getting a behind-the-scenes look at Berkeley startups

City of Berkeley sent this bulletin at 11/10/2022 09:30 AM PST

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November 2022

BERKELEY STARTUP CLUSTER HIGHLIGHTS

New connections made in Berkeley

It's been great networking in person again at Berkeley Startup Cluster events this fall!

Just last week, more than 60 food & agtech industry professionals gathered at the soon-to-open Prime Roots deli in West Berkeley (875 Potter Street) where they got to try Koji Deli Meats, check out Bay Area companies' food & ag tech innovations, and network over Oktoberfest-themed refreshments. Thanks to Biocom California for bringing everyone together!

And in October, David Riemer, the Berkeley-based author of the Amazon best selling book, Get Your Startup Story Straight: The Definitive Storytelling Framework for Innovators and Entrepreneurs helped dozens of attendees refine their pitches and understand what makes a compelling business story. Thanks to Wareham Development and Activate Berkeley for hosting such an enlightening evening!

Keep on the lookout for future Berkeley Startup Cluster events in this newsletter.

Berkeley High School students see how they can put their STEM skills to work in Berkeley

As part of the Berkeley Startup Cluster's Berkeley Ventures, Berkeley Values programming, dozens of Berkeley High School (BHS) students have had an opportunity this fall to see how their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills will apply in the workplace.

At West Berkeley foodtech startup Novel Farms, 15 BHS students heard from co-founder Nieves Martinez-Marshall about how she went from getting her PhD in molecular biology to launching a startup in Berkeley. A hands-on experiment prepared by co-founder Michelle Lu, CSO, also showed how to make gourmet food in a lab setting.

At UC Berkeley's Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, 30 BHS seniors learned about the history and mission of the beautiful Bakar Labs facilities from UC Berkeley's Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, Professor Rich Lyons. They then had a near-peer networking lunch with UC Berkeley bioscience students and participated in a collaborative neuroscience innovation exercise with Professor Daniela Kaufer.

And, at Meyer Sound (by no means a "startup", but a great example of a Berkeley STEM company that keeps innovating), students enjoyed a factory tour, hands-on sound experiment, and a theater demonstration.

Up next? The students will be visiting the A3 Ventures-backed car sharing company, Gig Car Share on Shattuck Ave just north of campus!

Contact the City of Berkeley Office of Economic Development if your company would like to host a STEM CareerX tour in the future. The STEM CareerX tour series is supported by the Institute for STEM Education at Cal State University.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Free Short Course on Plant-Based Foods

Virtual classes offered November 14, 16, & 21

This free course series offered by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) is intended for anyone that wants to know how the new generation of plant-based foods are made (meat, milk, butter, etc.), and how healthy and sustainable they are (or not). There will be three 2-hour sessions delivered as webinars by zoom.

Register for one or all of the sessions today.

See Fall 2022's best student entrepreneurs at the SCET Collider Cup

Friday, December 9
Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Engineering Center

The Collider Cup is SCET's all-star showcase of the best student teams from the current semester. Come watch the Fall 2022 student entrepreneurs pitch to angel investors and industry experts as they vie to win the grand prize, the Collider Cup!

Register now for SCET Collider Cup XI.

Summer Venture Lab

Summer 2023

Are you a student looking to grow your early-stage startup? SCET Summer Venture Lab is a six-week intensive program for graduate-level students to help them bring their venture projects a step closer to market.

Learn more about how to apply.

RESOURCES & DEADLINES

EDGE in Tech Athena Awards Nominations Open

Nomination deadline: Wednesday, November 14

The EDGE in Tech Athena Awards recognize those who embody, encourage, and promote the inclusion of women and BIPOC in technology. Nominations are open to all candidates regardless of gender, age, institutional affiliation, and country of residence.

Submit a nomination today.

Intro to Lean Startup: Bay Area NSF I-Corps

Application deadline: Friday, November 18

Online course times: December 5, 7, and 12 from 5-8pm PST

For early-stage Berkeley startups, the Bay Area National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps offers a course to help you identify and refine your value proposition and target customers. This immersive training will help you conduct 15 customer interviews to identify your top customer segment, validate your commercial market, and accelerate finding product-market fit.

Apply today.

