title https://www.pacbiztimes.com Proudly serving Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:08:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 Quintessent’s $11.5M raise indicative of Santa Barbara’s impressive tech scene https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/03/21/quintessents-11-5m-raise-indicative-of-santa-barbaras-impressive-tech-scene/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:08:02 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92624 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

The post Quintessent’s $11.5M raise indicative of Santa Barbara’s impressive tech scene first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>

Subscribe

    This article is only available to Business Times subscribers
  • Subscribers: or REGISTER for complete digital access.
  • Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists.
  • Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.
]]>
Santa Barbara semiconductor firm raises $11.5M https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/03/14/santa-barbara-semiconductor-firm-raises-11-5m/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:47:44 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92608 Santa Barbara-based Quintessent, a semiconductor company that specializes in heterogeneous silicon photonics and quantum dot laser technology, announced it raised $11.5 million in an oversubscribed funding round, it said in a March 14 press release. The round was led by Osage University Partners along with new investors including M Ventures. Santa Barbara-based Entrada Ventures also Read More →

The post Santa Barbara semiconductor firm raises $11.5M first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>
Santa Barbara-based Quintessent, a semiconductor company that specializes in heterogeneous silicon photonics and quantum dot laser technology, announced it raised $11.5 million in an oversubscribed funding round, it said in a March 14 press release.

The round was led by Osage University Partners along with new investors including M Ventures. Santa Barbara-based Entrada Ventures also participated in the seed funding round reinvesting in the company.

“We are grateful for the support from our new and existing investors who all recognize the need for foundational innovations to catalyze sustainable and reliable interconnect scaling for the era of accelerated computing,” said Alan Liu, CEO and co-founder of Quintessent.

“This new funding allows us to grow our team and accelerate the development of highly scalable and highly reliable optical interconnects that transcend the scaling limitations of incumbent solutions, built on top of a unique technology stack including our multi-wavelength comb laser.”

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is leading to more specific designs around accelerated computing for the world’s computing infrastructure, according to the press release.

This type of computing requires the orchestration of massively parallel units of distributed but interconnected compute resources at the cluster or datacenter scale

As a result, achieving sustainable growth of computing and data movement will require new technologies and architectures that can match the rapid progression of bandwidth scaling from computing and switching interfaces while simultaneously minimizing power, latency, fiber count, chip size, and total cost of ownership. This is what Quintessent is aiming to solve.

“Quintessent’s plans to productize interconnect solutions powered by multi-wavelength quantum dot comb lasers may become one of the most critical product developments in photonics at just the right time to intercept the surging demand for optical connectivity at the largest computing corporations in the world,” Manny Stockman, a Partner at OUP who will be joining Quintessent’s Board of Directors, said in a press release.

email: jmercado@pacbiztimes.com

The post Santa Barbara semiconductor firm raises $11.5M first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>
Nuclear AI firm emerges from stealth in SLO https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/03/14/nuclear-ai-firm-emerges-from-stealth-in-slo/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:59:14 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92601 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

The post Nuclear AI firm emerges from stealth in SLO first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>

Subscribe

    This article is only available to Business Times subscribers
  • Subscribers: or REGISTER for complete digital access.
  • Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists.
  • Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.
]]>
Mense, Kind Cup create menstrual product alternative  https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/03/14/mense-kind-cup-create-menstrual-product-alternative/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:54:41 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92598 In 2020 — the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic — there were already plenty of reasons to be scared for a loved one’s health.  McCall Brinskele of San Luis Obispo had one more reason to worry about her sister, who suffers from endometriosis and uterine fibroids. “She had been suffering from painful periods and when Read More →

The post Mense, Kind Cup create menstrual product alternative  first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>
Left, Mense co-founder and CEO McCall Brinskele and Christine Brown, founder of Kind Cup. (courtesy photos)

In 2020 — the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic — there were already plenty of reasons to be scared for a loved one’s health. 

