October 11, 2016 Comments (0) Views: 1992 Blog, Startup Buzz

Startup Buzz: Skysense Joins Airbus Accelerator

Plus: Canopy announces first cohort and Vault RMS joins EMERGE Accelerator

Follow the Money

Xcomony’s Bruce Bigelow breaks down the Q3 numbers from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. The biggest takeaway: funding of $280.6 million into 49 startups was roughly a third less than last quarter. While funding was lower, the deal count did increase by 10. San Diego’s biggest deal was Carlsbad’s Ostendo Technologies at $42 million in July. San Diego is not unique; the national funding numbers fell this quarter as well.

Innovation Drives Global Identity

In its Q3 Economic Report the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp identified 8 national media placements where they were able to tell San Diego’s “innovation + quality of life” story. You can check out those articles and read other economic news from Q3 here.

Skysense Joins Airbus Accelerator

Local drone company Skysense was just accepted into the Airbus Bizlabs Accelerator program to see how their drone infrastructure might “compliment Airbus’ workflows”. In 2015 the Skysense team relocated to San Diego to be part of the Qualcomm/Techstars Robotics Accelerator and now part of the team will be relocating to Germany for the Airbus opportunity. The company was also awarded the business section prize in the NASA WorldWind Europa Challenge a few months ago.

Canopy Announces First Cohort

Eight companies were selected to be part of Canopy’s first cohort this Fall. Canopy is an early-stage business accelerator focused on products and services catering to the legal cannabis market. The first class of companies includes: Cannabuds, Apothecarry, Myocann and five more.

Vault RMS accepted into Homeland Security’s EMERGE Accelerator

Started by a former firefighter in an effort to protect the health of other first responders, Vault offers cloud-based software that allows first responders to track their exposure. The Department of Homeland Security‘s EMERGE 2016: Wearables Technology just announced their latest class of companies and Vault RMS was on the list.

EMERGE evaluated more than 260 startups in selecting this class and has already begun offering the selected companies interaction with first responders and industry partners as well as business education and mentors. CEO and Founder Chris Memmot shared that contacts with larger departments would typically take years to develop, but through this program he has already met them and is discussing how to pilot Vault with them.