INNOVATION NEWS
We don’t only report the news, we make the news. Check out our news highlights and archive here.
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Mimofit Advances from New Tech to Global Stage
Local Med‑Tech startup mimofit advances quickly after New Tech.
AHSC Intern Spotlight: Noemi at Radi8
Meet Noemi, an intern at Radi8, an AI social media tool that grows your business in your own voice.
The Future of Work Needs Flexible Spaces — And Santa Cruz Has One of the Most Unique
Some of the region’s most interesting companies, makers, designers, and founders have come from spaces that never looked or felt like traditional offices. That is exactly what makes 108 High Road on Santa Cruz’s Lower Westside so compelling.
New Tech Comes Home to the River
Santa Cruz Works brought its June New Tech gathering to River Row — a new riverfront venue beside the San Lorenzo — and debuted an expo-style format that let founders, engineers, and community members actually talk to each other. Seven companies showed what innovation looks like when it grows from this place.
$17 Million and Counting: How Climatize Is Making Clean Energy Investing Go Mainstream
May was a big month for Climatize. The platform crossed $17.3 million in total investments, added hundreds of new investors, and shipped technology that puts them in the same room as major banks and institutional lenders. The goal has always been simple: make clean energy investing accessible.
What We’re Reading: Santa Cruz Works Launches a Recommended Books Section
Santa Cruz Works’ new Recommended Books section brings together titles on hospitality, meaning, AI, privacy, entrepreneurship, history, grit, systems thinking, and spotting what comes next.
Reservoir Farms Offers Free Associate Membership Tier
Reservoir Farms unveils a new membership tier option: Associate.
Here For You Is Almost Here
Here For You is a platform that makes it easier for people to show up for one another during life's hardest moments, bringing together communication, task coordination, fundraising, gift registries, and resources all in one place.
The Central Coast Is Playing a Long Game. Most Regions Don't.
A Dutch-California drone exchange lands in Santa Cruz this month — and buried inside the coalition-building and workforce jargon is a genuine economic strategy that most regions are too fragmented, too timid, or too late to pull off.
Joby Aviation Acquires Additional Facility to Expand Operations
Joby Aviation expands its footprint again! Joby’s newest facility adds an additional 47,500 sq ft to the company.
The Crowded Sky
The same hunger that turns a perfect empty peak into a zoo is now pointed upward — and this time, there's nowhere else to paddle.
Workshop: The AI Amplification Problem
A behavioral science-backed workshop for people leaders ready to move past AI hype — discover your leadership style, understand how AI amplifies it, and leave with a concrete strategic roadmap in hand.
A Successful First-Ever Student-Led Mayoral Forum
In a historic first for Santa Cruz, elementary school students took center stage as forum moderators, drawing strong community turnout and sparking an authentic civic conversation between mayoral candidates and the next generation of city residents.
Hiring 101: A Free Webinar to Help Small Business Owners Make Their First Hire
Your first hire is a turning point for your business. Make sure you get it right — join this free, step-by-step webinar designed to take small business owners from "where do I start?" to confident, compliant hiring.
Cornell's Rootline Robotics Takes Top Prize at Farm Robotics Challenge
The Farm Robotics Challenge unites the brightest young minds in agriculture and engineering to solve real problems happening in fields right now. From autonomous weeders to AI-powered pest detection, competing teams design, build, and test robotic systems that could reshape how the world grows food — and the best ideas don't just win prizes, they become companies.
CEO Works | How to Turn Conflict Into Collaboration
CEO Works Luncheon: Kelsey Manne Donnellan helps leaders turn conflict into collaboration with practical tools for stronger, more open teams.
CarbonBridge Scores $1.85M ARPA-E Extension, Partners with RTI International
CarbonBridge, a Santa Cruz Works Accelerates graduate, just landed an additional $1.85M from ARPA-E — bringing their total federal award to $2.57M and signaling serious momentum in next-generation biomanufacturing.
The Dragon Gate: Remembering Santa Cruz’s Forgotten Chinatown
Santa Cruz’s Dragon Gate tells the story of the city’s forgotten Chinese American history along the San Lorenzo River. A short film from the Coastal Watershed Council traces Santa Cruz’s five Chinatowns, the last of which was destroyed in the 1955 flood, and highlights the monument now standing at Chinatown Bridge as a reminder of the people who helped shape the city. The article also connects that history to today’s riverfront revival, including Laurie Egan of Coastal Watershed Council speaking at New Tech at River Row.
Hillpost.dev: Two UCSC Students Just Fixed the Most Chaotic Part of Every Competition
Two UCSC founders built Judging.dev — the first open source, AI-native, always-free competition hosting platform — after watching judging infrastructure collapse into spreadsheet chaos one too many times. They're presenting at New Tech on June 4.
When Code Gets Cheap, Everything Else Gets Harder
AI has made code creation easy. But Google I/O speaker Adam Bender warns that flooding one node stresses the whole system. Watch his talk — and rethink what "building fast" actually costs.

