San Diego Tech News Weekly – September 3, 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. 

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 week of  Sep 3, 2021:

1. Mainstay Medical, Biotech Firm Out of Ireland, Selects Little Italy for U.S Headquarters
   1. 1. Mainstay has picked its new US HQ and lands in Little Italy
      2. This continues the theme of Biotech in DT SD
      3. This story came from CBRE
         1. Who represent a landlord in the area
      4. Mainstay took 23,000 sq ft
      5. A great location in the mix of retail and office space
      6. This is building on the momentum of IQHQ, the new facility along pacific highway
      7. What do they do?
         1. They make an implantable device called ReActiv8
            1. Which your Dr installs
            2. Connecting 2 wires to  the nerves that control your multifidus muscle
            3. a series of small, triangular muscle bundles located on either side of the spinal column
            4. You then use a remote 2x per day to start the therapy
         2. These pulses are painless and you can just lay down and relax
2. Comic-Con Museum Set to Open Nov. 26 in Renovated Federal Building at Balboa Park
   1. Museum was used for SSD Convergence in 2019
3. PNC Makes $20 Billion Commitment to Environmental Finance
   1. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC)
   2. Wikipedia: Environmental finance: is a field within finance that employs market-based environmental policy instruments to improve the ecological impact of investment strategies.
      1. A goal to regress negative impacts of climate change
   3. This makes a bit more sense when looking at the area of investments
      1. Green buildings
         renewable energy
         clean transportation
4. Amazon Fresh grocery store planned for Poway
   1. Making its Debut in San Diego
   2. 44,686 square-foot space
   3. Twin Peaks Plaza shopping center Poway
   4. Previously a Atlas Market, a Persian supermarket
   5. I watched an Atlas promo video, it just looks like a giant grocery store
   6. I have to imagine they did a ton of work to retrofit the space for Amazon
   7. This was under wraps until July when a few permits were issued
   8. Amazon operates 17 other locations
   9. Is this an intermediary step between grocery delivery
   10. But maybe there is more about live testing the technology?
   11. Or could this be for shop runners or delivery people eventually?
   12. We mentioned this before with local company accel
   13. But its worth mentioning the immense tech behind stores like this:
       1. Cameras
       2. Vision alg
       3. Sensors 
       4. Smart carts with screen
5. MVP Launches Fourth Fund
   1. Its not most valuable player
   2. Moore Venture Partners
   3. Launching fund 4
   4. One of San Diego’s oldest VC funds
      1. 10+ Years
   5. Investing up to 15M
      1. $500,000 to $5 million checks
   6. They have a pretty strong portfolio of SD companies
      1. CloudBeds, which builds hospitality software for property management companies;
      2. UCAP Power, which develops ultracapacitor-based power solutions;
      3. Vessel Health, a wellness startup which developed an at-home health tracker
      4. TakeLessons
   7. Notable exits:
      1. EcoATM
      2. EdicoGenome
      3. Daylight Solutions
6. Amazon Credited for Creating 4,000 Local Jobs Since 2010
   1. They’re taking over the world!!
   2. But at the same time sense 2010 have brought 4k jobs to the region
   3. Investing more that $2.3 billion
      1. Infrastructure and comp
      2. But also accounts for 12k indirect jobs if you think about
         1. construction or 
         2. Logistics
         3. Professional services
   4. 3.3 million sq ft fulfillment center on the US/TJ boarder
      1. SD does Logistics!
      2. 1500 jobs
   5. Not to mention a presence in UTC
   6. They are looking to compete for our
      1. Computer science and software talent
   7. I love that we are drawing in big tech to compete for our talent
   8. It’s a great sign that you can stay here and still command top jobs in certain fields
   9. Not to mention our cost of living is better than many major CA cities

Fundings:

1. Sydnexis, eye health/ nearsightedness biopharmaceutical, $45M Series B with Longitude Capital and Medicxi Ventures
2. Aquacycl, wastewater treatment biotechnology, $10.1M with For Good Ventures and The Roddenberry Foundation
3. Onramp Invest, cryptoasset integration platform solution provider, $6M Seed with Gemini Funds, Coinbase Ventures, and Ritholtz Wealth Management

Investor News:

1. Moore Venture Partners is raising Fund IV

 

Find us on Twitter / Linkedin: @NealBloom & JonahPeake

And find this news and more at FreshBrewedTech.com