San Diego has a growing venture capital and startup ecosystem, though it still lags behind major tech hubs. In 2015, over $1 billion was invested in San Diego startups, with the life sciences sector receiving over half of investments. Despite facing challenges in attracting out-of-town VC funds, San Diego ranks 6th in the world for total VC investment, 5th for VC investment per capita, and 9th for total companies funded. The ecosystem is supported by local VC funds, angel investors, incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, universities, and other resources that are helping to foster startup growth.
2. San Diego’s VC Reality…
• Limited Local VC Capital … for now
• Challenging to get out-of-town VCs to come to San Diego, but not
impossible
• VCs typically DO NOT hunt here, they must be pursued
• But.. SD valuations, deal competition, and engineering talent are
attractive relative to the Bay Area
• Once a VC does a deal in SD, they often pursue others
• Don’t despair…
2
3. San Diego Venture Funding 2015
2015 Totals
Life Sciences – 52% of annual dollars invested
Life Sciences – 47% of deals funded
3
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 2015 TOTAL
Total Venture Capital Investment
19 deals 23 deals 30 deals 27 deals 99 deals
$270M $141M $280M $334M > $1B
Life Sciences
10 deals 13 deals 15 deals
$60M $200M $193M
Source: VentureSource
4. San Diego Ranks 6th in the World in Total VC Investment
4
Source: City Lab
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/01/the-rise-of-global-
startup-cities/426780/
Rank Metro VC Investment (M) % Global VC Investment
1 San Francisco $6,471 15.40%
2 San Jose $4,175 9.90%
3 Boston $3,144 7.50%
4 New York $2,106 5.00%
5 Los Angeles $1,450 3.40%
6 San Diego $1,410 3.30%
7 London $842 2.00%
8 Washington $835 2.00%
9 Beijing $758 1.80%
10 Seattle $727 1.70%
11 Chicago $688 1.60%
12 Toronto $628 1.50%
13 Austin $626 1.50%
14 Shanghai $510 1.20%
15 Mumbai $497 1.20%
16 Paris $449 1.10%
17 Bangalore $419 1.00%
18 Philadelphia $413 1.00%
19 Phoenix $325 0.80%
20 Moscow $318 0.80%
Top 20 Total $26,790 63.60%
Total – All Metros $42,121 100.00%
5. San Diego Ranks 5th in the World in VC Investment Per Capita
5
Source: City Lab
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/01/the-rise-of-global-
startup-cities/426780/
Rank Metro VC Investment per Capita
1 San Jose $2,146
2 San Francisco $1,415
3 Boston $665
4 Durham, NC $475
5 San Diego $434
6 Austin $323
7 Seattle $198
8 Washington, D.C. $138
9 Jacksonville $120
10 Los Angeles $110
11 New York $105
12 Toronto $104
13 Salt Lake City $102
14 Madison, WI $100
15 Greensboro, NC $97
16 New Haven, Connecticut $93
17 Denver $90
18 Oxnard, California $89
19 Providence, Rhode Island $80
20 Phoenix $73
6. San Diego Ranks 9th in the World in Total Companies Funded
6
Source: Dow Jones Venture
Rank Metro # Companies Amount Invested
1 San Francisco, Oakland, CA 797 $21 B
2 New York, NY, NJ, PA 416 $7 B
3 Boston, MA-NH 348 $5.6 B
4 San Jose, Santa Clara, CA 321 $6.2 B
5 Los Angeles 240 $4.5 B
6 Seattle, Tacoma 95 $1.2 B
7 Washington, DC, VA, MD 93 $923 M
8 Philadelphia, PA, NJ, DE 93 $516 M
9 San Diego 83 $1.2 B
10 Pittsburgh, PA 83 $200 M
11 Chicago, IL 81 $1.1 B
12 Austin, TX 78 $740 M
13 Atlanta, GA 58 $836 M
14 Denver, CO 41 $540 M
15 Baltimore, MD 37 $445 M
16 Nashville, TN 34 $135 M
17 Portland, OR-WA 32 $161 M
18 St. Louis, MO-IL 30 $254 M
19 Minneapolis, MN-WI 28 $369 M
20 Boulder, CO 27 $231 M
7. And the U.S. VC Engine has Rarely Been Stronger
7
Year/Quarter Number of Funds Venture Capital ($M)
2006 236 31,107.6
2007 235 29,993.7
2008 214 25,054.9
2009 162 16,103.8
2010 176 13,283.6
2011 192 19,080.5
2012 218 19,904.9
2013 209 17,753.4
2014 271 31,094.4
2015 235 28,151.7
4Q’14 85 6,205.6
1Q’15 69 7,537.8
2Q’15 81 11,081.7
3Q’15 61 4,562.5
4Q’15 46 4,974.1
$28B invested in startups
by VCs across the US in 2015
8. From a Global Perspective,
SD is a Great Place to be Seeking Capital
8
Source: City Lab
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/01/the-
rise-of-global-startup-cities/426780/
9. The SD Startup Ecosystem
9
LOCAL VC/ PLEDGE
FUNDS
ANGEL GROUPS
INCUBATORS /
ACCELERATORS
COWORKING SPACES
SUPPORT /
NETWORKING
ONLINE RESOURCES
UNIVERSITY
ORGANIZATIONS
LAW FIRM
RESOURCES
10. Local VC / Pledge Funds
