Home Podcast San Diego Tech News Weekly – September 17, 2021

San Diego Tech News Weekly – September 17, 2021

by Neal Bloom

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. 

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

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

 

For Sep 17, 2021: 

  1. Bird bringing Ebikes back to SD! With e-bikes and San Diego is the first test market
    1. One of the first cities to receive the bikes
      1. Great test market
      2. Solid weather
      3. Tourism
      4. Very little rain
      5. Transportation is not great
      6. Spread out into pockets like a quilt
    2. More than 1k scooters (feels low)
    3. Specifically, they are partnering with SDSU
      1. To provide a green transportation option
    4. Obviously wear a helmet when riding in SD
    5. https://www.sandiego.gov/bicycling
      1. Along the bottom a link for shared scooter companies
  2. SUPER Biotech Update!!
    1. iBio to Grow Talent in S.D.
      1. Welcome to SD iBio (NYSEA: IBIO)
      2. HQ in Bryan Texas
        1. operating out of BioLabs now
        2. plans on moving to 12,000 square foot lab facility in Sorrento Valley
      3. plant-based antibodies
        1. Therapeutics
        2. vaccines
        3. An antibody that is produced by plants that have been genetically engineered with animal DNA encoding
        4. They can be purified cheaply and in large numbers
        5. I couldn’t use Plantibody (its trademarked by Biolex)
      4. Some cool stats
        1. 130,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in TX
        2. ½ million hydroponic plants
        3. Fully automated vertical farming
      5. The new San Diego site will be focused on oncology
      6. Why San Diego?
        1. A place where their employees can enjoy a work-life balance and even raise their family
      7. Though only planning to add 20 people this year
        1. They want to be close to entrepreneurial spirit
        2. Access to talent
        3. proximity to top research institutions
    2. New Biotech Campus – Harrison Street and Sterling Bay buying 1.4million sq ft in Sorrento Valley
      1. A chicago firm
      2. Plan to build massive life science campus
      3. Price tag $576M
      4. five existing buildings
        1. 4 of 5 are leased
          1. Qualcomm
          2. Tanvex
          3. Wacker
      5. another 13 acres to build 1.1 million sq ft of new office and lab space
      6. 2nd massive life science deal
        1. IQHQ, 1.3 million sq ft downtown
      7. Why here? The location is minutes from:
        1. UC San Diego, 
        2. Scripps Research, 
        3. Salk Institute and 
        4. Sanford Burnham Prebys
    3. Torrey Pines is too HOT and biotech is moving down the 56
      1. Developers are betting that biotech is ready to head east (a little)
      2. Sea Breeze Properties is building mixed use space in torrey highlands
      3. Reworking the office portion of campus into life sciences
      4. Development applied to amend permit to allow for lab
      5. 525k commercial space
        1. Room for 2500 people
  3. *IPO Alert* – Cue files to go public
  4. Aptera Motors pushes ahead to manufacture its 3-wheel solar powered, electric vehicle
    1. Sorrento Valley company
    2. Super futuristic looking
      1. Or aerodynamic
      2. 1 wheel in the back
      3. 2 on the front
        1. solar on the front and back
    3. This is a very challenging problem
      1. Challenge balance between weight, 
      2. sq ft coverage for panels, etc
      3. Large incumbent vehicles
    4. But range anxiety is an issue
    5. 11k pre orders
    6. Looking for 80k-120k sq ft for manufacturing (if only they were biotech)
    7. They are trying to manufacture in a unique way
    8. The majority of parts are lightweight
      1. Parts can be built in house
      2. Much easier and lighter to ship
    9. Powered just by the sun:
      1. Can get 40 mi from a day in the some
      2. Envisioning a vehicle with 250 mi range
        1. With charge
  5. The future of cloud – is local cloud again? Come learn about edge computing at Cloud Night, October 4
  6. Green Summit – 23 & 24th
  7. SDSM Oct 1-29

 

Fundings – Tiled, Giga.io, GoFormz, Measurabl ($50M)

  • Sign off and good bye everyone!

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