Berkeley SkyDeck (SkyDeck) is a high-tech

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

startup accelerator and incubator program at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

serving as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public university i ...

and Berkeley College of Engineering. Founded in 2012, SkyDeck promotes high-tech entrepreneurship in the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. With Pitchbook ranking Berkeley alumni second to Stanford in producing

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

-backed entrepreneurs, SkyDeck has become a top university incubator within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

.https://www.dailycal.org/2013/10/24/study-lists-uc-berkeley-among-top-universities-producing-entrepreneurs/ Study lists UC Berkeley among top universities for producing entrepreneurs. ''The Daily Californian''. Retrieved 19 May 2020.

Program

Startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

join the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator for six months (one university semester). Startups accepted into the highest level cohort track receive $50,000 when they join, and $50,000 three months in—a total of $100,000 to use to build their businesses. In exchange, SkyDeck takes a five percent equity in each cohort startup. The six-month SkyDeck term finishes with a demo day when startups in the SkyDeck cohort present to hundreds of investors, seeking

venture capital financing Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies ...

. SkyDeck alumni startups include

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

Lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

, a

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

ation company with

motorized scooter A motorized scooter is a stand-up scooter powered by either a small utility internal combustion engine or a small electric hub motor in its front and/or rear wheel. Classified as a form of micro-mobility, they are generally designed with a lar ...

s, electric bikes, and carsharing, and Kiwi Campus, a food-delivery service using

autonomous robot An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. The first autonomous robots environment were known as Elmer and Elsie, which were constructed in the late 1940s by W. Grey Walter. They were the first robots in history ...

Berkeley SkyDeck Fund

In 2018, SkyDeck raised a $24 million, oversubscribed

venture fund Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

from investors including Sequoia Capital, Mayfield and

Sierra Ventures Sierra Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in San Mateo, California. It is focused on early stage emerging technology companies. History The firm was founded by Peter Wendell in 1982 in Menlo Park, California. Early investments ...

. With this fund SkyDeck is allowed to invest up to 10 percent in each cohort startup's first

funding round A securities offering (or funding round or investment round) is a discrete round of investment, by which a business or other enterprise raises money to fund operations, expansion, a capital project, an acquisition, or some other business purpose ...

, up to $2 million.

References

{{Private equity and venture capital University of California, Berkeley Business incubators of the United States Startup accelerators Venture capital firms of the United States Financial services companies based in California Companies based in Berkeley, California Financial services companies established in 2012 2012 establishments in California