McCall Brinskele of San Luis Obispo had one more reason to worry about her sister, who suffers from endometriosis and uterine fibroids.

“She had been suffering from painful periods and when I say painful, I mean like, ‘on the floor of the bathroom and can’t get up to do basic functions throughout the day’ type of pain,” Brinskele told the Business Times. “And she had been suffering with that for eight years by that point.”

Her sister’s painful struggle is ultimately what inspired Brinskele to join the entrepreneurial space and try to find a solution — not only for her sister, but for the thousands of millions of women who suffer from the same issue.

That’s why while she was finishing up her master’s degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Brinskele founded Mense in 2022, a period product company.

Brinskele is one of thousands of women who have joined the entrepreneurship space over the last decade, specifically tackling the male-dominated technology and health spaces. 

Dubbed FemTech – a term first coined back in 2016 – the industry is gaining significantly more traction.

According to Statista, the worldwide FemTech market reached a valuation of $51 billion in 2021 with the potential to achieve $103 billion by 2030, reflecting an 8.1% CAGR. 

That’s because more women are joining the industry to find solutions for other women and issues unique to them and their bodies, which have been traditionally overlooked.

“In my short time in the women’s health space, I’ve seen that we all want all of us to succeed,” Brinskele said.

“And that’s because I think, just being around all these female founders, we are so desperate for these solutions that we’re just so willing to learn from one another, to help each other and that’s been amazing.”

Before founding Mense, Brinskele was doing a lot of research into the causes of endometriosis.

What she found was that a lot of the products out in the market — particularly tampons and pads — have “endocrine-disrupting chemicals” that could lead to endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, and even cervical and ovarian cancer.

That was her main motivation for finding a product that didn’t use those chemicals — and what she found were menstrual cups. 

That is currently what Mense is trying to develop: a menstrual cup as an applicator that’s as easy to insert and remove as a tampon.

“When talking to individuals about their experience with these products, there wasn’t a lot of education out there about them… but once people learned how to figure out how to use them, they describe it as ‘life-changing,'” Brinskele said.

Christine Brown, founder of Kind Cup in Carpinteria, knows what a difference menstrual cups can make for people who have periods.

Kind Cup is a period product company that offers two different sizes of menstrual cups.

Brown, who founded the company in 2017 and launched her first product in 2019, said she started her company because although menstrual cups have existed for decades, there weren’t companies out there developing those types of products.

“Back in 2011 when I first learned about cups, I couldn’t even get it online, and when I hopped on my bike I had to go from store to store until I eventually found one,” Brown said.

Now, there is more awareness around the validity of menstrual cups, which was greatly exacerbated by the pandemic, Brown said.

“Tampons and pads were just off the shelves, the supply chain just wiped them out so a lot of people were looking for alternatives and because they were home, they were looking to not only have an alternative because they needed something, but it was a great opportunity for them to go through the learning curve,” Brown said.

The main difference with using a menstrual cup — as opposed to the more popular pads and tampons — is that it is made with medical-grade silicone that does not have such toxic chemicals.

An architect at heart, Brown also knew that current menstrual cups on the market could use an upgrade on their design, so she took it upon herself to make that happen through Kind Cup.

“We shouldn’t have people going and trying and doing their best and being frustrated after months of trying what was available. There needed to be a better design that was going to actually be comfortable, effective, and easy to use,” Brown said.

The beauty in starting her own company as well was that she could be in it for the right reasons — sourcing local companies to manufacture her products while also producing them with the highest quality materials.

“We deserve that,” Brown said.

She also noted that while some companies race to profitability, Kind Cup’s goal isn’t that — the company simply wants to give women a high-quality alternative option. 

“If you’re not in it for the right reasons, this is a very challenging space to be in,” Brown said.

“People can see who are doing things for the wrong reason and who are doing them for the right and the ones who do it for the right reasons tend to stick around.”

As for Mense, May will be a big month for the team as they will compete at Cal Poly’s AngelCon for a chance at $100,000 in equity funding. 

