San Jose's Skybox Security raises $96M in private equity

Skybox is a cybersecurity business that has been around for 14 years. They help customers manage and analyze threat data and prioritize risks. Some of the largest global banks, telecoms, and energy providers user their solutions.

Skybox has raised a whopping $96 million in their latest financing round, which is more than double all of the funding the company has ever received in the past. The company is profitable but likely will not go public for another couple of years.

Currently Skybox has 120 employees and they are looking to add up to 50 new hires in 2016. Their headquarters is at 2099 Gateway Place, near the airport.

Source: SVBJ

Apple's Big Plans for San Jose

A couple weeks ago the San Jose city council formally and unanimously approved a 15 year development agreement with Apple. This would give the company the ability to build up to 4.15 million SQFT of office space in North San Jose. To put that in perspective, that would be more than all of Apple's Cupertino offices including it's new flagship headquarters. That much real estate could accommodate 16,000 well-paid tech employees.

While there is no guarantee that Apple will fully build out this much space, this agreement opens up a huge door for San Jose. If Apple continues to grow, San Jose will be the obvious partner to fill the need for large amounts of space. Given the very real possibility that Apple may enter the auto industry, the demand for several million square feet of space could become imminent. In fact, Apple is already planning to occupy two projects totaling almost 500,000 SQFT in North San Jose: the former Atmel headquarters (296,000 SQFT) and a 200,000 SQFT office building under construction. Apple could have 1,000 employees in San Jose by the end of the year.

I have a feeling that 2016 will be a great year for getting more large tech companies into San Jose. Apple and Google are paving the way for others to enter the market and join the party.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose's OneRent Raises Funding

OneRent is an online platform for both renters and property managers. The solution allows property owners/managers to easily showcase available units, process background and credit checks, and book property showings. For renters it allows online lease signings, paying rent online, and online or text-based submission of maintenance requests.

The company has just announced that it raised $1.5 million in funding and that they are expanding their offering to Seattle, their first territory outside of the Bay Area. Property management seems like an old-school industry ripe for disruption, and I wish them all the best.

OneRent is located in Downtown San Jose at 75 E. Santa Clara Street, Suite #1250.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose-based Nutanix May IPO This Month

Nutanix offers storage and visualization solutions that are used in data centers around the globe. The company will likely be one of the first Silicon Valley IPO this year and is hoping to raise $200 million. The company currently has 1,368 employees and revenues of $241 million a year. You will be able to find them under the NASDAQ symbol of NTNX.

The company is headquartered near SJC at 1740 Technology Dr #150. The infusion of money will mean more growth for the company, additional job openings, and an opportunity for current employees to cash in some of those shares and contribute to the local economy.

Source: SVBJ

Bentek Expanding San Jose Manufacturing Facilities

Bentek is a true homegrown San Jose Company that builds electrical products for a variety of industries. They were founded here in 1985 and still remain headquartered in San Jose (2350 Harris Way). They are adding 100,000 SQFT of manufacturing space at 1991 Senter Road in Central San Jose. The space will be used to build AC/DC power products for both the solar and semiconductor industries. Over the past three years alone, the company has grown from 100 to 240 employees, and they are expecting to continue growing in the near future.

Source: San Jose Economy Newsletter

North San Jose R&D Vacancy Finally Dips Below 10%

After a painful recession and years of recovery, North San Jose commercial space is finally back on solid footing. The last couple tech companies to move into the "golden triangle" were enough to bring the Research and Development (R&D) vacancy rate below 10% for the first time in many years. Usually development picks up substantially when vacancy is in the single digits.

The two most recent companies that moved to North San Jose are Silver Spring Networks and ForeScout. Silver Spring is a smart grid  provider that relocated from Redwood City to 190,000 SQFT on 210 and 230 W. Tasman Drive. ForeScout is a cyber security company that moved from Campbell to 95,000 SQFT at 190 W. Tasman Drive.

