San Diego’s first Sister City was with the City of Yokohama, Japan, starting in 1957. Together, over the ensuing 60 years, San Diego and Yokohama have continued to promote and strengthen the friendship and economic development of both regions. Most recently Yokohama received designation as a Global Startup City.
Now in its third year, Connect has partnered with the City of Yokohama to collaborate and build strong relationships between the two region’s life science startup communities.

Over the last several months, we have worked with three early-stage companies in health tech.
On October 27th, we invite you to join us and see them pitch.
Meet the Companies
Aventino, Inc.
Women’s hair loss self-care platform as a compass of women’s hair health journey: Unique function is evaluation of “Hair volume” based on the shape of surface reflected light.
Biomy, Inc.
AI platform that maximizes medication efficacy by selecting the appropriate cohort through unsupervised AI analysis of past patient information.
Pinpoint Photonics, Inc.
Developing a home use melanoma risk suggestion system using robust edge and feature detection software and machine learning system.
Connect elevates entrepreneurs by providing educational programming, mentorship, introductions, and access to capital. Springboard is the startup accelerator program from Connect, and is credited as one of the first founded in the US, in 1985. The program focuses on helping technology and life sciences companies prepare to scale and raise capital. Since 2005, Springboard has helped create over 7,000 jobs in early-stage companies.
Connect is proud to bridge innovation internationally, in an effort to promote the economic development of both regions.

“This is the third year of the partnership with the City of Yokohama.
We are proud of the companies we’ve worked with, and excited to see them scale and grow internationally.”
On October 27th, 2021, the three companies will demonstrate the results of their hard work in the mentoring program while presenting their innovative technologies and products to investors, potential partners, and everyone interested.
