Built By Berkeley

Welcome to Built By Berkeley, where we announce all the funding rounds by Berkeley-founded companies. This is a community effort, so please let us know if we missed a company here. 🐻

Wowzers — for the first time since starting, there were zero funding announcements this week. It had to happen eventually. To recap: since launching Built By Berkeley in July 2024, 452 companies have raised $76B.

Never fear the cavalry in on the horizon…Berkeley-founded Databricks is said to be limbering up for a monster round at a $100B+ valuation, and Berkeley-founded OpenAI is in talks for $6B in secondary sales for existing employees… expect Bay Area real estate prices to rise (SF is back!). This is bigger than most IPOs. On the IPO side, it’s exciting to see Netskope (founded by Haas MBA Sanjay Beri) filing with strong metrics. I’d guess this is probably a $7–10B valuation. They’re targeting a $500M raise, which puts the $6B of OpenAI secondary into perspective.

I’m pulling this data, but directionally it feels like Berkeley-founded companies are a meaningful part of 2025’s IPO renaissance I mentioned earlier.

Fundraising

At the seed or pre seed stage, you typically have an idea that you think will change the world. You then go and pitch investors and if all goes well you get a few million USD and a valuation that gives validation to your idea. Magic! Also brutal with lots of nos!

So what makes a good fund raising process at this stage?

Lets call a spade a spade. At this stage you typically don’t have a huge amount to show for your big idea, so how do you persuade someone to invest in you? A lot comes down to how you make them feel. You need the investor to believe in you, your team, and your vision.

 So think about the 6 C’s to be infused across your interactions (your deck, your outreach, and your demeanor!)

• Credibility

  • What have you done in the past that makes investors believe you understand this problem? It could be work experience, personal background or even childhood. It just needs to feel real.

  • This also extends to how long you have worked with / known your co-founder if you have one.

• Cycle Time

  •  How quickly are you iterating, testing, and improving? Speed of execution is critical and also ties back to credibility.

• Creativity

  • Is your idea unique? What do you know about the world that others don’t?

• Conviction

  • Do people believe you’ll run through a brick wall to make this happen? This comes through in your demeanor and pitch delivery.

• Clarity

  • Even if the business is complex, can you explain your model, customers, GTM, and problem you are solving simply and clearly?

• Compounding (Optional, but recommended)

  • Does each product release make the whole platform more valuable. Effectively what are the network effects. At Uber one is more drivers mean shorter wait times. This may not exist on day one, but it’s worth framing if it does. Good overview here. 

The Don Nots

• Over-promise, under-deliver

  • Founders often overstate traction with inflated terms like “LOIs” or “contracted revenue.” in their first slide. When investors dig in, it’s usually far less. Don’t chase the biggest number you can put on a slide, just be honest about where you are. Nothing more deflating seeing a $2M revenue run rate and then digging in and seeing it is zero. Put the traction clearly up front.

• You don’t know what you don’t know

  • At this stage, it’s fine not to have every answer. Be upfront about what you’re testing and what you still need to learn.

• ARR is the most abused word in the English language

  • Everyone wants ARR, but not everyone has it. ARR means Annual Recurring Revenue. Predictable, typically high-margin subscription revenue. Be clear about what revenue you have now, and explain what it could evolve into.

• Data as a network effect

  • Yes, data can be powerful, but no need to claim your 10 early customers will train an LLM into a moat. That’s not credible.

• TAM slides

  • Some investors like them, some don’t. At pre-seed/seed, I think they’re mostly a distraction. Focus on the problem, customer, and wedge instead.

• Too Long / Busy Deck

Other - Outside the Process

• Momentum

  • Nothing drives investor interest like momentum—a hot round, fast progress, strong demand. Show it, but don’t overplay your hand.

• Warm intros

  • A warm intro from someone credible adds instant credibility. If you’re cold outreaching, make it tailored.

• Target-rich environment

  • Don’t waste time pitching investors who never back your space. Focus where the odds for someone to invest in you are highest.

Remember, all advice is wrong and just my views :)

Summary by the #️⃣ & 💰:

• 3 Berkeley-founded companies funded

• $0M of capital raised from the 18th Aug to 24th August

💡 Got any ideas or feedback on how to improve this weekly digest? Just hit reply.

Acquisitions

🤖 Vayu Robotics. Acquisition 🇺🇲Autonomous robotics platform. 💰 Serve Robotics

🐻 Achuta Kadambi, Co‑Founder. EECS Article

Closed Rounds

🎮 Palladio AI. Seed 🇺🇲 Product‑growth AI platform. 💰 Griffin Gaming Partners

🐻 David Purdy, CEO & Co‑Founder. PhD Statistics Article

🛰️ Ursa Space. Growth Round 🇺🇲 Satellite analytics provider. 💰 Sumitomo Corporation 

🐻 Julie Baker, Co‑Founder & COO. EECS Article

🏭 Industrial Mind. Seed 🇺🇲 AI Engineer for your Factory 💰 Antler

🐻 Justin Li, Co-founder & Director of Operations. Haas MBA. Article. 

Our goal is to document the startup ecosystem of Berkeley-founded companies. Please share this newsletter with any Cal Bears in your network so we can crowdsource information about all investment rounds and job opportunities.

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