Qualcomm Ventures — qualcommventures.com
Illumina — illumina.com
Avalon — avalon-ventures.com
Domain Associates — domainvc.com
TVC — tvccapital.com
JMI Equity — jmi.com
Correlation Ventures — correlationvc.com
Analytics Ventures — analyticsventures.com
Moore VC — moorevp.com
Axon VC — axonvc.com
Forward Ventures — forwardventures.com/portfolio.html
Blackbird Ventures / Neil Senturia — blackbirdv.com
Ventures 51 — venture51.com
CWC HealthTech Ventures — cwchealthtech.com
Bootstrap Ventures — bootstrapincubation.com
Biomed Ventures — biomedrealty.com
Alexandria Ventures — are.com
Finistere Ventures — finistere.com
Mesa Verde Ventures — mesaverdevp.com
Tao Venture Partners — taovp.com
Biocom — www.biocom.org 10
VC Firms with Partners
in San Diego
NEA
HealthQuest Ventures
Sofinnova Ventures
Pappas Ventures
August Capital
Telegraph Hill Capital
Athenian Venture Partners
Laterell Venture Partners
Orbimed Advisors
11. Angel Groups
Tech Coast Angels (TCA) — techcoastangels.com
Seed San Diego — angel.co/seed-san-diego
11
12. Incubators / Accelerators
EvoNexus — evonexus.org
JLabs / Janssen Labs — janssenlabs.com
Hera Labs — hera-labs.com
La Jolla Institute —
sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/10/hardtech-la-jolla-
institute
Plug and Play San Diego —
sandiego.plugandplaytechcenter.com
West Health Incubator — westhealth.org
Bio, Tech and Beyond — biotechnbeyond.com
Ansir — ansirsd.com
FabLab — fablabsd.org
BootStrap Incubation — bootstrapincubation.com
12
13. Co-Working Spaces
The VineSD — thevine.irvinecompany.com/san-diego
CyberHive — cyberhivesandiego.org
Ansir Innovation Center — ansirsd.com
DeskHub — deskhub.com
Outsite.co — outsite.co/san-diego
Collective 1939 — collective1939.strikingly.com
Real Office Centers (ROC) — realofficecenters.com/sandiego
Co-Merge — co-merge.com
3rd Space — 3rdspace.co
13
14. Community & Networking Organizations
San Diego Venture Group — sdvg.org
MIT Enterprise Forum San Diego — mitefsd.org
CONNECT — connect.org
Start-up Leadership Program (SLP) — startupleadership.com/chapters/sandiego
San Diego Sports Innovators — sdsportinnovators.org
Founder Institute — fi.co/s/san_diego
SDSIC / TechSanDiego — techsandiego.org
Startup San Diego — startupsd.org
Startup Week San Diego — sandiegostartupweek.com
Cleantech San Diego — cleantechsandiego.org
San Diego Startup Weekend — sandiego.startupweekend.org
Entrepreneur Organization, San Diego — eonetwork.org/sandiego
SD Tech Scene — sdtechscene.org
SD Tech Founders — sdtechfounders.com
Cooley Go — cooleygo.com
Athena — athenasd.org/programs
14
15. University Organizations
UCSD
StartR — rady.ucsd.edu/ciid/startr
Von Liebig Center — jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/vonliebig
MyStartupXX — rady.ucsd.edu/ciid/mystartupxx
The Basement — ucsdbasement.com
SDSU
Zahn — newscenter.sdsu.edu/gra/zahncenter
Lavin — lavincenter.sdsu.edu
USD
Social Innovation Challenge – sandiegosocialinnovation.org
15
16. A Couple Others to Know
Xconomy, Bruce Bigelow — xconomy.com
I.D.E.A District: Innovation, Design,
Education, Arts — ideadistrictsd.com
16
17. Law Firm Resources
Cooley (Cooley University)
DLA Piper
Mintz Levin (Mintz Edge)
Procopio
Gundersen
Sheppard Mullin
Morrison Forester
Wilson Sonsini
Foley
Latham
Fisher
17
Once the province of U.S. tech hubs such as California’s Silicon Valley, venture capital has gone global. In a new report from the Martin Prosperity Institute, Rise of the Global Startup City, my colleague Karen King and I use detailed data from Thomson Reuters to track worldwide venture capital investment in high-tech startups. Worldwide venture capital investment amounted to $42 billion dollars in 2012 (the most recent year these detailed data are available), and is spread across more than 150 cities and metro regions.
The map below shows the world’s leading centers for venture capital investment globally. The largest dots, indicating the largest levels of venture capital investment, are located in the East and West Coasts of the United States, Western Europe, and around the mega-cities of China and India. The U.S. is the world’s dominant center for venture capital, accounting for nearly 70 percent (68.6 percent) of total global venture capital, followed by Asia and Europe with roughly 14 percent each (14.4 percent for Asia and 13.5 percent for Europe).