Source: San Jose Economy Newsletter

Apple Buys More Land in North San Jose!

It looks like Apple is planning something huge in North San Jose. Last week they purchased another 27 acres in North San Jose off of Carcot Avenue. This is a high visibility site fronting Highway 101 (imagine the signage possibilities).

Apple paid Ellis Partners $166 million for the land, which includes a 290,000 SQFT building that Apple was previously going to lease. The deal also gives Apple 12 acres of land approved for 650,000 SQFT of additional R&D and/or office space. This will give Apple a grand total of 70 acres in North San Jose.

Without moving a single employee to San Jose, the city already is already getting a nice payout. The city will collect over $1 million in transfer tax from the sale of the property.

In typical Apple fashion, they are being very secretive on what their true intentions are for the land. My guess is that they are going to use the space to develop "Project Titan," their electric car rumored for release in 2019. They allegedly already have 800 employees working on the car, and plan to triple that to over 2,000 employees immediately. North San Jose property would be the absolute best location for Apple to develop an electric car. Here is why:

• Millions of square feet of develop-able space that could be built to meet Apple's unique requirements. Cupertino is out of land and is more difficult to work with than San Jose when it comes to new development.
• Access to the best engineering talent in the world. The Golden Triangle is still the largest tech cluster anywhere, and you are not going to find better hardware engineers elsewhere.
• Santa Clara County is becoming a Mecca for automotive innovation. You have Tesla and innovation centers for just about every car manufacturer in the immediate area. Let's also not forget NextEV is opening an R&D outpost in the neighborhood. Most of the talent required to build next-generation vehicles is already here.
• Easy access to the San Jose International Airport.
• Easy access to Light Rail and eventually BART.
• Easy access to Highway 101 and Highway 87.
• More central location than Cupertino with more housing options and urban amenities.

Tesla now has 12,000 employees. If Apple chooses to centralize "Project Titan" in San Jose, they will need every square foot of the land they just purchased. I can't wait to see how this develops!

Source: SVBJ

San Jose's Velostrata Raises $14M

Velostrata is a tech company that enables network admins to easily move virtual machines on their network into the cloud. Their software runs on top of VMware, and makes moving servers into the cloud as easy as right-clicking.

The San Jose company--which is headquartered at 2880 Zanker Road--has operated in stealth mode for over a year and is just now announcing a $14 million funding round. This goes to show that San Jose has tech startups as well, not just established companies.

Velostrata has a total of 25 employees, with plans to grow to 40 within a year. They also have an office in Tel Aviv.

Source: VentureBeat

NextEV (Chinese Tesla Competitor) Building R&D in San Jose

There is a little known fact that before purchasing the NUMMI plant, Tesla was trying to build their factory in North San Jose. Since they would not qualify for federal incentives at that location, the deal fell through. However, Tesla still does have some history with San Jose as they chose to open the first Tesla Store in San Jose--which is still considered to be the United States flagship store. I should also note that they are rumored to be seeking office space in San Jose.

Well, it turns out Tesla won't be the only electric vehicle (EV) company in town for very long. A Chinese company called NextEV has selected North San Jose as their location for a significant R&D center. The company already has a supercar that competes in the Formula E racing series. Now their goal is to manufacture a mass-market electric car in 2017 for the Chinese market as well as a US-bound electric car in 2019. The company seems pretty serious unlike previous EV companies like Coda. They have hired a former CEO of Maserati and poached employees from both Tesla and BMW.

NextEV has leased a 85,000 SQFT building at 3200 North First Street. The R&D center will focus on "connected car" functionality. Manufacturing will be done in China while car design will be handled in Germany.

Now all we need is an Apple facility for their future self-driving cars as well as a relocation of the Tesla Headquarters to San Jose--then we'll have hands-down the EV capital of the world.

