San Diego County startups raised only $590 million in the third quarter, a 60% drop compared to a year ago and the smallest quarterly investment total in eight years. 

The number of deals told a similar sluggish story. The county saw 48 venture capital deals inked in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to a report by PitchBook, an industry research firm, and the National Venture Capital Association. That’s a decrease from 61 deals in the third quarter of last year and the lowest quarterly count in seven years.

Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, said: “Fundraising continues to lag amid ongoing market hesitancy, driven by years of capital influx the industry was ultimately unable to absorb.”

Mike Krenn, managing director for Prebys Ventures, offered additional insight: “Both early-stage money and growth capital is increasingly difficult to raise, both for tech and life science companies. And we’re seeing the hottest sector of the day, AI investment, is largely concentrated in the Bay Area, with billion-dollar funds deploying large amounts of capital at very rich valuations. That, too, is affecting all regions, not just San Diego.”

Krenn added that while the total dollar investment for San Diego County is “certainly low, that’s attributable to the fact that we didn’t have any large rounds. We already have one $200 million round logged for Q4.”

He’s talking about San Diego-based Crystalys Therapeutics, which Krenn’s fund invested in. Crystalys is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that recently announced a $205 million Series A financing. It was co-founded by James Mackay, a veteran biotech leader with 40 years of drug development experience and six drug approvals.

Its drug — a pill called dotinurad — has been approved in Japan and China and is providing “meaningful relief for people living with gout,” a common inflammatory arthritis, said Crystalys CEO Mackay. “Our experienced team is now well-positioned to accelerate dotinurad’s development in the U.S. and Europe as a much-needed second-line therapy for patients who do not respond adequately to first-line treatments.”

AI focus

“AI’s rapid momentum continues to reshape the U.S. venture landscape, driving deal count growth and capturing the majority of capital deployed in Q3,” Tarhuni said: 

Nationally, top AI investments went to Anthropic in San Francisco, which raised $13 billion in September, and xAI in Palo Alto, which raised $10 billion in July, according to PitchBook.

Locally, three of the top 10 deals went to AI startups. 

Alvys, a Solana Beach transportation management system using artificial intelligence and automation to transform freight operations, said in September that it raised $40 million in Series B funding. 

Founded in 2020, Alvys said its customers achieve a 30% increase in monthly loads, a 10% sales boost, 90% faster accounting, 80% reduction in data entry, and savings of hours weekly in dispatch and administrative tasks. 

“We’re scaling enterprise-grade solutions with AI at the core,” said Nick Darman, Alvys founder and CEO. “That means using AI, automation, and integrations to remove wasted steps, give teams smarter decision-making in real time and help carriers and brokers grow their operations and their profit margins without adding overhead. This funding helps us push toward that goal even faster.”

Turnout, which was founded about a year ago in San Diego, is an AI-powered consumer service that streamlines complex government and financial processes such as tax debt relief and Social Security Disability claims. It said in September that it raised $21 million in seed funding. 

Its AI automates nearly 60% of tasks by pulling transcripts, checking eligibility, pre-filling and filing applications, gathering medical and wage records, tracking deadlines and sending status updates. 

“Turnout is using AI to transform the lives of everyday Americans, helping them navigate their finances, secure the benefits they are entitled to,” said Mo Koyfman, founder and general partner of Shine Capital. 

GigaIO, a Carlsbad scalable infrastructure designed for AI inferencing, said in July that it raised $21 million in Series B financing.

The new funding allows the company to expand production of its flagship products: SuperNODE, a cost-effective and energy-efficient infrastructure designed for AI inferencing at scale, and Gryf, a carry-on suitcase-sized AI inferencing supercomputer. 

“As enterprises and cloud providers race to deploy AI at scale, GigaIO delivers a uniquely flexible, cost-effective and energy-efficient solution that accelerates time to insight,” said Jack Crawford, founding general partner at Impact Venture Capital. 

In a PitchBook report, J.P. Morgan experts noted that while implications of investors’ love affair with AI “will take time to play out, history tells us significant market concentration carries risks.”  

Defense

In addition to artificial intelligence, Bobby Franklin, president and CEO at NVCA, said U.S. deal values are climbing across other key sectors, including robotics. “This momentum isn’t just encouraging; it’s essential. Startups are the engine of U.S. job creation and the cornerstone of long-term economic growth.”

J.P. Morgan experts added that investment activity in sectors such as defense tech and robotics reflects prevailing geopolitical considerations and national security priorities.

A local example is San Diego’s Firestorm Labs, which was founded in 2022. The expeditionary manufacturing company said in July that it secured $47 million in Series A funding. The investment will help Firestorm add engineers and open a larger production facility to meet the evolving needs of U.S. and allied defense organizations. 

“Our military needs technology it can trust to be ready when the circumstances demand it,” said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. “Deployable, on-site 3D drone printing is a powerful tool that further extends the warfighter’s ability to secure the battlespace, while advancing U.S. leadership on the frontiers of defense technologies.” 

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke, who recently toured Firestorm’s San Diego facilities, said: “Firestorm’s innovation is really helping that logistics chain to operate more efficiently.”  

Exit deals

Carly Roddy, co-head of venture capital relationships for J.P. Morgan, said nationally, “Strong performance of the latest wave of tech IPOs is bolstering confidence for others in the pipeline, and M&A activity is also rebounding. While there is still a long way to go in some areas of the market, recent developments are encouraging to see.”

Locally, Carlsmed went public in July. The Carlsbad company has developed a patented, machine learning technology that taps a patient’s X-ray and CT scans to design a digital surgical plan to achieve the best spinal alignment and then 3-D print titanium implants.

Company revenue for the six months ended June 30 was $22.3 million, nearly double from the same period a year ago. The company has a market cap of about $315 million.

Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals in July completed a reverse merger with Ikena Oncology and $75 million private placement with new and existing investors. The combined company in San Diego publicly trades under the name ImageneBio and has a market cap of about $82 million.  The clinical stage biotech business develops treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Also, AbbVie in August completed the purchase of San Diego-based Capstan Therapeutics for up to $2.1 billion.

Founded in 2021, Capstan develops therapies that modulate unhealthy cells inside the body — rather than editing the cells outside of the body — through RNA delivery methods. Capstan encodes mRNA and packages it in a lipid nanoparticle that is “decorated” with an antibody, which directs the body’s T-cells to attack problematic cells. 

“AbbVie and Capstan aim to transform the care of those living with autoimmune diseases by developing treatments that have the potential to reset the immune system,” said Dr.  Roopal Thakkar, executive vice president of research and development and chief scientific officer at AbbVie.    

In late October — after the close of the third quarter, Boston Scientific announced another local acquisition. The Massachusetts company said it will pay about $533 million for the portion it doesn’t already own of Nalu Medical, a Carlsbad company that develops a minimally invasive system to treat chronic nerve pain in areas such as the shoulder, lower back and knee. Boston Scientific has invested in Nalu since 2017. 

Earlier this year, Boston Scientific said it bought another Carlsbad company called Bolt Medical, which develops intravascular lithotripsy that treats coronary and peripheral artery disease.

Nalu’s therapy uses mild electrical impulses to interrupt pain signals before they reach the brain. The system uses a miniaturized, battery-free implantable pulse generator powered wirelessly by a small externally worn therapy disc and controlled via a smartphone app. 

Boston Scientific expects Nalu to generate sales of more than $60 million this year and to post year-over-year growth of about 25% next year.

Jim Cassidy, Boston Scientific’s neuromodulation president, said: “Peripheral nerve stimulation is an exciting field with significant unmet patient need.”

Nguyen is a freelance writer for the U-T.