Initial Investment of $479,000 is Music to Local Audio Technology Startup’s Ears

City’s EmTek Fund and Tech Coast Angels Jointly Provide Working Capital to Diver Entertainment Systems, Inc.

As venture capital equity remains elusive for most smaller startup companies nationally, local entrepreneurs are finding San Diego is a more supportive environment, as Diver Entertainment Systems, Inc., celebrated the closing of its $479,000 initial outside investment round with several partner business development support organizations.

Diver Entertainment Systems (DES) has developed patented high fidelity, underwater audio systems utilizing the latest in MP3 memory technology. The systems have been designed to a 200-foot depth rating and provide a feature rich, portable way to have stereo fidelity while underwater. Uses for the technology include audio soundtracks for dives, guided underwater tours, or recorded dive manuals that could be listened to while wearing dive equipment among others.

The company was founded in 2002 by Rany Polany, Kristian Rauhala and Carl Petterson, three recent graduates of SDSU’s entrepreneurship graduate program. "We're very pleased that a start-up company founded by SDSU alumni from our entrepreneurship program has secured EmTek funding," said Dr. Sanford Ehrlich, executive director of the University's Entrepreneurial Management Center. "Our Center strives to design hands-on learning experiences and programs to prepare students and alumni to successfully launch their new ventures. Through our collaboration with EmTek and the San Diego Tech Coast Angels, we are pleased that DES has raised its first round of funding."

DES is located in a targeted investment area for the EmTek Fund, a public revolving loan fund managed by the City’s Community & Economic Development Department that participates alongside outside private equity investors to provide pre-VC stage growth capital to promising San Diego County entrepreneurs. DES is the fifteenth company to secure funding from EmTek, which has provided $2.5 million in funding since its inception, leveraging over $15 million in private investment to drive the growth of the region’s smaller early-stage businesses.

In addition to the $150,000 of EmTek funding, DES also leveraged $329,000 in matching private capital investment, including $155,000 from angel investors including members of the Tech Coast Angels, a local angel investment group affiliated with UCSD CONNECT that has placed $49 million in 74 companies since it was founded in 1997. DES is also now bringing on the first Fellow from a joint Tech Coast Angels and SDSU EMC Fellowship Program which was just launched last month. “This is what makes San Diego so unique and different, the working together of a variety of organizations and resources to provide a support foundation for emerging San Diego companies,” said Jack Florio, Vice President, Communications for the San Diego chapter of Tech Coast Angels.