Deeptech & robotics startups in San Diego

Charles Myers

San Diego–HQ; NASDAQ: AIRG. Designs embedded antennas and integrated wireless systems (5G, Wi-Fi, GPS, asset-tracking) for automotive, IoT, enterprise and consumer devices. A specialist antenna/hardware play...

Desmond Wheatley

San Diego (Sorrento Valley) cleantech maker of the EV ARC, a solar-powered, off-grid, transportable EV charging station (no trenching/grid connection). Publicly traded (Nasdaq: BEEM; formerly Envision Solar)...

(formerly American Technology / LRAD Corp; led by Richard Danforth)

San Diego–HQ; NASDAQ: GNSS. Makers of Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) for long-range hailing/warning, plus a geo-targeted mass-notification and emergency-management software platform (Genasys Protect / EV...

founded 1955; owned by the Blue family (Neal & Linden Blue)

Founded 1955 as a General Dynamics division; acquired by the Blue family in 1986. Privately held deeptech powerhouse best known for the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper and Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft (9M+ flight...

(Novatel Wireless successor; led by Dan Mondor / Juho Sarvikas)

San Diego–HQ 5G company; NASDAQ: INSG (traces to Novatel Wireless, founded 1996; became Inseego 2016). Leader in 5G fixed-wireless-access routers/gateways and the MiFi mobile-hotspot brand for carriers and e...

Eric DeMarco (CEO)

San Diego–HQ defense-tech firm; NASDAQ: KTOS, ~4,300 employees. Builds jet-powered tactical drones (Valkyrie XQ-58), high-performance aerial targets, hypersonic vehicles, solid rocket motors and C5ISR/satell...

Gregory Poilasne

Founded 2010; vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pioneer whose GIVe platform dynamically manages power between EV/school-bus batteries and the grid. Went public via SPAC in 2021 (Nasdaq: NVVE), deployed on five continent...

Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi, Franklin Antonio, Klein Gilhousen, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen (7 co-founders)

Founded July 1985 in Irwin Jacobs' living room by seven Linkabit veterans. Invented and commercialized CDMA, the foundation of 3G/4G/5G cellular; today a ~$150B+ chip and licensing giant (Snapdragon SoCs, RF...

Mark Dankberg, Mark Miller, Steve Hart

Founded 1986 in Carlsbad; NASDAQ: VSAT. Global satellite-communications leader providing high-throughput satellite broadband, in-flight Wi-Fi (American, JetBlue, United) and secure government/military networ...

Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, Andrew Reiter

Founded 2015; builds Hivemind, an AI 'pilot' enabling drones/aircraft to fly autonomously in GPS- and comms-denied combat (deployed since 2018) plus the V-BAT VTOL drone. Raised $240M at a $5.3B valuation (M...

Albert Liu (ex-Qualcomm/Samsung/Wireless researcher)

Founded 2015, San Diego–HQ edge-AI semiconductor company. Designs reconfigurable NPUs that run LLMs and neural nets on-device instead of the cloud; chips fabbed at TSMC and used in Foxconn EVs and Hanwha cam...

Eugene Izhikevich, Allen Gruber

Founded 2009 by computational neuroscientist Eugene Izhikevich; incubated with Qualcomm backing (Qualcomm Ventures + SoftBank Vision Fund investors). Its BrainOS autonomy platform powers the world's largest ...

founded 1951 by Walter Zable

Founded 1951 in San Diego. Defense-electronics and transportation-tech company (secure tactical comms, training/simulation, and fare-collection systems for transit agencies worldwide). Taken private in May 2...

Dan Magy, Ian Muceus

Founded 2022 in San Diego. Builds expeditionary, 3D-printed modular UAS ('xCells' — containerized additive-manufacturing units that print drones at the tactical edge for the DoD). Raised a $12.5M seed (Mar 2...

Duncan Earl (founder/CEO)

Founded 2012 in Vista (SD metro). Designs and integrates quantum-networking hardware and software — entangled-photon sources and the plumbing for a future quantum internet; won a $21M Air Force Research Labo...

(Viasat spinout; led by Tom Green)

Founded 2000 in San Diego (spun out of Viasat). Builds advanced FEC algorithms, waveforms and mobile ad-hoc mesh-networking (MANET) radios — the TSM tactical-scalable-MANET line used widely by US special ope...

Haodong Liu

Founded 2020 as a UC San Diego spinout (from Ping Liu's lab); develops ultra-fast-charging lithium batteries using a novel lithium-vanadium-oxide anode — ~3-minute charge, up to 20,000 cycles — for buses, po...

