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. 🐻

What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will be doing during the week in ten years… I’m exploring the latest AI research coming out of Berkeley and what it might mean for the future of AI (stay tuned for my thoughts here!). In the process, I came across a great article by well-known investor Chris Dixon, where he discusses how the things smart people spend their weekends on are likely to shape the future in a decade.

He wrote this in March 2013. At the time, the tech hobbies gaining momentum included:

• Math-based currencies like Bitcoin

• New software development tools like NoSQL databases

• The Internet of Things

• 3D printing

• Touch-free human/computer interfaces

• "Artisanal" hardware, like the kind you’d find on Kickstarter

How did he do 12 years on?

• ✅ Bitcoin – When he posted, Bitcoin was priced at $34.50. Today, it's at $83,036 (a 2,406x increase).

• ✅ NoSQL databases – Fairly widespread adoption in large enterprises.

• ✅ The Internet of Things – Billions of connected devices.

• ✅ 3D printing – Broad adoption, from dentistry to aerospace and space exploration.

• ✅ Touch-free human/computer interfaces – Vision Pro, Meta Quest, Alexa, etc.

• ✅ "Artisanal" hardware like the kind on Kickstarter – In 2014 (1 year after the article), Palmer Luckey raised $2.5M on Kickstarter for Occulus. Two years later, he sold to Facebook for $2B that is now the Meta Quest.

Pretty incredible—6/6 correct.

So, what are the smartest people you know doing on the weekends?

It looks like Chancellor Rich Lyons (who we know is a big fan of Built By Berkeley) may also have his eye on this, as he’s looking to launch a new VC fund to capture some upside from innovations born on campus.

Summary by the #️⃣ & 💰:

• 7 Berkeley-founded companies funded

• $103M of capital raised from the 3rd March to 8th March

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

Closed Rounds

🔧 Infinite Uptime $35M Series C 🇮🇳 Provides predictive maintenance for factories. 💰 Alteria Capital, Avataar Venture Partners, Berkeley SkyDeck.

🐻 Raunak Bhinge, Founder & Managing Director. PhD Mechanical Engineering. Article

⚡ Equilibrium Energy $28M Series B 🇺🇸 Optimizes energy management. 💰 Breakthrough Energy, Climate Capital, DCVC.

🐻 Ryan Hanley, Founder & CEO. Haas MBA. Article

🎬 OpusClip $20M Series A 🇺🇸 Repurposes videos for social media. 💰 AI Grant, Alpine VC, Alumni Ventures.

🐻 Young Zhao, Co-Founder & CEO. BA EECS. Article

🏭 Aloxy $8M Later Stage 🇧🇪 Develops industrial IoT solutions. 💰 Cronos Group, Dow Venture Capital, Emerson Ventures.

🐻 Jan Coppens, Founder & Chief of Strategy. Haas Entrepreneurship. Article

🤖 Raise Robotics $6M Seed 🇺🇸 Builds robotic equipment for construction. 💰 Berkeley SkyDeck., Cybernetix Ventures, UNION Labs VC.

🐻 Gary Chen, Co-Founder & CEO. BA EECS. Article

🔋 Daqus Energy $6M Seed Round 🇺🇸 Develops energy storage technology. 💰 Activate Global, Morningside Group.

🐻 Mircea Dinca, Founder & Chief Scientific Advisor. PhD Chemistry. Article

🏥 AidRx $0.02M Accelerator 🇨🇦 Develops remote pharmacist software. 💰 500 Global, LAUNCH Accelerator (Berkeley), Techstars.

🐻 Tony Lee, Founder & CEO. Haas MBA.

Built By Berkeley Tracker

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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Built By Berkeley is not affiliated with UC Berkeley, but maybe we will be one day if we get enough subscribers….