Berkeley SkyDeck to Spotlight AI Innovation During Upcoming Demo Day

With startups raising more than $200 million in the last year, Berkeley SkyDeck doubles down on AI innovation and reinforces UC Berkeley’s role as the #1 university for venture-backed startups

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Berkeley SkyDeck, the global hub for entrepreneurship and a leading accelerator, today confirmed its Demo Day for Batch 17 will take place April 10, 2024. Despite economic headwinds and fluctuations in the market, Berkeley SkyDeck startups have consistently raised capital, including more than $200 million over the last 12 months, a reflection of the companies’ sound business models and strong leadership teams. For Batch 17, over half of the 20 companies that will present are rooted in AI, with applications across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, enterprise software, data, and life sciences. The full list of participating startups is available here.

“Projections have the AI industry approaching $2 trillion in value by 2030, signaling the ongoing strength of this market and the still-untapped potential to completely reinvent our world. At the same time, investors are looking for companies capable of real success,” said Chon Tang, Founding Partner at Berkeley SkyDeck Fund. “Berkeley SkyDeck startups have raised more than $200 million in the last year, which is a testament to the level of innovation, business acuity and vision our startups offer, making them worthy companies of choice for investment. Our AI-focused startups are poised to do great things in the market.”

The heavy AI representation in this year’s batch reflects SkyDeck’s previous successes with AI companies as well as its constant evaluation of markets to determine key investment opportunities. SkyDeck AI alumnus MindsDB, a custom AI creation platform, has raised a total of $54.4M from top investors including NVentures, the venture capital fund of NVIDIA. Another SkyDeck alumnus focusing on AI mobile perception, Hayden AI, has raised over $100M in total, with investors including Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Fund and Bridgestone Corporation. Deepscribe, a platform that transforms conversations between doctors and patients into fully customizable clinical notes using ambient AI, has raised $59M from VCs such as Index Ventures and Stage 2 Capital. In addition to its ongoing investment in AI companies, SkyDeck will also host an AI Hackathon this summer to identify and nurture rising talent in the space.

“SkyDeck is at the forefront of innovation across industries, finding the best technologies that solve real pain points and provide real value to society," said Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck. "SkyDeck hosted the largest in-person AI hackathon last summer because we know that AI will be a critical component in our future investments and events, and we will host this massive hackathon again in June. Our Batch 17 companies exemplify our forward-first approach — they are capable of setting the next trends in AI, rather than just iterating on current ones. We look forward to seeing how our network of investors respond to this round of startups.”

The Berkeley SkyDeck Demo Day will be hosted at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California at 3pm PDT on April 10, 2024. Accredited investors interested in receiving an invite can apply via this link.

About Berkeley SkyDeck

Berkeley SkyDeck is a leading accelerator and the global hub for entrepreneurship. As UC Berkeley’s largest and most prominent accelerator, SkyDeck combines hands-on mentorship with the vast resources of its research university. SkyDeck is the only accelerator of its kind that offers the value of a dedicated investment fund alongside the resources and network of a top university. To date, SkyDeck startups have raised more than $1.8 billion in aggregate. Participating startups have access to SkyDeck’s 700 advisors, 70 industry partners, and a network of more than 510,000 UC Berkeley alumni. For more information, see skydeck.berkeley.edu.