Encinitas
A bit of history
The California Southern Railroad reached the area in 1881, and its townsite was surveyed and mapped in 1883, with the inland community of Olivenhain founded that same decade by German homesteaders. Encinitas remained a collection of separate communities, Old Encinitas, Leucadia, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, New Encinitas, and Olivenhain, until they incorporated together as a single city on October 1, 1986. In 1923 the Ecke family moved their poinsettia growing operation to Encinitas, and their grafting technique for producing fuller, more compact plants gave the family a near-monopoly on the U.S. poinsettia market for much of the 20th century. That flower business earned Encinitas its longtime nickname, the Flower Capital of the World.
Co-founded by Anton Kittelberger and Frank Westermann, who himself lives with diabetes; backers include Define Ventures and 7Wire Ventures.
Series D$20.0MKiora Pharmaceuticals is a publicly traded, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company (Nasdaq: KPRX) developing treatments for retinal disease, led by CEO Brian Strem.
$10.8MSTRATEGICALLY BUILDING WHAT THE GRID AND THE CLOUD NEED MOST
Seed$6.0MDeveloping novel long-acting therapeutics targeting chronic cardiometabolic diseases.
$5.6MSequence unifies editing, color grading, audio mixing, library organization, and reviews so post-production teams can work better together.
Founded and led by Dr. Sheila Gujrathi, a physician-scientist and serial biotech executive who also founded/chairs Vidya Therapeutics and Lila Biologics and sits on the board of Janux Therapeutics; the company is based in Encinitas, CA.
Founded by AAA gaming industry veterans John Blakely, Matthew Armstrong, Mark Cieslar, and Christopher Sturr, and backed by Menlo Ventures in a $3.4M seed round.
Seed$2.6MDiscover OrthoRPM, transforming home exercise programs with guided rehabilitation, motion tracking, and connected digital therapy solutions for clinics without paper.
The SEC filing entity for Rubbl, a heavy-equipment rental marketplace based in Encinitas, CA and co-founded by CEO Adam Greenberg; has raised $2.5M.
Seed$770K
Pre-Seed$559K
$412KFinance, Illuminated. Illuminate Financial is a specialist venture capital firm defining the future of finance.
My Village Innovations (MVI Medical) is a women-led medical device company co-founded by Andrea "Annie" Munoz, PA-C, and Alfonso Munoz, focused on reimagining the vaginal speculum for gynecologic care.
Series B$213KThis San Diego ophthalmic biotech raised $10 million in Series A funding in 2018 from Brandon Capital's Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, and secured another $3.3 million in December 2024 to advance a Phase 2b trial for a pink-eye (acute infectious conjunctivitis) treatment.
Series A$80KHarnessing Epigenetics to Improve Crops
$74K
Series C$55KFounded by Jongdae Lee, a San Diego/Encinitas-based researcher and CSO with over 20 years of experience working on inflammatory disease drug development, including viral and bacterial infections and Crohn's disease.
This entity is tied to Rubbl, the heavy-equipment rental marketplace co-founded by CEO Adam Greenberg.