Mark Gresser (CEO)

Founded 2006 in San Diego; high-throughput battery-materials developer making nickel- and cobalt-free cathodes and custom cells for EVs and clean energy. Raised ~$189M total (incl. $90M+ Series D in 2022 led...

Paul Jacobs, Derek Aberle, Matt Grob (all ex-Qualcomm)

Founded 2018 by former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs (son of co-founder Irwin), ex-president Derek Aberle and ex-CTO Matt Grob — the archetypal 'Qualcomm mafia' spinout. Develops advanced spectrum/private-5G and ...

Costas Soler & Graeme Rae

Founded 2021 in Encinitas; builds instrumented 'smart buoy' platforms that capture real-time ocean data (pH, salinity, underwater noise, atmospheric carbon). Contracts with the DoD, Port of San Diego, NOAA a...

Chris Crawford

Carlsbad maker of portable, pressurized shower systems used by surfers, campers, fishermen, mountain bikers and adventurers — an action-sports/outdoor consumer-hardware brand born from San Diego's surf/outdo...

San Diego startup building a next-gen traffic-signal network — integrating algorithm research with low-cost sensing/learning to raise road-network capacity 50%+ at ~20x lower cost, cutting congestion and tra...

Bo Ryu & Tamal Bose (co-founders)"

** Poway-based tactical-AI/autonomy firm whose software flew the U.S. Air Force's first AI-vs-human dogfight and supported DoD's Project Overmatch (surface warfare, maritime tracking, UAS, battle management)...

** San Diego provider of precision LiDAR mapping, GPS/inertial navigation and positioning for aerial, land and maritime platforms — including drone-based survey and PNT (position/navigation/timing) in GPS-ch...

Aleksey Matyushev & Anatoly Starikov (co-founders)"

** Founded 2016, moved HQ to San Diego from the Bay Area in 2022; develops hyper-efficient blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft — the KONA regional cargo plane (3.8-ton payload) and future passenger/defense vari...

** San Diego drone-autonomy startup; the first to focus on launching/landing UAS autonomously from moving platforms (vehicles and boats) in GPS-denied conditions for defense and industrial use. Acquired by A...

Mike Flanigan (co-founder/CEO)"

** Founded ~2020; builds lightweight, solar-powered autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) that stay at sea for months for ISR, maritime domain awareness and commercial survey. Backed by L3Harris (2022) and Shiel...

** San Diego company developing autonomous, wind/solar-powered undersea and surface vehicles for long-duration ocean sensing and naval/ocean-warfare ISR missions. Early-stage maritime-autonomy player leverag...

Eugene Izhikevich & Allen Gruber (co-founders)" - **venue:** Sorrento Valley, San Diego - **la:** 32.9010 - **ln:** -117.2000 - **desc:** Founded 2009 by neuroscientist Eugene Izhikevich; BrainOS is an AI autonomy platform powering the world's largest fleet of commercial autonomous mobile robots (40,000+ deployed). SoftBank/Qualcomm-backed (~$221M raised) at 9401 Waples St in Sorrento Valley — SD's marquee commercial autonomy/robotics company with clear dual-use relevance. - **link:** https://www.braincorp.com - **vertical:** ["Deeptech"] - **stage:** unicorn ### 10 -

Founded 2009 by neuroscientist Eugene Izhikevich; BrainOS is an AI autonomy platform powering the world's largest fleet of commercial autonomous mobile robots (40,000+ deployed). SoftBank/Qualcomm-backed (~$...

Bo Ryu & Tamal Bose (co-founders)" - **venue:** Poway, San Diego - **la:** 32.9628 - **ln:** -117.0359 - **desc:** Poway-based tactical-AI/autonomy firm whose software flew the U.S. Air Force's first AI-vs-human dogfight and supported DoD's Project Overmatch (surface warfare, maritime tracking, UAS, battle management). Acquired by Applied Intuition (Feb 2026, announced Feb 2025) to form Applied Intuition Defense; now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary with the full team retained. - **link:** https://www.episci.com - **vertical:** ["Defense","Deeptech"] - **stage:** funded ### 11 -

Poway-based tactical-AI/autonomy firm whose software flew the U.S. Air Force's first AI-vs-human dogfight and supported DoD's Project Overmatch (surface warfare, maritime tracking, UAS, battle management). A...