Source: SVBJ

Pentagon Selects San Jose as Innovation Hub for Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing

The United States Defense Department has selected San Jose's FlexTech Alliance to lead an initiative on advanced manufacturing. FlexTech will receive $75 million in federal funding in order to pull several disparate manufacturing processes together and build the next generation of electronic sensors. The new sensors will weigh less and be highly malleable, allowing them to easily be worn or embedded just about anywhere. 96 companies will be a part of the FlexTech Alliance, along with 11 laboratories and 41 colleges.

San Jose made a strong name for itself in semiconductor manufacturing in the 90s and 2000s. It's great to see an innovation center being created locally to support the next generation of manufacturing high-tech components. The FlexTech is headquartered at 3081 Zanker Road, in the heart of North San Jose's Golden Triangle.

Source: SVBJ

Intelicare Direct Bringing 350 Jobs to San Jose

A high-end call center is opening this week in North San Jose (2350 Zanker Road, Suite 10). Intelicare Direct--the company opening the center--is establishing 350 new jobs in our city, as opposed to outsourcing them outside the country. The new center also means more tax dollars for the city's coffers. 

To learn about the company and the new office, please have a look at the press release below. FYI, they are aggressively hiring. These positions are a great way to get your foot in the door if you are interested in moving into tech, Customer Service, or Customer Success. 

San Diego — Intelicare Direct (ICD), a leading customer service solutions company with offices in Las Vegas and San Diego, is opening its third state-of-the-art building in San Jose, Calif. The expansion to the Bay Area continues a commitment by ICD to provide high quality customer service for its clients that remains based in the United States.

On Wednesday, September 2 at 12:15 p.m., a ribbon cutting ceremony will take place with San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Intelicare Direct will also host an open house job fair following the ceremony.

“We are excited to be creating over 350 jobs in the Bay Area as we pursue our goal of providing the world’s best customer service experience for our clients,” said Gabriel Bristol, President and CEO of Intelicare Direct. “It’s important to us that as we grow, this work continues to be performed in the U.S. and San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley and a bustling hub of technology, is just the place to do it.”

An ambitious project, the goal of this new San Jose office is to not only create a customer service contact center unlike any other, but also to make sure that the space reflects the value of those performing the work. The new office mirrors the company’s unique values and culture, which are in part responsible for the success the company has enjoyed. ICD pays a livable hourly wage, weekly bonuses and provides health and disability insurance for all its employees. The company is famously dog friendly and allows employees to bring their children into the office as well.

“Customer service workers have long been denied the kind of respect they deserve. Without these hard working agents, most companies simply couldn’t function, and yet too often they’re relegated to the basements with sub-par equipment and even poorer working conditions,” said Bristol. “All too often these jobs are shipped off to parts of the world where the work can be done for pennies on the dollar. This fails to recognize the importance of their contribution and this new location has been built to serve as a paradigm shift in that thinking.”

The goal was to create the world’s most technologically advanced and aesthetically pleasing call center to provide first class customer service in an open and nurturing environment. Bristol has equipped the new location with state-of-the-art Apple technology, ergonomic workstations and, unheard of in the customer service industry, flexible workstations. Employees will be able to work remotely anywhere in the building they find comfortable because their wireless laptops will be able to be used anywhere in the center.

Below are a few highlights of what makes the San Jose office unique:

• All employees will have Apple MacBooks, which will allow them to work from anywhere in the office.
• In addition to traditional workspaces, there will be several creative workspaces, which will allow employees the flexibility to answer customer calls from almost anywhere in the building.
• ICD believes workplaces should encourage being healthy so there will be a gym with exercise equipment.
• ICD is a child friendly workplace, as parents should not have to worry if there is ever a breakdown in childcare. The new offices will ultimately have day care with tutors.

Intelicare Direct is a fast-growing, full-service customer support company, which acts as an external customer service department. The company provides customer care that’s friendly, reliable and professional. By providing industry-leading customer satisfaction, businesses can focus on building profits instead of costly infrastructure.

