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Unicorns, Record-breaking Quarter for Tech Investment Kick Off 2019
San Diego companies raised nearly half a billion dollars in VC funding in Q1. While this fell short of the pace set last year, the volume in Q1 was historically well above average, according to research by CBRE. Quarterly funding volume has only exceeded the Q1 amount six times since 2002, four of which came last year.
Tech investment reached its highest mark on record, reaching $259.5 million in Q1. Two-thirds of tech investment went to software/web companies and one-third to hardware/services. Life science investment had an uncharacteristically slow quarter, reaching only $76.2 million, the least since Q4 2014.
Through the first quarter of 2019, two new unicorns (private companies valued at more than $1 billion) launched in San Diego. TuSimple, a U.S.-Chinese startup focused on autonomous long-haul semi-trucks, raised another $95 million in series D funding. Financial software company Kyriba recently relocated back to San Diego and raised $160 million in a private equity round, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion.
CommonGround Workspaces, a Carlsbad, CA-based co-working company, raised $100 million in series A funding to grow its presence in the California market and to expand into other markets such as Texas, Oregon, Utah and Minnesota
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