Dan Magy (co-founder/CEO)" - **venue:** Miramar, San Diego - **la:** 32.8700 - **ln:** -117.1420 - **desc:** Founded 2022; builds xCell, a containerized "factory-in-a-box" that 3D-prints modular drone airframes and mission payloads at the point of need in under ~24 hours. Raised a $47M Series A in July 2025 led by NEA (with Lockheed Martin Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, Decisive Point; ~$77M total), later a larger 2026 round, and holds a U.S. Air Force UAS deal worth up to $100M. Operates ~60,000 sq ft in Miramar. - **link:** https://www.launchfirestorm.com - **vertical:** ["Defense","Deeptech"] - **stage:** funded ### 7 -

Founded 2022; builds xCell, a containerized "factory-in-a-box" that 3D-prints modular drone airframes and mission payloads at the point of need in under ~24 hours. Raised a $47M Series A in July 2025 led by ...

including drone-based survey and PNT (position/navigation/timing) in GPS-challenged environments. Dual-use deeptech serving defense and commercial geospatial customers. - **link:** https://geodetics.com - **vertical:** ["Deeptech","Defense"] - **stage:** early --- ## ECOSYSTEM ANCHORS & INFRASTRUCTURE (San Diego) ### 16 -

San Diego provider of precision LiDAR mapping, GPS/inertial navigation and positioning for aerial, land and maritime platforms — including drone-based survey and PNT (position/navigation/timing) in GPS-chall...

Aleksey Matyushev & Anatoly Starikov (co-founders)" - **venue:** Otay Mesa, San Diego - **la:** 32.5530 - **ln:** -116.9370 - **desc:** Founded 2016, moved HQ to San Diego from the Bay Area in 2022; develops hyper-efficient blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft — the KONA regional cargo plane (3.8-ton payload) and future passenger/defense variants — built in Otay Mesa. Raised a $28M Series A (announced early 2026) led by Draper Associates with an order book exceeding 570 aircraft; strong dual-use (cargo/logistics) potential. - **link:** https://natilus.co - **vertical:** ["Deeptech","Defense"] - **stage:** funded ### 12 -

Founded 2016, moved HQ to San Diego from the Bay Area in 2022; develops hyper-efficient blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft — the KONA regional cargo plane (3.8-ton payload) and future passenger/defense variant...

San Diego drone-autonomy startup; the first to focus on launching/landing UAS autonomously from moving platforms (vehicles and boats) in GPS-denied conditions for defense and industrial use. Acquired by Aero...

Mike Flanigan (co-founder/CEO)" - **venue:** San Diego - **la:** 32.7157 - **ln:** -117.1611 - **desc:** Founded ~2020; builds lightweight, solar-powered autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) that stay at sea for months for ISR, maritime domain awareness and commercial survey. Backed by L3Harris (2022) and Shield Capital; closed a $20M Series A led by Konvoy Ventures (Feb 2026), raised $40M+ total and won $100M+ in U.S. government contracts including a $24M DoD APFIT award and a Navy SBIR Phase 3. Cites SD's "major Navy presence" as its edge. - **link:** https://www.seasats.com - **vertical:** ["Defense","Deeptech"] - **stage:** funded ### 8 -

Founded ~2020; builds lightweight, solar-powered autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) that stay at sea for months for ISR, maritime domain awareness and commercial survey. Backed by L3Harris (2022) and Shield C...

Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng & Andrew Reiter" - **venue:** Downtown San Diego - **la:** 32.7157 - **ln:** -117.1611 - **desc:** Founded 2015 by former Navy SEAL Brandon Tseng, his brother Ryan, and Andrew Reiter; builds Hivemind, an AI autonomy stack that pilots aircraft and drones in GPS- and comms-denied environments, plus the V-BAT VTOL UAS and the new X-BAT autonomous fighter concept. Hivemind has flown 26+ vehicle classes including F-16s. In March 2026 it raised ~$1.5B Series G (plus $500M preferred) at a $12.7B valuation and projected $540M+ revenue — San Diego's flagship defense-tech company. - **link:** https://shield.ai - **vertical:** ["Defense","Deeptech"] - **stage:** unicorn ### 2 -

Founded 2015 by former Navy SEAL Brandon Tseng, his brother Ryan, and Andrew Reiter; builds Hivemind, an AI autonomy stack that pilots aircraft and drones in GPS- and comms-denied environments, plus the V-BA...

San Diego company developing autonomous, wind/solar-powered undersea and surface vehicles for long-duration ocean sensing and naval/ocean-warfare ISR missions. Early-stage maritime-autonomy player leveraging...