Updates
What's happening around the county.
Company milestones, funding, awards, and research from across Santa Cruz County hard tech. We link to the original reporting, the credit belongs to the publications doing the work.
santacruzworks.orgOct 19, 2026Cruz Foam closes; TemperPack acquires its patent portfolio
The Santa Cruz compostable packaging startup has shut down, with 23 patents and applications going to Virginia-based TemperPack.
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mbdart.orgOct 19, 2026Monterey Bay DART report tracks regional advanced air mobility infrastructure work
A new impact report documents two and a half years of the Monterey Bay Tech Hub Infrastructure Working Group, including the $7.45 million state corridors award covering Watsonville airport.
Read- lw.comOct 9, 2026
Joby Aviation agrees to buy defense firm Resonant Sciences for $500 million
Joby Aviation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dayton, Ohio defense technology company Resonant Sciences for about US$500 million, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.
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uaudio.comOct 9, 2026Universal Audio launches six new Volt USB audio interfaces
Scotts Valley based Universal Audio has released Volt Gen 2 and Volt Max, six bus-powered USB interfaces starting at $149 MAP, available from October 1, 2026.
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santacruzworks.orgOct 5, 2026Local hard tech employers post openings across Santa Cruz County
Joby Aviation, Feanix Bio, Paystand, Swellcycle and RESERVOIR are among the employers with current openings listed through the Santa Cruz Works Jobs Board.
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santacruzworks.orgOct 5, 2026RoboticsCats consortium takes third in XPRIZE Wildfire competition
AURA Foresight, a four-country team including Santa Cruz Accelerates alum RoboticsCats, won $500,000 in the autonomous response track of the $11 million XPRIZE Wildfire competition.
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mbdart.orgSep 22, 2026Monterey Bay DART releases Monterey-San Jose air taxi case study
A new DART analysis models electric air taxi service on a 67-mile Monterey to San Jose corridor, weighing travel time and emissions against cost and weather reliability.
Read- aerospaceglobalnews.comSep 22, 2026
Joby flies converted Cessna Caravan across the US without pilot inputs
Joby Aviation says an autonomy-equipped Cessna Caravan flew 3,199 miles from Concord, California, to North Carolina under remote supervision, with no control inputs from its safety pilot.
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aerotime.aeroSep 14, 2026Joby flies first eIPP demonstration flights in North Texas
Joby Aviation has started a week of electric air taxi demonstration flights around Dallas-Fort Worth under the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
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santacruzworks.orgSep 14, 2026Santa Cruz HardTech launches to support county hardware founders
A new Santa Cruz SBDC program offers free advising, capital guidance and a monthly meetup at Idea Fab Labs for hardware, robotics, biotech and clean energy founders.
Read- communityimpact.comSep 9, 2026
Joby Aviation leases North Texas site for air taxi manufacturing and testing
The Santa Cruz-based eVTOL developer has taken 45,000 square feet at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport for aircraft manufacturing and testing.
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santacruzworks.orgSep 9, 2026CarbonBridge moves DGF-100 bioreactor toward certification at customer site
CarbonBridge, a Santa Cruz Works Accelerates graduate, has added automated self-testing to its DGF-100 gas fermentation unit and is pursuing NRTL certification at a customer site.
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rideapart.comSep 9, 2026Hero MotoCorp writes down its Zero Motorcycles stake by 92%
The Indian manufacturer cut the carrying value of its investment in the California electric motorcycle maker from about $29 million to roughly $2.3 million, while keeping the technology partnership in place.
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jobyaviation.comSep 4, 2026Joby and Toyota form a manufacturing joint venture
The Santa Cruz aircraft maker and Toyota have established a joint venture, moving a decade-old relationship onto a formal manufacturing footing.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026Versa Vascular closes $42M Series C and names a new chief executive
The Santa Cruz medtech company topped up its Series C to $42 million and appointed a former Medtronic structural heart executive to lead it.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026UC Santa Cruz students put their first satellite in orbit
A ten-student team built a CubeSat that is now in orbit and transmitting, after eighteen months of work, vibration testing at NASA Johnson, and a launch on a resupply mission.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026Santa Cruz Ventures backs Farmblox, a local company fighting farm copper theft
Farmblox builds solar-powered monitors that catch copper wire thieves at irrigation pumps. It is headquartered in Santa Cruz and now covers growers farming about a tenth of California's irrigated acreage.
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mbdart.orgAug 20, 2026Monterey Bay DART signs with DEFENSEWERX, opening a defence procurement route locally
A new agreement connects Central Coast companies to the national network of defence innovation hubs, including the one attached to the Naval Postgraduate School.
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mbdart.orgAug 20, 2026DART runs its first drone pilot boot camp, with UCSC among the partners
Fifteen people aged 16 to 56 finished a week of commercial drone training, and nine in ten cleared the FAA Part 107 practice threshold.
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reservoir.coAug 20, 2026Reservoir buys Contain, adding farm equipment finance to its robotics incubator
The Salinas on-farm robotics incubator has acquired an agricultural finance and data platform, and its founder joins as general partner to chair the investment committee.
Read- reservoir.coAug 20, 2026
Western Growers puts $1.5M into Reservoir Farms, the robotics site nearest Watsonville
Three years of funding for the Salinas on-farm incubator, buying growers a direct say in which automation technologies get developed.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026Kai Lenny is riding a compostable surfboard printed in Santa Cruz
SwellCycle's 3D-printed, plant-based board passed a test most sustainable materials never face: one of the most demanding surfers in the world, in serious water.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026Joby opens a 45,000 sq ft operations hub in Fort Worth
The Santa Cruz company has established a base at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport to support air taxi flights across the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
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agribusinessglobal.comAug 20, 2026Peregrine Hydrogen wins the first IFA Cultivate Challenge
The Westside company beat more than 150 applicants from over 40 countries with an electrolyser that co-produces hydrogen and sulfuric acid on about half the energy.
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santacruzworks.orgAug 20, 2026Joby partners with Atoms to build out a national vertiport network
Joby has brought in Travis Kalanick's infrastructure company to acquire and develop landing sites across Florida, New York, Texas and California.
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