Latest Posts

• GreatCall Expands Lyft Partnership to Pick Up Seniors Nationwide

  GreatCall, the maker of the Jitterbug cellphone and other products and services for older adults, has extended its partnership with the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Lyft to offer GreatCall customers the ability to schedule rides without a smartphone app. No financial... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/13/18

• Ribometrix Takes Aim at “Undruggable” RNA with $30M Series A Funding

  Most drugs target proteins in the cell, but the world of RNA has remained largely untapped by companies making chemical-based, or small-molecule drugs. That’s changing though—just in the last couple of years, there’s been a mini-boom in biotechs trying to overturn... Read more »

  Corie Lok11/13/18

• Universal Robots Hires Former Rethink Robotics Workers After Closure

  A little more than a month after Rethink Robotics shut down, a competitor has hired more than 20 of the Boston-based firm’s former employees.

  Universal Robots, a Denmark-based maker of collaborative industrial robots, announced Tuesday it has brought on key... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/13/18

• Nuance Goes All-in on Speech Tech, Sells Document Business to Kofax

  Nuance Communications is selling its document imaging division to Kofax for $400 million in cash, as Nuance’s new CEO narrows the company’s focus on its conversational artificial intelligence products and cloud-related technologies.

  Nuance’s (NASDAQ: NUAN) document imaging business provides enterprise... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/12/18

• Salk Team Awarded 8-Year, $19.2M Grant for Alzheimer’s Research

  A 10-person team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has been awarded an eight-year, $19.2 million grant to investigate mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and aging-related cognitive decline and uncover new therapies.

  The grant, announced Friday by the research... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/9/18

• Bio Roundup: Midterm Fallout, Alzheimer’s Search, Postpartum Panel

  There was plenty at stake in this week’s midterm elections, and not just in terms of political wins and losses. With congress now divided—Democrats took back control of the House and Republicans extended their majority in the Senate—the implications are significant... Read more »

  Ben Fidler11/9/18

• Nominations Open for San Diego’s Inaugural Xconomy Awards

  Hundreds of companies. Dozens of research institutes. Billions of dollars in economic impact.

  San Diego is one of the top U.S. cities for innovation in life sciences and healthtech. Researchers and entrepreneurs here are leaders in developing the next generation of... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/8/18

• Hold Your Horsepower: For Mobility Industry, “Reality Is Sinking In”

  Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra told the crowd at a financial conference that her company was on track to unveil a ridesharing service in 2019 that would be powered by autonomous vehicles. It sounded like pretty big news, but... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/8/18

• Mirum Pharmaceuticals Launches with $120M to Advance Liver Drugs

  Serial entrepreneur Mike Grey is launching a biotech enterprise with $120 million in new funding to advance two investigational liver disease drugs—one of which he has worked to develop before.

  Called Mirum Pharmaceuticals, the startup is developing a compound, maralixibat, to... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/7/18

• Mitek Systems Appoints New CEO After Rejecting $380M Takeover Bid

  Mitek Systems has appointed a new chief executive, the day after rejecting an $380 million takeover bid from Florida-based ASG Technologies. A letter ASG sent to Mitek’s board of directors last week proposing ASG acquire the San Diego-based company asserted Mitek... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/6/18

• Mitek Systems Rejects ASG’s $380M Takeover Bid

  Mitek Systems, which is being targeted for takeover by a subsidiary of Elliott, billionaire Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund, has unanimously rejected its $380 million offer.

  The Oct. 31 offer—rejected Monday—was made by ASG Technologies Group, a Florida-based software company... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/6/18

• ResMed to Add to Software Offerings with $750M MatrixCare Acquisition

  Medical device maker ResMed has agreed to acquire Minnesota-based MatrixCare, which makes software for long-term care providers, for $750 million.

  San Diego’s ResMed (NYSE: RMD) announced its intention to buy the privately held tech company on Monday. The purchase price... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/5/18

• Esperanto Reaps $58M to Speed Development of Its AI Chip

  Esperanto Technologies, a startup AI chip developer that has operated mostly below the radar since its founding in 2014, announced this week that it raised $58 million in a Series B fundraising round.

  Mountain View, CA-based Esperanto is vying with... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/5/18

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• Broadcom to Sell Veracode for $950M After $19B CA Technologies Deal

  Broadcom is selling application security testing business Veracode for $950 million to private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Broadcom gained Veracode as a part of its blockbuster acquisition of CA Technologies.

  Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) announced in June it would acquire CA... Read more »

  David Holley11/5/18

• MEI Pharma Inks Cancer Drug Deal with Japan’s Kyowa Hakko Kirin

  The second-most advanced investigational drug in MEI Pharma’s four-asset portfolio is drawing attention from overseas as a potential treatment for several leukemias and lymphomas.

