Home Podcast This Week in San Diego Tech News – July 29, 2022

This Week in San Diego Tech News – July 29, 2022

by Neal Bloom


Neal: Welcome everyone to the weekly San Diego Tech News by Neal Bloom and Sesha Machiraju 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. 

Sesha: Hey I’m Sesha, former biotech data person, currently working on cyber & cloud evangelism at Microsoft Azure – check us out on Twitter @AzureSupport. SD transplant by way of Seattle, fond of all things tech, startups, and data. 

 

For July 29, 2022:

  1. Apple expands SD footprint with new 67-acre campus in Rancho Bernardo
    1. Apple acquires seven building campus in Rancho Bernardo for $445M, push to expand engineering roots in SD
    2. First commercial property purchase in SD – honing in on building hub for engineering wireless technologies 
      • Highlights contentious relationship between Qualcomm & Apple; Apple is focusing in on designing its own cellular modem processors for smartphones which would allow it to ditch Qualcomm as its current supplier
      • Court battled ensued
      • Contention intensified when Apple bought Intel’s cellular modem business unit for $1B to effectively replace Qualcomm 
    3. Qualcomm has said it will only supply parts to 20% of 2023 Apple iPhones – but this has been unsubstantiated 
    4. Some say Apple has even more ambitions than just wireless tech – job board includes software, data science roles
    5. Lease until Oct 2023 – will they renege their contract for 5 years??
    6. Site is also close to other top tech/defense companies including Northrup, Sony, BAE – attracting tech workers
  2. Brius Technologies wants to give you the perfect smile
    1. Invented a new technology called the “Independent Mover” – a term for Brius’ Brava tech that uses AI and advanced alloy hardware to guide each tooth to a desired position independently 
    2. Orthodontics tech is few and far in between – most of us remember the pain of braces (or if you were real fancy, Invisalign) – so Brius is really making moves!
      • The U.S. orthodontics market is projected to grow from $3.76 billion in 2022 to $9.6 billion by 2029
    3. NiTi, a memory alloy, is fashioned into a device and attached to the back of the teeth. The Brius software then scans the teeth and uses AI to build a patient’s “perfect smile”. With some human intervention and approval, the Brava appliance “arms” set to the final destination for the perfect smile. 
      • Because this is a memory alloy it returns to its original placement, moving teeth with it 
    4. Covered by insurance and comparable to the price of aligners 
    5. Business model is focused on selling Brava, not in opening clinics
  3. Persephone Biosciences, startup focused on microbiome-based therapeutics lands $15M in seed funding
    1. Persephone Biosciences, working on precision probiotics as cancer therapeutics has landed $15M in early stage seed investment.
    2. Microbiome is the “gatekeeper to the immune system” – 80% of immune cells are in our gut!
      • Goal is to develop microbiome therapeutics that would interact with cancer therapeutics and boost immune response 
    3. Currently in research study mode – Argonaut – to study function of microbiome in oncology patients
    4. Also have a pending research study to understand the role microbiome plays in newborns
  4. Nuvee and SDGE power Cajon Valley Schools buses and they power back at night
    1. SDG&E installed eight 60-kilowat fast chargers that will charge the buses by night but also act as batteries during high peak times, sending energy back to the grid – this is Nuvee’s tech, also called Vehicle To Grid V2G
    2. Nuvee went public in 2020
    3. Cajon got grants to cover 95% of the costs of the $400k/bus price tag
  5. Cari Health is battling the opioid crisis through its wearable device
    1. A wearable device to detect if people had taken their methadone
    2. This helps people not have to make the trek in every day to methadone clinics, limiting their ability to live in specific places and work regularly
    3. The device will detect if a dose was taken that day or not
    4. Doctors can remotely adjust dosage depending on how patients’ bodies respond
    5. 68,630 overdose deaths occurring in 2020
    6. CARI Health recently won at the SD Angel Conference, gaining an investment of $350,000

 

Shoutouts

Cordial raises $50M

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