Oluwadi New Org. · JULY 27, 2026 · Blog ·
San Diego

Biotech · Navy · The Frozen Zoo

Investors Companies Universities
6
companies
7
VC / investor firms
4
universities
17
total firms
15
people
Market: Enterprise / General Business in San Diego · clear market

FirmsSan Diego

3 records
Investor / VC · VC
Avalon Ventures
● La Jolla, CA
La Jolla-based seed/early VC. $750M+ invested across 11 funds. Life sciences and tech. Founded by Kevin Kinsella. 125+ companies. Notable: Vertex, Synaptics, Vocera, Onyx Pharma. WSJ top biotech VC. [merged from 817]: San Diego's pioneering life sciences + tech VC. Founded 1983 by Kevin Kinsella. $750M+ deployed. Separate Avalon BioVentures fund ($135M, 2022) exclusively for early-stage biotech. Managing Partners: Jay Lichter, Sandy Madigan, Tighe Reardon. Accelerator model: incubates companies internally before bringing in co-investors. Notable: Erasca, Janux, Synthorx (acq. Sanofi $2.5B), Calporta (acq. Merck), Nerio (acq. Boehringer-Ingelheim $1.3B).
Jay Lichter, Kevin Kinsella, Sandy Madigan +1 more
Est. 1983
$750M AUM
Investor / VC · VC
Harpoon Ventures
● SAN DIEGO, CA
One of few VC firms investing primarily in defense technology. Menlo Park + San Diego offices. GP: Larsen Jensen. $125M fund (Dec 2023). 40+ companies. Deep SBIR expertise — helps portfolio from first SBIR contract through DoD scale. Close ties to Naval Base San Diego, Camp Pendleton, SOFWERX. Notable: Shield AI (early), Firestorm Labs, Kodiak ($50M Army project), Astranis, Solugen.
Larsen Jensen
Est. 2017
$125M AUM
Investor / VC · Corporate VC
Qualcomm Ventures
● San Diego, CA
Corporate VC arm of Qualcomm. US, China, India, Israel, Europe, LatAm, Korea. Managing Directors: Quinn Li, Carlos Kokron. Focus: mobile, wireless, AI, IoT, semiconductor. Notable: Cloudflare, Fitbit, SentinelOne, Zoom, Magic Leap, Airspace, Braincorp, Wiliot.
Quinn Li
Est. 2000