UC Berkeley's SkyDeck accelerator is now open to founders from any University of California campus as well as foreign nationals applying through its global acceleration stream.
University of California (UC) Berkeley’s SkyDeck accelerator is expanding its outreach to startups from across the UC ecosystem after opening new offices in San Francisco.
Founders from any UC campus, rather than just Berkeley, will be able to apply to join the spring 2019 cohort of SkyDeck, which begins taking applications from September 21.
SkyDeck is a six-month program which offers each participating startup $100,000 in funding from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, a $24m vehicle which shares 50% of its profit with UC Berkeley.
The initiative is also open to companies founded by foreign nationals without any UC affiliation through a global acceleration program.
SkyDeck was founded in 2012 as a partnership between UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, College of Engineering and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.
The most recent cohort, unveiled in June 2018, consisted of 22 funded startups and 80 additional “hotdesk” teams that, while not receiving investment, still gained access to SkyDeck workspace, events and mentors.
Participants in the cohort include media content technology developer TritonCloud, information recommendation engine Snipfeed, investment platform SMBX and cell sorting visualisation technology developer ThinkCyte, a spinout from University of Tokyo.
Caroline Winnett, executive director of Berkeley SkyDeck, said: “We are eager to meet the growing demand for participation from both Berkeley founders and the very large number of founders who are students, alumni, or faculty from every UC campus.”
