. UC San Diego Announces Teams for Blue Tech Accelerator
   1. First cohort announced!
   2. Team effort 
      1. Rady School of Management
      2. Scripps Institute of Oceanography
   3. As you might have guessed innovation is focused on the world’s oceans
   4. Impressive balance in the cohort
      1. From Anchor technology, storm water, power generation to 3d Printed coral reefs. 
   5. There is no cost to the program
      1. Teams get:
         1. Mentors
         2. Connections to customers
         3. Potential investors. 
   6. These solutions are very important to the american marine economy
      1. Est at $373B in 2018, department of commerce
   7. There are corporate mentorship opportunities will be announced in Dec
      1. Check out startBlue Accelerator website
         1. Startblue.ucsd.edu
4. Asterra Uses Satellite Data to Solve Engineering Problems
   1. We talk about water a lot on the pod
      1. Desal last week
   2. We found a pretty cool Israeli company with office in Rancho Bernardo that uses Radar to detect leaks
   3. This helps authorities find and repair pipes 
   4. They can see up to 10 ft
      1. Pipes typically 4ft
   5. They have passed proof of concept 
   6. They’ve grown from 4 people to 18
      1. Plans for 26
   7. Involved in 400 projects
      1. Detected 38,000 leaks
   8. This can also be used for sewer pipe failure 
   9. Did you know that 20% of power generated in CA goes towards pushing water?
   10. This can be used in other ways
       1. Water build up that may cause landslides
          1. Think big sur

Fundings – 

• Drata $100M at $1B
• Hone $16M Series A
• GoShare – $8M