Berkeley SkyDeck hosts Demo Day with 24 tech startups

Berkeley SkyDeck, a world hub for entrepreneurship and tech accelerator, is gearing up for its largest Demo Day but because it prepares to showcase 24 progressive startups.

The occasion is scheduled to happen on September 20 at Zellerbach Corridor in Berkeley, California, in on the campus of the College of California at Berkeley.

The lineup of Batch 16 corporations taking part in Demo Day represents a various vary of industries, together with local weather tech, robotics, deep tech and AI, chips and {hardware}, gaming, and fintech. This yr’s Demo Day units a brand new document for Berkeley SkyDeck, highlighting the group’s continued development and affect within the startup ecosystem. Traders from main Silicon Valley funding and enterprise capital companies could have the chance to listen to from every of the taking part corporations.

Batch 16 is the most important cohort so far, with 24 corporations chosen out of 1,800 purposes, leading to an acceptance charge of simply 1.3%. Notably, this cohort marks a major milestone because it consists of the first-ever life science startups based by UC Berkeley college members by way of the Life Science Entrepreneurship Enterprise Grant.

Among the many faculty-led corporations taking part within the newly launched UC Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Heart (LSEC) Bio Monitor are AsparaGlue and MZR Neurotech. Moreover, Batch 16 options startups on the forefront of their respective industries, similar to generative AI for gaming and SaaS, low-cost efficiency semiconductors and microchips, and journey bookings.

Chon Tang, founding accomplice of Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, stated in an announcement, “The applied sciences that energy the long run gained’t come out of Silicon Valley alone. We consider Batch 16 represents among the most progressive concepts from all over the world, and we’re excited to see the response from the broader funding group.”

Berkeley SkyDeck gives chosen cohort corporations with advantages together with $200,000 in funding, free and discounted assets valued at $750,000, and entry to an intensive community of UC Berkeley alumni, college, and advisors.

The impression of Berkeley SkyDeck’s assist is clear from the success of earlier cohorts. Notably, a number of startups from Batch 15, similar to Clearpol, Socialtrait, and Okomera, had been capable of safe substantial seed funding rounds starting from $3 million to $5 million from main enterprise capital funds shortly after their Demo Day displays.

Caroline Winnett, government director at Berkeley SkyDeck, stated in an announcement, “When choosing corporations for a Berkeley SkyDeck Cohort, we search for corporations which have moonshot visions to utterly change the world. This group of corporations is poised to assist us rethink wearable know-how, the movement of funds, therapy for most cancers, and autonomous robots, amongst different industries.”

With purposes for Batch 17 just lately closed, Berkeley SkyDeck is already seeing substantial curiosity, with the variety of purposes almost doubling in comparison with Batch 16. Notably, Batch 17 will introduce a specialised Local weather Tech Monitor led by Shuo Yang, a accomplice at main local weather tech enterprise capital agency Lowercarbon Capital.

As Berkeley SkyDeck enters its fourth yr and continues to take a position from its $60 million Fund II, it has already made a major impression by supporting 160 corporations from 30 nations throughout numerous industries.

What units the SkyDeck Fund aside from different enterprise capital funds is its distinctive profit-sharing mannequin, the place half of its earnings are reinvested into UC Berkeley, furthering the college’s dedication to delivering excellence in schooling.