Connecting Tech & LifeSci Companies to Quality Capital & Mentorship
We help innovators and entrepreneurs in Southern California by providing access to investors, mentors, and education.
We’re a community nonprofit passionate about helping entrepreneurs build great companies, and together create a world-class innovation ecosystem.
San Diego’s fastest growing & most exciting companies
Each year, we collect hundreds of applications from the community,
select the top companies and introduce them to over 100 VCs.
Since 2015, Cool Co’s have raised over $650M
And counting… (just in institutional Series A)
Meet the 2021 Cool Companies
1859 is creating a pico-scale HTS platform (pico-HTS) that enables us to test millions of potential medicines in a single day. Our technology also allows us to rapidly explore chemical space and construct novel chemical diversity “on-demand”. This allows us to discover more medicines and get them to the clinic faster. At scale our technology […]
Abterra Bio uses machine learning to mine the human immune system to discover novel antibody therapeutics. Patients mount lasting antibody responses to infectious diseases and cancer. Our platform uses next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry data to comprehensively map this antibody response, rapidly identifying better therapeutic antibodies. We’ve built an interdisciplinary team of data scientists and […]
Applied Surgical Robotics has developed a Robotic Surgical Assistant that creates stable and predictable surgical environments, eliminating the variation inherent with manual organ stabilization. Our proprietary platform (hardware + SaaS) is purposely designed to compliment and seamlessly integrate with other robotic devices, while using the existing instruments and end effectors that surgeons prefer.
Carlsmed is the first and only company to use patient outcome data to create personalized surgical plans and personalized implants for spine surgery. Carlsmed provides personalized solutions to decrease surgery time, decrease healthcare cost, and improve patient outcomes.
Challenger offers a unique on-demand approach for video gamers to compete for cash on major game titles. Challenger automates the tracking and payouts, all on a transparent and legal platform. Challenger is the first real-time in-game contest platform for the average player, offering a simple experience enhancing how players already game, giving them access to […]
CommSafe AI is a SaaS company that specializes in conflict and violence prevention. The CommSafe AI technology flags and labels employee communication containing triggers of toxic communication. Once a communication is triggered, the technology automatically sends an alert to HR, making them aware of the otherwise hidden liability, and provides them with next step recommendations. […]
Cytonus Therapeutics has developed a first-in-class “biologic drone” called the Cargocyte. The Cargocyte is a platform to deliver therapeutics in a precise, controlled, safe and reproducible manner. Cytonus’ innovative approach delivers on the long sought after promises of drug delivery, to deliver the right drug at the right dose to the right tissue.
Drata is a security and compliance automation platform that continuously monitors and collects evidence of a company’s security controls, while streamlining end-to-end workflows to ensure SOC 2 audit-readiness.
f5 Therapeutics harnesses the power of protein degradation to transform human health.
Fluid Power AI offers Reliability as a Service for the equipment that powers a $7T economy. Our IoT reliability and maintenance solution for ANY hydraulic system keeps an organization’s most valuable assets earning. Reliability as a Service is a hardware-enabled SaaS business model. Fluid Power AI provides out of the box, plug-n-play, real-time full system […]
For Fortune 1000 companies, Fulcrum’s platform enables teams to get work done faster through outside talent. Teams use one intuitive experience to form their needs, make requests, compare options (including freelancers), and ultimately drive the onboarding workflow. This means they spend less time managing the process, get faster access to better talent & focus more […]
Galley helps restaurants, caterers, and other types of food businesses collect and understand the food data behind their operations.
GroGuru supplies precision soil and irrigation monitoring and management systems to the commercial agriculture industry. GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management. We have a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring that enables the permanent installation of soil moisture sensors. GroGuru leases hardware and sell a software as a service (SaaS) product marketed […]
HAI Solutions has developed a unique portfolio of medical devices addressing the growing plague of contamination within the operating room, emergency room and intensive care units. We are focused on launching both the MDD-Multiport Delivery Device and IVS-Intravenous Sterilizer. While these products are two separate devices, they are complimentary and tackle the arduous clinical workflows […]
iAssay developed an open platform for wireless Point of Care (POCT) diagnostics.
ion is a B2B SaaS enterprise education technology platform for developing inclusive leaders, remotely.
Nano PharmaSolutions (NPS, a DE C-Corp) is a nanodrug delivery technology co. dedicated to providing a socially impactful solution that can rapidly bring more drugs to market. Our patent-pending platform technology generates small molecule nanoparticles for improved bioavailability of insoluble drugs. NPS is the only physical nano particle generation technology using no chemicals or solvents. […]
Navega is developing epigenetic regulation gene therapies via CRISPR-dCas9 (nuclease null), and zinc fingers, for neurological disorders. Our first indication is a rare disease-Erythromelalgia-in which patients have chronic pain due to a gain-of-function mutation in Nav1.7. This same gene therapy could also be utilized for other chronic pain indications (neuropathic pain, low back pain, etc). […]
NeuraLace Medical is a startup medical device company founded in San Diego whose bold mission is to disrupt the chronic pain epidemic.
