Berkeley SkyDeck (SkyDeck) is an

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

startup accelerator and incubator program which serves 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 risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business (branded as Berkeley Haas) is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a Public university, public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a pub ...

and Berkeley College of Engineering at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Founded in 2012, SkyDeck promotes

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is 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 area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. It has become a top university incubator in both the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and also worldwide.

Program

Startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

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. SkyDeck alumni startups include

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

Lime, a

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

ation company with

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

s, electric bikes, and

carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

, and Kiwi Campus, a food-delivery service using

autonomous robot An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. Historic examples include space probes. Modern examples include self-driving Robotic vacuum cleaner, vacuums and Self-driving car, cars. Industrial robot, Industrial robot ...

s. In 2018, SkyDeck raised a $24 million, oversubscribed venture fund from investors including

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

, Mayfield and Sierra Ventures. With this fund SkyDeck is allowed to invest up to ten 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 (economics), capital project, an acquisition, or some oth ...

, up to $2 million. In 2022, SkyDeck announced it had raised $60 million, in an oversubscribed Fund II.

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