Follow the Money

According to Geekwire, Lighter Capital out of Seattle has invested in local startup Aisle Planner. Aisle Planner is an event management platform for professional wedding planners. The company grew by 300% last year and has already managed more than 21,000 weddings. The investment is revenue-based with Lighter Capital taking a share of future revenues.

The Beachhead, a business hub in the Bay Area designed to connect San Diego businesses with the needed resources in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, has almost reached its goal of raising $200,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. After one month of donations, 121 donors have given $167,669 to the effort. The campaign is being led by the San Diego Venture Group.

Canopy’s First Class

Last week Canopy San Diego—a local seed-stage accelerator for the businesses ancillary to the legal Cannabis industry—completed its first cohort. The eight companies participating in the accelerator program—Apothecarry, Direct Cannabis Network, Icarus RT, Lodestone Data Technologies, LooseLeaf Tech, LoudCloud, MycoCann, and Yobi—all participated in a demo event last week. CEO and founder Eric Gomez said the biggest surprise of the first cohort was “how much progress each and every company has made.” He also said he underestimated how important the co-working piece of the accelerator would be, adding “the companies using each other as a support system has been an integral part of this process.”

Managing Director Jack Scatizzi is now focused on recruiting the next cohort that is set to launch the last week of March. He said now that the first cohort is complete, they have “a much better idea of the type of companies that our limited partners are interested in, as well as the investors currently interested in cannabis ancillary product and technology companies.” Early applications for the Spring cohort are due February 7 and the final application deadline is February 21.

The Career Fair event at Convergence held at the Downtown San Diego Library | Photo by Alex Gretchman

Convergence

Last weekend Startup San Diego hosted Convergence, a weekend of events geared toward bringing new entrepreneurs and students into the ecosystem. Events were held at the Downtown Library and Evonexus with 600+ people attending events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. More than 30% of the attendees were students.

San Diego Market Part of SpotHero Expansion

Chicago-based startup SpotHero, an app that lets you find a parking space and pay for it, has just expanded into 13 new markets and San Diego is one of them. In making decisions about new markets, the company’s CEO tells the Chicago Tribune that they look at the “cities that are the hardest to park in America, and that’s where we start.”

Drone Testing Facility Opens

On Thursday, San Diego’s first indoor UAV and drone testing facility opened on the campus of Coleman University. The Hornet’s Nest is part of the Electric and Networked Vehicle Institute, a community resource for technology education. The facility’s goal is to accelerate the development of UAV technologies in the San Diego/Tijuana Trans Border Region.

UCSD Looks to Improve Transfer and Commercialization

It has been widely held that while UCSD turns out some robust technology, its ability to commercialize on that technology has been lacking. Some staff changes in recent years may cause a shift in that long held belief. UCSD’s fairly new director of commercialization, Ruben Flores Saaib, talks with The Recorder about the challenge in front of him.

Be There or Be…

• SCALE: Smart Cities and the Climate Action Plan in San Diego
  Tuesday, February 7, 6-8 p.m., Downtown Works, 550 West B Street
  How can the innovation community help address the city’s climate challenges?
• Ignite Conference
  Wednesday, February 22, 7:45 a.m. -8:30 p.m., UCSD Price Center
  SDVG and UCSD host the Ignite Conference featuring numerous speakers and events including Scott Chisolm, CEO and co-founder of Classy and Jon Belmonte, CEO of Spoutable.

Tags: Blogs, Startup Buzz