Occuspace is bringing the power of web analytics to the physical world. By capturing how many people are in a space, how long they stay, and where they go, Occuspace is helping clients optimize real-estate portfolios and construction, improve customer experience, reduce GHG emissions, maintain clean and safe spaces during COVID, and optimize digital ad […]
OmniSync is a PhD founders-driven San Diego startup, backed by ex-Googlers, fmr. USAF/NASA contracting officers, and a Brex-executive. Their cornerstone product, TurboSBIR, is a ‘TurboTax’-style software that streamlines the process of finding and applying for govt. grants and contracts, a $21 Bn/yr market. They’ve been in the market for 1 yr, with 9% w-o-w growth, […]
Origami Therapeutics is taking a precision medicine approach to discover disease-modifying treatments for neurodegeneration caused by toxic protein misfolding.
Pandio is a technology company with a managed SaaS offering. We are a cloud native AI driven infrastructure play. Pandio has been specifically architected to automatically manage AI workloads enabling enterprises to optimize their data, models and tools at scale.
At Personal AI Labs we are solving the problem of memory recall and retention. We do this by creating your own personal AI, which is individualized and a direct reflection of you. To build your intranet of memories, we capture the memories that you talk, type or see and transform them into Memory Blocks in […]
PetDx – The Liquid Biopsy Company for Pets™ is a San Diego-based molecular diagnostics company dedicated to unleashing the power of genomics to improve pet health. The company’s flagship product, OncoK9™, enables veterinarians to detect cancer in dogs with a simple blood draw. As a first-in-class multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test, OncoK9 employs cutting-edge genomic […]
PlusMusic is a music technology company providing dynamic soundtracks to the gaming industry and other online experiences. Our AI and ML pipeline ingests music and turns it into soundtracks that are more useable, discoverable and valuable. Adding music to a game is legally complex, expensive and technically difficult. They need a solution that is push […]
Shadowbox is a ground-breaking, patented, secure, no-code SAAS integration platform that connects web applications without the need for APIs. Our first product was launched in late 2018 targeting interoperability in healthcare, connecting Electronic Health Records (“EHRs”) with Ancillary Healthcare Service Systems (i.e., Diagnostic Labs, Treatment Centers, Durable Medical Equipment, Hospice Care, and so on).
South 8 Technologies, Inc. has developed a novel Liquefied Gas Electrolyte (LiGas™) chemistry for next-generation rechargeable and primary lithium batteries and electrochemical capacitors. The LiGas electrolyte enables a wider operating temperature range of -80 to +60 °C, provides increased energy, and improved safety while maintaining compatibility with standard materials and manufacturing.
Our CMaaS (Continuous Monitoring as a Service) Platform combined with our discreet Smart Sense™label technology provides the fabric for thorough supply chain visibility and real-time analytics. Our solution uniquely combines the initial process of serialization/aggregation of inventories, condition monitoring, and real-time alerts to keep track of product integrity during the chain of custody.
The Good Face Project is an AI-Powered SaaS platform for R&D and Innovation in the Cosmetics and Personal Care Industry. We have created the LARGEST science-backed and AI-powered cosmetic ingredients ontology, with over 100,000 individual cosmetic ingredients graded across 15 dimensions of safety and efficacy.
Deeply experienced management team focused on key diseases that impact women’s health – scleroderma and certain metastatic cancers . We are also focused on keloid scars – that disproportionately impact skin of color. These indications have no approved drugs.
Xendee is the world’s #1 trusted and awarded platform for certifying the resilience and bankability of distributed energy systems. Our Bankable Energy™ cloud computing platform integrates all stages of the design process in a more intelligent way that delivers unmatched speed, accuracy and confidence to our customers. Xendee patented end-end microgrid design and optimization is […]
XILO helps insurance agencies compete against rising digital competition with an easy to use, fully customizable software platform they can use to engage with their customers, provide instant insurance quotes and automate sales workflows. As part of the next generation of agency technology, XILO is aiming to disrupt old muti-billion dollar incumbents who control the […]
If you’re a tech or lifesci startup, gearing up to raise and Institutional Series A round,
learn more about what it means to a cool company and what you need to know to apply next year.
A flexible process, designed to accelerate tech and lifesci startups
“We just finished the new Springboard program and I was impressed at the speed and quality. They brought together spot-on advisors for a panel review of our business, covering everything from sales execution best practices to financing strategies. The feedback and critical thinking was spot-on and was exactly what we needed. Thank you Connect! ”
See if Springboard is right for you.
Connect is part of the San Diego & Imperial Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network which allows us to offer no-cost consulting and low-cost training to new and existing startup businesses.
San Diego Funding News
2021 Q1 – Fundings Report
Venture Capital is coming into San Diego at a record pace, with quarter one of 2021 coming to $2.42B ($3.5B if you include M&As). Companies we've worked with, who raised this quarter include: CommSafe Ai — 2020 Cool Company Coursekey — 2016, '17, '19 Cool Company...
The San Diego Regional Innovation Report is produced by Connect annually to reflect technology and life sciences startup growth and the impact on the economy in the region.
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