{"id":412119,"date":"2026-07-25T16:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T16:55:08","slug":"from-rna-to-beach-bags-sd-companies-recognized-for-innovation-and-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412119\/","title":{"rendered":"From RNA to beach bags, SD companies recognized for innovation and growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Impact-Awards.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Impact-Awards.jpg\" alt=\"Tamar Grossman\" class=\"wp-image-393660\"  \/><\/a>Tamar Grossman, Co-Founder and CEO of La Jolla Labs<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The innovation and rapid growth of our region\u2019s economy was on display this week when four companies received annual business impact awards from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegobusiness.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The four businesses ranged from personalized RNA therapy for rare diseases to utility-scale clean-energy generation, Hawaiian beach bags and hospitality venues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hundreds of members of the business community came to Scripps Research in La Jolla on Thursday evening to attend an awards ceremony hosted by the EDC and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpmorganchase.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JPMorganChase<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The four companies and their awards are:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Top Startup \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/la-jolla-labs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">La Jolla Labs<\/a>, founded in 2022, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that has built an AI-powered platform for discovering RNA-based therapeutics. One of their experimental therapies has already saved a life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heavyweight \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solvenergy.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SOLV Energy<\/a>, founded in 2008 and listed on Nasdaq, has built over 500 large solar and battery utility plants producing 21 gigawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rising Star \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/aloha-collection.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ALOHA Collection<\/a>, founded in 2014 by college roommates Rachael Leina\u02bbala Soares and Heather Aiu, designs and sells Hawaiian-theme bags and pouches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Early Stage Innovator \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/snakeoilcocktail.com\/event-venues\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Snake Oil Venues<\/a>, founded in 2019, has expanded from boutique cocktail catering to operate hospitality venues throughout the county.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 100 nominations from San Diego\u2019s middle-market businesses were reviewed by a 10-person judging committee, with winners selected across the four categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tamar Grossman, Co-Founder and CEO of La Jolla Labs The innovation and rapid growth of our region\u2019s economy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[165043,165044,64192,74,76,75,8170],"class_list":["post-412119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-edc","tag-impact-awards","tag-jpmorganchase","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}