Bay Area Council Employer Poll: Return to Work

Survey closes: Wednesday, November 23 at 5pm

Take the Return to Work Survey to help the Bay Area Council and regional transit agencies track commute trends and design services that meet commuters’ needs. It should take five minutes or less to complete and one survey participant will be selected to receive a private tour (for up to five members of your team) of the Historic Klamath Ferry, including complimentary beverages on the rooftop deck. Should you wish to enter the raffle for this prize, please fill out the optional contact information at the end of the survey.

Take the Employer Return to Work Survey before Nov. 23.

Apply to the Big Ideas Contest

Pre-proposal deadline: Wednesday, December 7

Big Ideas is an innovation ecosystem that provides training, networks, recognition and funding to interdisciplinary teams of UC Berkeley students who have transformative solutions to real-world problems. The contest offers up to $20k in funding opportunities. Projects must be UC Berkeley student-led, early-stage, and have a clear social impact.

Apply today.

Lab space available at Bonneville Labs in Berkeley

Space is currently available in Bonneville Labs Berkeley (626 Bancroft Way)! Bonneville offers turnkey lab and office solutions for companies of all sizes, without costly set up or construction delays and no long-term commitments required. Download a flyer with the most current availability or, schedule a call to discuss membership!

See current available spaces.

Jobs with Activate Fellows

Thirty-eight Activate cohort companies are now hiring for more than 200 open positions, including many in Berkeley:

Process Engineer, Sonera
Lead UI/UX Engineer, MicroByre
Manufacturing Engineer, Twelve

Activate is also hiring several key positions, including a Chief Executive Officer.

Check out all the open positions here.

BERKELEY INNOVATORS MAKING NEWS

Valitor Announces the Closing of its Series B Financing and Names Steven Lo as CEO

Valitor, a Berkeley biotechnology company engineering better medicines to conquer drug limitations, announced that it has closed its Series B financing and named Steven Lo as chief executive officer and member of the board. Mr. Lo joins Wesley Jackson, president and chief scientific officer (and Berkeley Startup Cluster Advisor), and William (Sandy) White, chief development officer, to provide executive leadership to Valitor.

Read more in SF Business Times.

Ambi Robotics Raises $32M in New Funding

Ambi Robotics, a Berkeley startup developing supply chain automation hardware, recently announced that it raised $32 million in additional funding led by Tiger Global and Bow Capital, with participation from Ahren and logistics firm Pitney Bowes.

Read more in TechCrunch and Silicon Valley Business Journal.

ClimateTech Startup Clarity Makes Headlines

Berkeley startup Clarity's work to make air quality monitoring easier and more cost-effective was featured in a recent Forbes article. Clarity's core technology — the Clarity Node-S — has been re-imagined and re-engineered to vastly expand the capabilities of the company's air quality monitoring solution.

Read more in Forbes.

Berkeley Company Kintsugi earns Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award

Kintsugi, a startup developing voice biomarker technology to detect signs of depression and anxiety from short speech clips, has earned the 2022 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award: North American Vocal Biomarkers for Mental Health Industry - Excellence in Best Practices.

The Batchery Announces the 15th Batch of Founders

The Batchery – the Berkeley-based incubator that has built an entrepreneurial ecosystem for investors and startups from around the world–is excited to announce that 12 early-stage startups have joined its accelerator program.

Read more in Digital Journal.

Activate partners with the National Science Foundation

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a new $20 million investment in Entrepreneurial Fellowships through a multi-year cooperative agreement with Activate. This funding will help make entrepreneurship more accessible for scientists and engineers across the country, expanding Activate's geographic diversity and increasing the participation of women and other communities who have been traditionally underrepresented in STEM.

Read more in Illinois Tech Today.

E-liza Dolls Startup Building Dolls that Help Girls to Code

E-liza Dolls, a Berkeley-based startup, is aiming to challenge the gender gap in STEM by helping young girls learn to code using dolls. The company, which exhibited as part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, builds dolls that include programmable computers that girls can code through an app.

UC Berkeley is No. 1 Public School for Startup Founders

For the fourth straight year, UC Berkeley topped the list as the nation’s best public university for startup founders, and it remains the second-best university among both private and public schools, according to Pitchbook’s 2022 annual rankings of universities released Oct. 31.