Twenty-two startups Join Berkeley SkyDeck Accelerator in Fall 2018 Cohort

UC Berkeley SkyDeck, the largest official startup accelerator of UC Berkeley, announces its 22 Fall 2018 funded Cohort startups today. With a total of 102 teams (22 funded Cohort teams and 80 HotDesk teams) this is the largest cohort ever at SkyDeck. The new startup teams encompass such multi-disciplinary technologies as AI, robotics, enterprise and consumer software, gene therapy, and therapeutics. These technologies have transformational potential applications which can widely benefit e-commerce, consumer products, information technology, disease treatment, and currency solutions. Twenty-two funded Cohort teams receive $100,000 from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund as well as more than $250,000 in free and discounted services, and intensive mentorship.

Founded in 2012, Berkeley SkyDeck is a joint program of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. SkyDeck combines the hands-on mentorship of traditional accelerators with the vast resources of its research university. This holistic partnership is coupled with SkyDeck’s unique accelerator program to create a powerful environment for startups. Participating startups have access to over 130 advisers, 30 industry partners, and a large network of accredited investors who connect SkyTeams to the expertise and capital they need to launch and grow their world-changing innovations.

HotDesk teams are startups at varying stages, either too early for institutional funding, or having already received institutional funding from top VC funds. They have access to workspace, events and mentors at SkyDeck, offering additional cross-pollination and institutional knowledge to the Fall 2018 cohort.

The Fall 2018 funded Cohort teams are evenly split between U.S. and global companies representing 10 countries and four continents. Since Berkeley SkyDeck was founded in 2012, over 300 companies have participated in the university’s landmark accelerator program.

“Berkeley SkyDeck is at the center of UC Berkeley’s powerful startup ecosystem. We bring the massive resources of our university and our talented Cal alumni to accelerate our startups,” said Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck. “With the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund supporting our teams, it’s moonshot territory here.”

Added Chon Tang, Founding Partner, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, “Silicon Valley remains the best place in the world to build a high-tech startup. With UC Berkeley’s long tradition of entrepreneurship, and with the support of a strong group of engaged alumni advisors from the startup community, SkyDeck is uniquely positioned to help startups succeed in Silicon Valley.”

The Fall 2018 Berkeley SkyDeck funded Cohort includes:

Bungee Tech: Founded by three Amazon veterans, Bungee enables enterprises to mine geo-specific data reliably and at scale, worldwide, in real time. AI/ML applied on the data collected provides recommendations to empower e-commerce businesses of all sizes – like retailers, airlines, and hotels – to compete in real-time on price, selection, promotions, ad listings, and more. Bungee’s solution is turnkey- no dedicated technology team required.

Cashbot. ai: Cashbot AI has built an analytics-driven platform to help chatbot owners both monetize their current users, and also pay to acquire new users. Imagine a native ad network like Outbrain, but custom designed for the growing chat and conversational ecosystem.

Chameleon Biosciences is transforming gene therapy with a re-dosable, AAV based gene therapy. Their two base technologies Effector Vectors and Exo-AAV, are not constrained by the same immune system limitations that prevent more widespread use of current AAV gene therapies. Chameleon is committed to treating greater numbers of patients suffering from rare diseases with disease correcting genetic medicines administered as many times as needed.

Cooljamm has developed a set of AI platforms which can, first, “learn” the key melody from any piece of music, and then second, “compose” a new track based on the same melody but customized with style, rhythm, pacing, instruments, etc. Their product will be sold to power-users who upload hours of videos online every week; these video producers can use this tool to generate accompanying music tracks – without any copyright issues.

Empire Biotechnologies: Empire has developed a therapeutic drug used to control absorption of nutrients through the digestive system – a critical problem for a variety of diseases.

Examus: Examus has built a browser-based plug-in which can run a sophisticated neural network on the edge, used to monitor user expressions, glance direction, and surrounding environment. This is used to revolutionize the proctoring / test-taking market: students of online-courses can now be proctored effectively, even if the network “dies” mid-test. The same technology can be applied to webinar analytics, even advertising.

HUMM: Ever wished you could upgrade your brain like you update an app on your phone? HUMM is building a hardware/software platform for anyone who depends on their cognition for success. The first users are “cognitive athletes” in the professional e-sports gaming space, unlocking improved mental processing speeds and accelerating training.

