Berkeley SkyDeck Presents Batch 11 Startups at Virtual Demo Day on April 7

"It's hard to believe it has been a year since the coronavirus pandemic began and life as we knew it completely changed," said Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck. "Entrepreneurship, in general, is a rollercoaster ride. Add in a pandemic and no one could really predict what was to come. I'm so proud of our startups and the strong businesses they are building while working remotely across the globe. They continue to hustle and are determined to succeed."

Startups that are part of SkyDeck's accelerator program are an elite group. Named by Forbes as one of the top five university accelerators, SkyDeck's acceptance rate for their accelerator is 1.2%.

In just three years, the unique SkyDeck Fund has closed more than 100 investments in startups from 25 countries, with 40 investments last year alone. The Fund invests in every startup that goes through the SkyDeck accelerator program as well as later-stage startups with Berkeley founders. Setting it apart from all other VC funds, the SkyDeck Fund shares half of the management's profits with UC Berkeley to help continue the university's mission of delivering excellence in education.

Most recently, SkyDeck alum Docuvision successfully exited, having been acquired by OneTrust. This is the 15th SkyDeck cohort company to exit through acquisition. During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown period, seven SkyDeck alumni startups successfully raised $32 million.

Each startup receives $105,000 from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, free and discounted services valued at $750,000, and access to 350 top advisors and mentors as they prepare to pitch investors on Demo Day, the second remote pitch event for SkyDeck.

The April 7th Demo Day includes the following startups:

Dcipher Analytics
Dcipher Analytics provides a SaaS-based toolbox for accelerating, automating, and improving the process of turning unstructured text into insights. Through innovation in Natural Language Understanding, we are pursuing the goal of saving competitive intelligence professionals billions of hours of insight work per year collectively while increasing the quality of their output.

EndoCrine Biotherapeutics, Inc.
Born out of years of cutting-edge stem cell research at UCSF, EndoCrine has invented a proprietary and patented revolutionary beta cell/islet organoid platform that enables accelerated drug discovery and significant risk reduction of clinical trial candidates. By harnessing the power of human cellular models, EndoCrine is developing transformational therapies for patients with diabetes.

Frontier Microscopy
Frontier Microscopy is developing an ultra-portable microscopy automation platform for use across every industry. So far, they've applied their technology to accelerate asbestos testing at construction sites, reducing downtime losses and increasing quality of results to better protect people.

Genomelink
Genomelink is a DNA App Store & Biobank where people can upload and store DNA data to access insights, products, and health research. We're transforming the $10 billion genomics market into a SaaS-like high-margin business, becoming a personal health data platform.

Hayden AI
Hayden AI was founded on the belief that by combining mobile sensors with artificial intelligence, we can make traffic flow less dangerous and more efficient and help governments bridge the innovation gap. Led by a team of experts in machine learning, data science, transportation, and government technology, we've developed the world's first autonomous traffic management platform – simultaneously serving citizens and multi-agency missions to help cities become safer and more sustainable.

Hopeful Inc.
Hopeful Inc. is the first B2B2C social "fundtech" solution empowering nonprofits to monetize their social media followers to drive donations by more than 800 percent. Through a proprietary storytelling AI analytics engine, Hopeful allows nonprofits to quickly leverage all major social media channels for fundraising while also connecting millennial donors to the causes they support most.

Humm
Humm is a neurotech company that envisions a world where people can lead more fulfilling lives by navigating and optimizing the vast capabilities of their minds. Our first product, the humm patch, boosts your working memory by gently stimulating the brain's attention and learning center. The patch's novel form factor is more affordable to try and easier to use than similar devices. Humm is currently in closed alpha, has 1,000+ paid preorders and nearly 10,000 signups and purchase interest from the U.S. Air Force and others.

Intento
Intento helps global companies procure and utilize the best-fit cognitive AI services. The Intento AI Hub connects AI models trained on multiple platforms (such as Amazon, Google AutoML or Microsoft Cognitive Services) with many enterprise software systems. Launched in 2017, Intento recently received a U.S. patent for its core platform and works with retail and travel companies.

NuPort Robotics Inc.
NuPort Robotics is an autonomous trucking company focused on middle mile transportation which is generally the distance between two fixed points (e.g., distribution centres to nearby Rail terminals, shipping ports, etc.). NuPort's mission is to automate global supply chains using self-driving trucks, increasing sustainability through the adoption of clean transportation solutions and reducing the cost of operations for clients in retail, logistics, and automotive manufacturing.

Pow Bio
Pow Bio helps turn great ideas into profitable products through its intelligent fermentation services for industrial and synthetic biology. We combine AI-driven optimization and continuous fermentation with advanced control methodology, to quickly optimize the fermentation process and deliver high yields at low costs, helping customers scale up faster and get to market more quickly.

Publica
Publica is Shopify for Digital Content. Publica is on a mission to democratize and decentralize access to content and knowledge by empowering direct relationships between authors and consumers. Publica is a service that enables authors and content creators to have their own custom storefront to share, market, and sell eBooks, audiobooks and any other types of digital content with no intermediaries.

RJH Biosciences
RJH Biosciences is developing innovative therapies to combat deadly blood cancers among others. The RJH therapies rely on the use of highly effective vehicles tailored for delivery of specific nucleic acids to blood cells. The delivery platform developed by RJH creates novel therapies from the conventionally ‘undruggable' targets.

Seashore Networks
Seashore Networks is software-izing the last mile of wireless networks, starting with 4G and 5G. They create a virtualized Radio Access Network with a focus on running multiple carrier signals for indoor, rural, and dense urban areas, as well as for Enterprises looking for private networks. It is working with the largest names in the telecom infrastructure companies. The company also collaborates with a growing ecosystem of partners to support a diverse Open RAN supply chain.

SEMRON
SEMRON is the first company in the world which takes the next logical step in in-memory computing. This is the key for next-gen ai in every single edge device in the next future. Currently the test chip is developed in a collaborating foundry. SEMRON's IP covers semiconductor processes, device architectures as well as circuitry.

Serinus Labs, Inc.
Serinus Labs is developing early-warning sensors for lithium-ion battery safety. Serinus utilizes its proprietary low-power, chip-scale gas sensing technology to sniff out trace amounts of battery vented gases, which provide the earliest indication of failure, prior to catastrophic thermal runaway. Using Serinus' technology in EVs can enable new and improved battery safety monitoring and diagnostics.

The Hurd Co.
The Hurd Co. engineers man-made cellulosic fiber pulp from 100% agricultural waste. Apparel brands use agrilose, which is typically made from trees, to produce viscose/rayon, modal, or lyocell fabric. The Hurd Co.'s zero waste process uses half the water and 350 times less energy than conventional fiber pulp.