Brinskele also said the company will be raising a seed round, which would all go toward the development of its first product.

“When I first graduated and was looking at the job market, there wasn’t any job out there that was making the difference that I wanted to make especially in the women’s health space, so I knew I had to start my journey,” she said.

“It started as a passion project, but now I can’t let it go.”

email: jmercado@pacbiztimes.com 

The post Mense, Kind Cup create menstrual product alternative  first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>
Santa Barbara firm’s study details benefits, challenges of AI cybersecurity https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/03/01/santa-barbara-firms-study-details-benefits-challenges-of-ai-cybersecurity/ Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:31:00 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92513 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

The post Santa Barbara firm’s study details benefits, challenges of AI cybersecurity first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>

Subscribe

    This article is only available to Business Times subscribers
  • Subscribers: or REGISTER for complete digital access.
  • Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists.
  • Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.
]]>
MannKind caps off record year with Q4 earnings beat https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/02/28/mannkind-caps-off-record-year-with-q4-earnings-beat/ Wed, 28 Feb 2024 23:27:45 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92508 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

The post MannKind caps off record year with Q4 earnings beat first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>

Subscribe

    This article is only available to Business Times subscribers
  • Subscribers: or REGISTER for complete digital access.
  • Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists.
  • Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.
]]>
Inogen closes out rough year with decreasing revenue https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2024/02/27/inogen-closes-out-rough-year-with-decreasing-revenue/ Wed, 28 Feb 2024 07:22:15 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=92499 Goleta-based Inogen saw shares dip nearly 20% in after-hours trading Feb. 27 after the company missed analyst expectations in the fourth quarter and had an overall rough year in fiscal year 2023. Inogen, a maker of portable oxygen containers, announced on Feb. 23 after the markets closed that fourth quarter total revenue was $75.9 million, down Read More →

The post Inogen closes out rough year with decreasing revenue first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>
Goleta-based Inogen saw shares dip nearly 20% in after-hours trading Feb. 27 after the company missed analyst expectations in the fourth quarter and had an overall rough year in fiscal year 2023.

Inogen, a maker of portable oxygen containers, announced on Feb. 23 after the markets closed that fourth quarter total revenue was $75.9 million, down from $88.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in domestic business-to-business sales and direct-to-consumer sales, partially offset by higher rental revenue, according to an Inogen press release.

Moreover, the company suffered a net loss of $26.6 million which was better than last year’s fourth quarter loss of $56.6 million. Adjusted for one-time losses, however, the company had a net loss of $19.4 million, or a loss of 81 cents per share, up from 2022’s fourth quarter adjusted loss of $13 million.

Analysts expectations from Zacks Consensus Estimate projected the company to suffer an adjusted net loss of 41 cents per share, with revenue at around $78 million, both of which the company missed.

For the full year, Inogen also struggled with revenue falling to $315.7 million in 2023 compared to $377.2 million in 2022, primarily due to declines in direct-to-consumer sales as well as domestic and international business-to-business sales, partially offset by higher rental revenue, according to the press release.

The company’s net loss was $102.4 million compared to a net loss of $83.8 million in 2022. Adjusted for one-time losses, Inogen’s loss was $48.3 million compared to adjusted net loss of $26.2 million for 2022.

Inogen shares closed at $9.34 on Feb. 27, but once the company released its earnings, shares fell 17.7% to $7.74 in after-hours trading. Shares are down 40% year-over-year.

Inogen ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents worth $187 million.

“I am excited for the future of Inogen. As we progress into 2024, we are focused on positioning the business for revenue growth and long-term profitability while advancing our innovation pipeline and working to bring Physio-Assist to the U.S. market,” said newly-appointed CEO Kevin Smith in a press release.

Smith took over as CEO on Nov. 13 for Nabil Shabshab after a little over two years at the job.

The post Inogen closes out rough year with decreasing revenue first appeared on Pacific Coast Business Times.

]]>