In just under two-and-a-half years during his tenure as CEO, Bristol has grown the company from just 60 employees working out of a warehouse to an estimated 800 employees by the end of the year.

“Intelicare Direct has built and maintains a strong and supportive company culture where employees’ happiness comes first and success is measured by more than the number of calls handled. Commerce and compassion can reside in the same space,” said Bristol. “We attribute our success to our people and look forward to continuing to reform the call center corporate culture.”

Employee satisfaction is the foundation that has enabled Bristol and Intelicare Direct to successfully develop turnkey solutions, effective customer care, and sales programs for small and medium-sized businesses.

About Intelicare Direct: Intelicare Direct is a leading customer service solutions company based in America, offering businesses effective ways to improve customer satisfaction, sales and quality assurance. Intelicare Direct increases companies’ bottom lines by catering to their number one asset--the customers. Intelicare Direct’s services include Inbound Customer Service, Technical Support, Outbound Sales, Lead Generation, and Reporting. For more information please visit www.intelicaredirect.com.

G2G: San Jose's Late Night Delivery App

G2G is a new food delivery app that specializes exclusively in late night food deliveries. They service San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, and Campbell. Currently they only partner with a dozen restaurants, but several are Downtown San Jose stand-outs like Nick the Greek, Dosa & Curry Cafe, and La Victoria. 4th St. Pizza is also on the list as is The Garret.

The only deliver between 10pm and 4am each day. There is no minimum order size, just a $7 flat delivery charge. There is also no delivery charge on the first order.

For more information and to get the app, head over to the G2G website.

Apple Purchases "N1" Development Site in North San Jose!!!

It looks like Apple is doubling down on San Jose even before they move into the 290,000 SQFT of office they leased at 101Tech. Doubling down would be putting it lightly since this time around they are not renting... they are buying.

Apple is purchasing the entire development site for the N1 Office Campus off of First Street and Component Drive in North San Jose! The $138 million deal will buy them 43 acres ripe for an epic project. 1.8 million SQFT of office was already planned for the site, with a grand total of 2.8 million SQFT entitled. That theoretically means that Apple could build the same amount of office space in San Jose as their new spaceship in Cupertino.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein from the SVBJ even got an official statement from Apple:

"As we continue to grow, we're planning to build R&D facilities and some additional office space in San Jose," spokeswoman Rachel Wolf said in an emailed statement. "The property isn't far from the future home of our new campus and we're looking forward to expanding our presence in the Bay Area."

If this purchase isn't a huge vote of confidence for the San Jose market, I don't know what is! I just hope that Apple will opt for an iconic office design now that they own the land.

Sources: SVBJ, SocketSite

Apple is Setting Up Shop in San Jose!!!

In what will likely be the most talked about San Jose commercial real-estate deal for months, Apple is leasing the 300,000 SQFT 101 Tech campus in North San Jose! This is a two-story building formerly used by Atmel that has huge 150,000 SQFT floor plates that tech companies seem to love these days. The property was substantially renovated with skylights, outdoor amenity space, and a new facade. Next door... 12 acres of land already approved for 665,000 SQFT of new office space. Perhaps Apple will snap that up as well.

It is still unclear which department Apple will choose to locate here. I'm going to speculate a new project, like Apple's future electric cars. The location is pretty close to Tesla and many of the companies that Tesla is sourcing components from (FYI, Tesla is looking at San Jose office space as well). What is clear, is that this will have a huge branding impact on San Jose. Could this be the deal that opens up the floodgates for even more tech companies to invest in San Jose?

Source: SVBJ

San Jose's Avago Buying Broadcom for $37 Billion

Avago is a chip manufacturer headquartered in North San Jose off of Trimble. They are buying Broadcom--one of their competitors--for $37 Billion. That is Billion with a "B" not a typo. The new combined company will be worth over $77 Billion and instantly become one of Silicon Valley's largest companies.

