San Diego county, in 2019, recorded the highest total money invested in by Venture Capitalists since Connect started tracking this data in 2005, an average of 164,000 jobs directly supported by the innovation economy (the highest average of any year in the 2010’s). Additionally, each job in the innovation economy supported an additional 2.66 jobs through indirect and induced effect, leading to a total of over 436,000 jobs supported by our local innovation economy.
2019 saw 239 new innovation startups created in the county, and the average innovation economy wage was $127,032, much higher than the average wage in the rest of our economy: $64,139.
Life Science companies accounted for about 64% of the total Venture investment in 2019, and the software sector saw the total amount invested nearly double for the industry from 2018 levels.
The city of La Jolla ranked as the #1 city in California in 2019 by total grant funding received from both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and San Diego county ranked as the #1 city in Southern California for patents granted and patent applications published last year.
If you’d like to read more about our local Innovation economy, check out our 2019 San Diego Innovation Report.
Matt Kroe
Capital Programs Manager
Matt Kroe leads the production of the San Diego Innovation Report each year, and this is his editorial synopsis.