RESOURCES & DEADLINES
Tuesday, July 13, 9-10am PST: Recruitment kickoff webinar
Cyclotron Road, the Activate fellowship program at the Berkeley Lab empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. The two-year fellowship provides the most promising science entrepreneurs:
- A yearly living stipend of $80,000 to $110,000 plus a health insurance stipend and travel allowance.
- $100,000 of research support
- Access to world-class research facilities
- A program of intensive entrepreneurial training, mentorship, and networking
And Activate does not take a stake in their startups.
Attend the July 13 webinar and find out more about how to apply for the 2022 Cohort here. (2022 Cohort applications open Saturday, October 1.)
Friday, July 23: Applications are due (but will be reviewed after on a rolling basis)
Are you an entrepreneur looking for help incorporating your business? The Startup Law Initiative (SLI) at Berkeley Law can help entrepreneurs incorporate their businesses for free. Entrepreneurs get to work alongside Berkeley Law students and attorneys from top Silicon Valley law firms.
Apply here for free assistance.
Application deadline: Friday, July 30, 2021
Online classes are August 16, 18, and 23 from 6:00-9:00pm PT
The Bay Area Regional I-Corps Node offers a one-week course based on Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad (Business Model Canvas + Customer Discovery). The three evening sessions will teach you to identify and refine your Value Propositions and Customer Segments, which are essential to de-risking your idea and achieving product-market fit. Outside of class, you'll do at least 15 interviews with potential customers as part of the customer discovery process. Eligible teams that complete this course with instructor endorsement might qualify for the National NSF I-Corps program, which includes a $50,000 customer discovery grant, and UC Berkeley postdocs who participate can receive up to a $5,000 grant from PostX.
Apply now. If you have any questions, contact wdavid@berkeley.edu.
Application deadline: Saturday, July 31, 2021 at midnight
Applications are now open to join the CITRIS Foundry Innovation Incubator for Fall 2021! Uniquely situated across multiple UC campuses, the CITRIS Foundry is ideally positioned to help the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs bridge the gap from lab to market and actualize rigorous, validated solutions to society’s biggest challenges. The Foundry offers guidance, education, and a homebase to de-risk entrepreneurship for early-stage founders, especially supporting those who have been historically marginalized, allowing innovators to confidently identify pathways to success and reach the next stage of development and investment for their emerging technology venture.
Apply before the July 31 deadline.
LAUNCH is an innovative University of California accelerator that has raised over $200 million to help over 150 companies get their start. By working with promising startups over the course of a 3-month session, LAUNCH takes fledgling startups and workshops them into viable business models. LAUNCH will start accepting applications for their Fall 2021 Session this summer. To be eligible, your startup must have at least one UC student, faculty, or alum.
Click here for details.
Biocom, the statewide life science industry association recently announced a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Member Pledge to help life science companies commit to building diverse organizations and creating pathways that provide opportunities for BIPOC and other underrepresented populations. They've also created a curated list of resources any company can reference to effectively implement DE&I initiatives.
Sign the pledge or check out the resources.
The Berkeley Research Infrastructure Commons (RIC) comprises campus research facilities and services that are available for shared use by industry and academia (formerly known as the SSUFIE program). Small business founders can explore the RIC-t program, an extension of UC Berkeley RIC capabilities, which enables early stage (pre-product sales) startup companies affiliated with UC Berkeley to temporarily conduct new product R&D in faculty labs.
Learn more.
UC Berkeley's Bakar BioEnginuity Hub aims to empower budding entrepreneurs working at the convergence of the life sciences, physical, engineering, and data science. In collaboration with QB3, a state institute designed to support research and entrepreneurship, the facility on the UC Berkeley campus will be equipped with tissue culture facilities, a freezer farm, fume hoods, basic bench-top equipment, and an ecosystem of teams willing to share insights for advancements. The hub will open in late 2021 and will rent labs and offices to up to 80 early-stage companies from around the world. No UC affiliation is required.
Get in touch with Bakar Labs to join the mailing list, inquire about space, or discuss partnership opportunities.
BERKELEY INNOVATORS MAKING NEWS
Initially founded by UC Berkeley professor Jay Keasling, Berkeley-based startup Demetrix is preparing to manufacture the 100+ compounds in cannabis that exist only in trace amounts in nature but can be made plentiful in the lab. One example is cannabigerol (CBG) which is also called “the mother of cannabinoids” because it’s a chemical precursor for hundreds of other chemicals that exist in trace amounts in cannabis plants. They have already produced 15,000 liters in three years and hope to have CBG products ready for sale by the end of the year.
Learn more about cannabinoids and their anticipated health benefits in Observer.
Berkeley-based Obviously AI, a no code Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning platform that enables people without technical backgrounds to build and train machine learning models has raised a seed extension that brings the round’s total to $4.7 million. Obviously AI’s niche is mid-market businesses that don’t have a data science team, or have people who know data analytics but are not programmers. Its new seed funding will be used to expand in Asian markets including Japan, where it will partner with client Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), one of the country’s largest printing companies, on its go-to-market strategy.
Read more in TechCrunch.
After receiving approval from the City of Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board (ZAB), Berkeley Commons' project cosponsors Lane Partners and LB2 Partners will begin construction of the buildings on the buildings on the 8.4-acre site, located at 600 Addison St. in September 2021. The project, which "isn’t just going to be state-of-the-art in terms of providing space to important life science research and development, but that is also going to be cutting-edge in terms of eco-friendliness and sustainability" will take about two years to complete.
Learn more about the project in The Daily Californian.
Bakar Labs, the life science startup incubator at UC Berkeley's Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, announced that Agilent has partnered with the incubator as its first Founding Affiliate. Agilent will supply advanced analytical equipment for the core facilities at Bakar Labs to accelerate the research programs of its resident startups, and provide expert technical support and strategic advice to the incubator leadership. Bakar Labs will open its doors to tenants in winter 2021.
Learn more about Bakar Labs, the flagship life science-focused incubator operated by QB3 at UC Berkeley's Bakar BioEnginuity Hub.
Keep in Touch
To submit information or questions about Berkeley Startup Cluster contact: oedmailbox@cityofberkeley.info
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