Broadcom is based in Irvine but has offices in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose. Given the large amounts of land in North San Jose well-suited for manufacturing companies, I wouldn't be surprised to see the new company consolidate all of their Silicon Valley operations in San Jose at some point in the future.

Source: SVBJ

Xactly Hoping to Raise $75M in IPO

Xactly--located in Downtown San Jose--has filed for an IPO with the New York Stock Exchange (ticker: XTLY). This would make it the second Downtown tech company to IPO this year. Apigee was the first and Intacct could be next in line later this year.

Xactly provides software and services that helps companies manage compensation for their sales teams. It's a hot market and they have been growing very quickly. Their revenue has grown 68% to $61 million over the last three years.

After the IPO comes to fruition, that will bring a lot more dollars into the local economy as most of their employees live in the South Bay. Hopefully some will decide to move Downtown and help keep the amazing momentum going!

Source: SVBJ

Apple and Tesla are Evaluating Expansion to San Jose!

The two hottest companies in Silicon Valley are contemplating expansion to San Jose! It has been a poorly kept secret that Apple is out of room and it's epic 2.8 million SQFT spaceship project in Cupertino will only cover a fraction of the space it needs. To make matters worse for Apple, Cupertino is not allowing any more office construction outside of a limited area round Valco. Reportedly, Apple has been looking at two different major San Jose projects to expand to: 101 Tech on Orchard Parkway (300,000 SQFT) and the Coleman Highline (up to 1.5 million SQFT).

To make things even more interesting, Tesla is also looking at 101 Tech. Whether it would be an expansion of their Palo Alto headquarters or a full move of their HQ is unclear (it would be much closer to the Tesla factory and the office space would cost half as much). In either case, they would be a very welcome addition to San Jose. Tesla actually wanted to create their factory in North San Jose near Aliso, but were not able to secure the state tax credits needed to build in the location.

Either one of these companies coming to San Jose would be a HUGE win. Nate's article is a great read and an excellent way way to start off the week. Grab a cup of coffee and read the full article via the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose's Outset Medical Raises $60 Million

Outset Medical has developed an in-home dialysis machine called Tablo for those with kidney failure. It would be a huge quality-of-live improvement to be able to do these treatments from home instead of having to go to a dialysis center several times per week. Tablo is capable to purifying regular tap water, creating dialysate, and delivering medication. It does this using a simple UI and dramatically reduces how much time is required for patients to undergo treatment.

Outset Medical has just raised their Series B investment round, which will clock in right around $60 million. That is quite a substantial amount for a young company founded just five years ago. However, this is a $13 billion market and their product already has FDA clearance for clinics and hospitals (they are working on clearance for home use), so it looks like this round is more about scaling and delivering the product rather than creating it.

Outset Medical is located in North San Jose near SJC at 1830 Bering Drive. Check out the short video below for a little bit more information.

Source: MedCity News

Happy Hour as a Service @ ZERO1 Garage

Now that we have over 110 technology companies in Downtown San Jose, why not have some networking events to keep the momentum going. Well, that is exactly what the Silicon Valley Business Journal is doing. They are hosting a mixer with appetizers and cocktails at the ZERO1 Garage this Thursday between 6-8pm. The event also includes a tour of Whipsaw Inc. (industrial design company working with Nike, Google, etc.).

For more info and tickets, just head over here.

Apigee Officially Filed for an IPO

Downtown San Jose company Apigee has officially filed for an IPO (they will be trading under the Nasdaq ticker "APIC"). The company makes tools to manage and support APIs (Application Program Interfaces). They are the fifth-fastest growing tech company in North America and currently have a valuation of over $700 million. In 2014 they moved from Palo Alto to Downtown San Jose, a big win for our city that is only made more significant by this IPO. Hopefully, Apigee employees will use some of their new riches to contribute to the local community.

Source: Silicon Beat