Follow the Money

Echo, the creator of the first hybrid microscope, completed a $7.5 million Series A last week. The investment was co-led by Dolby Family Ventures and Tech Coast Angels and will help Echo scale manufacturing, enhance the company’s sales infrastructure and develop new technologies.

Airspace Takes Flight

Carlsbad-based Airspace Technologies, launched in 2016, is now operational with its first customers in the same-day logistics market. Different than FedEx or other companies able to ship overnight, the same-day market can route something immediately, on the next flight out. Customers are those in need of immediate delivery of high value or time critical items, such as a donated organs or a crucial part for a manufacturing plant. According to Airspace founder and CEO Nick Bulcao, the current players in the industry lack transparency for customers as well as an automated system.

Airspace can receive an inquiry and immediately use its proprietary software to identify the best, quickest flight to deliver the shipment, as well as find drivers on both ends to pick up and deliver the shipment. Its competitors enter most of the information manually, costing time and not allowing for optimization of the information. Bulcao said, “The Airspace algorithm scans tens of thousands of different flights and tracks the distance to and from the airport and in a matter of seconds spits out the best flight.” Their drivers are activated much more quickly than with other companies as well. A direct access system allows them to notify and confirm a driver within 60 seconds. The software also allows customers to have access to tracking information, which has not been the industry standard.

The funding for Airspace has come from the profits of another company owned by Bulcao, Fast Delivery Systems, a final mile courier service that contracts with Amazon for deliveries, and seed money from a private investor. In an industry with domestic revenues between $100 and $500 million and international revenues in the billions, those early investments could pay off.

Canopy Announces Second Cohort

Canopy San Diego, an accelerator program for cannabis-ancillary businesses, announced its Spring Cohort last week. Of the eight companies participating, six are local to San Diego. “We’re excited to have such a diverse cohort spring class of startups, of companies in our second cohort that perfectly complements our fall 2016 cohort, and gives our investors a balanced portfolio of early-stage cannabis tech companies,” said managing director Jack Scatizzi. The cohort includes: Urban Labs, Traffic Roots, MJ Hybrid Solutions, EventHi, Verticann, Ripe Metrics, Collectif, and BudTendr.

Mindbody Acquires Lymber

Mindbody, a cloud-based business management software for the wellness industry, acquired San Diego-based Lymber. Lymber offers workout classes based on availability and adjusts costs accordingly. “The Lymber team has created a breakthrough technology addressing the holy grail of our industry — yield management,” said Rick Stollmeyer, Mindbody’s CEO and co-founder.

Take Lessons Adds Online Classroom

The platform that helps you find a teacher for just about any kind of lessons you can think of now has an online classroom. Take Lessons Classroom is the first commercially available online classroom on the market that was built specifically for the lifelong learning educator. Students can record the class and interact with other students through the video and messaging functions, and the instructors have an organized place to load homework and other resources. Take Lessons CEO Steven Cox said, “Take Lessons Classroom allows students to receive engaging and interactive class quality similar to in-person instruction with the convenience and resources of online instruction.”

Be There or Be…

• CommonGrounds Carlsbad Open House Party
  April 6, 4–9 p.m. at CommonGrounds, 6790 Emarcadero Lane #100, Carlsbad
• How to Make Networking Suck Less and Work Better
  Thursday, April 20, 6–8 p.m. at WeWork, 600 B Street
  Co-hosted by Dev Bootcamp and GeekGirl
• Startup Week Tickets
  San Diego Startup Week runs June 19–23
  Early bird prices are available through April 30

Tags: Airspace, Blogs, Canopy, Echo, Mindbody, Startup Buzz, Take Lessons