UC Berkeley's SkyDeck accelerator has raised its second fund since launching a decade ago.
Fund II has secured at least $60 million, nearly triple the amount of its first fund, and SkyDeck will double the investment amount given to startups that go through its program to $200,000.
The funding comes amid a slight slowdown in the venture capital industry. Concerns about interest rates and tech stock valuations is leading some VCs to be a bit more selective about making investments, and downward valuations are also a topic of conversation again.
Others are also encouraging portfolio companies to more closely watch and control expenses.
"The money is definitely going to tighten up, and we're warning our startups. I would never say it's easy to fundraise, but it's been a little less hard lately with a little bit higher valuations," SkyDeck Executive Director Caroline Winnett said. "So, we're telling our founders it is going to slow down a bit."
Nevertheless, SkyDeck’s new fund was oversubscribed and could actually become larger than $60 million, Winnett told me.
The program’s new Milan hub is also greasing its wheels. SkyDeck announced an extension of its program to the new base in Italy in February and is working toward closing a separate fund for its first cohort of eight to 10 startups.
Startups in the Europe hub will have access to all of the same resources as those in Berkeley’s flagship program, Winnett told me, as well as its own fund and $159,000 investments for startups.
They picked Milan because it has a less mature but growing ecosystem for startups that's ripe for early-stage activity.
"We're gonna help it develop," Winnett said. "There's a number of seed-stage investors and angels that are either in Milan or nearby. Europe is a small place, so folks are willing to pop over from Paris or London or Berlin. So we've been building that network and very pleased with how it's going."
Eventually, Winnett would even like to bring the European cohorts out to Berkeley for a few months, but for now they will have remote access to the programming in the city.
The accelerator is also getting ready to host its first in-person demo day in two years. Its Batch 13 demo day will also be livestreamed.
Expect to see startups working on robotics, health, enterprise software and energy, as well the program's first startup focused on serving the African market.
"We love that, bringing in other markets and Berkeley being a magnet for global talent," Winnett said. There are also a couple of startups tackling mental health. "That's a big trend we've seen. It's interesting, we look at very early-stage founders and very young founders. Students who have just graduated and a lot of them are thinking about startups for mental health."
SkyDeck is run by the Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is private entity that was established to manage the venture capital program from which 50% of all carried interest is returned to the school.
Notable investors have included Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia, and alumni of the program include Lime, Action Face, iDentical, Karuna Labs, Kiwibot, Memora Health and Rubi Laboratories.
