University of California, Berkeley’s accelerator has chosen Milan for its expansion into Europe and will invest in those startups through the SkyDeck Europe Fund.

Berkeley SkyDeck, the accelerator programme of University of California, Berkeley, unveiled Milan, Italy as the site of its European location yesterday. The accelerator has partnered innovation hub Cariplo Factory and real estate and investment group Lendlease to launch SkyDeck Europe, which will be located at the Milano Innovation District. It has received the support of philanthropic organisation Fondazione Cariplo and the Lombardy government. Applications for the programme are open now, with the cohort set to begin on May 2. Europe-based startups may apply to either SkyDeck Europe or Berkeley SkyDeck, and accepted participants will receive capital from the SkyDeck Europe Fund – details of which were not disclosed. Caroline Winnett, executive director of SkyDeck (third from left in the photo above), said: “We are absolutely thrilled to bring SkyDeck to Europe. “We have seen tremendous growth in the quality and quantity of European startups that work with SkyDeck to plug into Silicon Valley each year, and we know that is just the tip of the iceberg. Now, we can offer part of the SkyDeck program a little closer to their homes. “It is the best of both worlds as teams get the opportunity to learn from the programming available from our top accelerator, without necessarily committing to picking up and moving across the world.” – Photograph of the Berkeley SkyDeck team courtesy of the accelerator

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).