Impressivo is a sensitive, low latency, inexpensive 3D sensor fabric. It has an intelligent 3D multi-touch interface solution that can be used in a number of different applications. Theirimmediate products are for very precise foot/posture/gait measurements. The sensor technology can also be used for a number of unique input applications, includingVR, gaming, or automobile consoles.

KorroBox is a gaming marketplace founded by a group of game industry veterans from Riot Games, Blizzard and Twitch that utilizes blockchain technology to significantly lower distribution cost and create a secure peer-to-peer marketplace for microtransactions and tradeable game assets.

Peanut Robotics combines experienced robotics entrepreneurs with technical experts, to design a consumer-facing robot using breakthrough technologies for agile grippingof household items. This robot can be used to retrieve anything, ranging from heavybooks to fragile eyeglasses, for seniors and others with physical ailments unable tobend effectively.

Perfect Dashboard is using AI to disrupt a technology industry that has largely remained unchanged for 20 years: website hosting providers. The company not only offers a suite of tools that automate tasks which were handled manually by web agencies (such as WordPress updates) but also provide data-driven marketing automation to fuel rapid adoption. Perfect Dashboard gives legacy hosting providers the technology to compete and generate more revenue from existing users.

PredictEV is a blockchain-powered, prediction-focused social network that empowers users with a fun way to earn cryptocurrency by discussing the events they care about, and gives them a stake in the outcome of those events without having to risk a dime. PredictEV will initially focus on sports predictions, positioning it to leverage a budding sports betting renaissance in the United States. Later, the network will also support stock, cryptocurrency, and political predictions.

Predictim: Using the next generation of natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, Predictim has built an advanced AI tool that can generate unique insights about an individual using their digital footprint. After scanning someone’s social media accounts, our AI can assign them an overall risk score as well as evaluate them on different personality traits such as politeness, positivity/negativity, aggression, ability to work with others or other criteria.

Researchably has built an easy to use, personalized AI search engine targeted for individual researchers and clinicians. Individual users can use the search engine to quickly narrow in on research papers and case studies of interest.

Resonance created a technology that uses comparative analysis of ambient noise to identify, authenticate and pair devices in proximity. In layman terms, if devices are hearing the same thing, they are in the same place. Use cases range from IoT, fintech and security to gaming and social networking.

Seamless Microsystems is an IP core semiconductor startup, working on an innovative high-speed ADC design for next generation SOC chips in a wide range of applications, ranging from 5G networking, to LIDAR in autonomous driving.

SimpleDataLabs: SimpleDataLabs builds Prophecy – a Predictive Analytics Designer for Business Analysts, powered by our DeepWisdom engine for auto-generating machine learning models. It will put Predictive Analytics in every Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboard in the world. Every business executive can now ask – “what’s going to happen next, and what can I do to change it?”

Skyloom Global: Skyloom is developing a spaceborne infrastructure based on optical communication technology and relay satellites placed in geostationary orbit to drastically increase space-to-earth bandwidth and unlock the true economic potential of low Earth orbit.

SMBX is a platform connecting small businesses with the people who want to invest in them. It’s a public marketplace that facilitates the issuance and trading of small business financial securities, beginning with the Small Business Bond.

Snipfeed: Snipfeed is a news and information recommendation AI-based engine and is the go-to for everything that matters to users. It provides daily and highly-personalized snippets for its users, engaging them in learning by breaking up original content into short chat messages, GIFs/Images, videos and quizzes. After 40 days in existence, the MVP serves 13K daily active users.

ThinkCyte has built the Ghost Cytometry technology, the world’s first high-throughput image-based cell sorting system by integrating advanced imaging, machine learning and microfluidics technologies. It enables researchers to identify cells based on their images and isolate target cells, including rare cells in real time. This innovative approach brings ultrahigh throughput, content-rich analysis and sorting on a single cell level to disciplines such as drug discovery, cell therapy and clinical diagnostics.

Triton Cloud: Triton allows media companies to tailor which content they show each user. Their API builds unprecedented loyalty by making every user interaction feel personal. Triton’s platform caters to media companies by offering intuitive control and visibility into the system.
For more information visit Berkeley SkyDeck at http://skydeck.berkeley.edu/