  Japanese life sciences company Kyowa Hakko Kirin has agreed to pay the San Diego company $10 million... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/5/18

• Cloudbeds, a Hospitality Software Firm, Debuts New San Diego Office

  Software startup Cloudbeds recently relocated its 20-odd local employees from a small space in downtown San Diego to an office nearly three times the size in the same neighborhood. The company unveiled the new digs Thursday, about a month after moving... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/2/18

• Bio Roundup: Depression Drug Dashed, Peek at ASH, CRISPR Worry & More

  The gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 is opening up new research avenues all the time, such as giving drug developers a cheaper, faster way to knock out genes in tumor cells.

  Studies of CRISPR-Cas9 to treat human disease are about to start,... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/2/18

• Illumina Set to Acquire “Long-Read” DNA Sequencer PacBio for $1.2B

  [Updated, 11/2/18, 11:09 a.m. ET. See below.] DNA sequencing giant Illumina is shoring up its position in genetic research through a cash deal to acquire Pacific Biosciences for approximately $1.2 billion.

  Under the agreement, Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN)... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/1/18

• Cloud Leaders Shrug at IBM’s $34B Red Hat Deal

  In some ways, the biggest software acquisition of all time could be a yawner.

  IBM’s planned $34 billion deal to acquire open-source software maker Red Hat is a hefty price to pay to give its cloud computing business a shot in... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/1/18

• IRobot’s Roombas to Map Households for Google Smart Homes

  Autonomous vehicle developers rely heavily on navigational technology that maps the complex terrain of roads, curbs, signs, and people that their cars have to thread through.

  Google, as it develops its smart home systems, is turning to a company that already... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/31/18

• Facebook’s 3Q Growth Suffices to Stave Off Another Stock Dive

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) shares gained nearly 3 percent Tuesday, and ticked up further in after-hours trading following the release of a third quarter earnings report that showed some strengths as well as shortfalls. Investors have been concerned about the social... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/30/18

• Fundraising Startup Classy Surpasses $1B Raised on Its Platform

  It took six years for Classy, a software-as-a-service company that targets nonprofit organizations looking to fundraise online, to facilitate $500 million in donations.

  But the next $500 million took just 14 months.

  The San Diego-based startup announced the $1 billion milestone... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/30/18

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• Stantt CEO Thinks Its Approach to Selling Men’s Wear Fits Just Right

  Stantt wants to make standard sizing anything but.

  “Traditional sizing only fits 15 percent of guys,” says Matt Hornbuckle, the startup’s founder and co-CEO. “Twins come in and get different sizes.”

  To connect guys with a shirt that fits well, the... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/29/18

• No Pipeline Problem: Backstage Capital’s Detroit Plans Spark Excitement

  In September, Backstage Capital, a venture investment firm seeding early-stage startups led by women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community, launched a $36 million fund to help support black women founders.

  At the same time, managing... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson10/29/18

• Cuida Health Launches Voice-Based ‘Social Wellness’ App for Seniors

  Lisa doesn’t interrupt. She doesn’t mind long pauses between responses. And she has a sense of humor.

  Oh – and, she’s virtual.

  San Diego startup Cuida Health, a recent graduate of the Connect Springboard accelerator program, this week launched its first... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/26/18

• Pineapples and Bananas: Yummy to Eat, And Now Fashionable to Wear

  Style trends may come and go but the apparel industry is increasingly accepting that sustainability will always be in fashion.

  “We have the chance to shift the environment to a cleaner, more non-toxic place,” says Greg Altman, co-founder and CEO of... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/26/18

• U.K. Slaps Maximum Fine of $645,000 on Facebook for Privacy Violations

  The U.K.’s data privacy regulator fined Facebook $645,000 for violations that allowed political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica and other outside companies to extract 87 million Facebook profiles worldwide without adequate user knowledge or consent.

  The purpose of the U.K.’s enforcement actions... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/26/18

• Bio Roundup: Alzheimer’s Puzzle, ESMO Assessed, Drug Prices & More

  In the biotech investment and research communities this week, much of the attention was turned to Europe.

  Munich, Germany, hosted the annual conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology, where cancer drug developers unveiled the latest clinical data for experimental... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/26/18

• Startup Developing Opioid Alternative Takes Top ‘Quick Pitch’ Honors

  The winner of the largest-ever startup pitch contest in San Diego is aiming to solve a problem that is weighing heavily on the national consciousness.

  The same day President Trump signed a bipartisan package of measures to address the opioid epidemic,... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/25/18

• Trump Plan Ties Medicare Drug Prices to Cheaper Foreign Ones

  [Updated 5:41pm ET with analyst note, see below.] When the Trump administration announced its blueprint for lowering prescription drug prices in May, many observers said it was too soft on the biopharma industry and didn’t contain concrete initiatives... Read more »

  Corie Lok10/25/18

• Berkeley’s SkyDeck Offers Chip Design Support Worth Millions to Startups

  The current land rush in chip development, spurred as new technologies such as artificial intelligence create new needs, is pitting established semiconductor companies like Intel and Nvidia against tech titans like Facebook that are building their own chips. A wave of... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/25/18

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