San diego counted record 446 tech startups last year

With venture funding easier than it has been in years, San Diego saw a record 446 technology startups in 2014, the incubator CONNECT reported Wednesday. CONNECT CEO Greg McKee said the

startups received $805 million in venture-capital funding, plus over $4 billion in traditional private equity and stock-market funding. “There is more money now than ever before. It’s really

quite staggering the amounts of dollars,” said McKee, who reported the numbers at CONNECT’s annual Rock Stars of Innovation conference at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.

According to McKee, the 2014 startups were in these industries: * 248 in software * 86 in communications, computers and electronics * 70 in life sciences * 16 in defense and transportation *

16 in recreational products * 10 in environmental technology These companies created 1,860 new jobs in the San Diego area. In addition, research funding from the National Science Foundation

and other sources provided over $1.3 billion in 2014 to support basic research that later makes its way into new products. “I’ve been utterly stunned by the staggering amount of research”

in the San Diego community, McKee said. “The ecosystem is so rich.” McKee said CONNECT helps startups reach the right people and resources at every stage, from launch through growth and

expansion to exit. “CONNECT is about just that…providing connections,” he said. “We want to provide the right introductions to the right people at exactly the right time.”