Berkeley SkyDeck Accelerator - info session (online) & application review (IRL)
Info session about leading global Accelerator - Berkeley SkyDeck & Application review. 🍕 & 🍻
Agenda:
17.00-17.05 - Intro - Matviy Kruglov (former SkyDeck Fund investor, currently scout & AWS Switzerland Founder Experience) - matviykruglov
17.05-17.15 - Program review - Sanjay Velappan (Principal SkyDeck Fund) - sanjayvelappan
17.15 - 17.30 - Alumni experience :
RIIICO (Co-founder/COO) - Jan Büchsenschütz - buechsenschuetz
ENKRYPT AI (Co-founder/CEO) - Sahil Agarwal -sahil-agarwal
17.30 - 17.45 - Q&A
17.45 - 19.00 - Application review (IRL at JFLOOR) with Matviy Kruglov
Food and drinks are provided 🍕 & 🍻 by AWS 😇
P.S. you can tune in using Zoom link
Berkeley SkyDeck, one of the top global accelerators, is accepting applications for its Batch 23 cohort.Backed by an impressive list of Silicon Valley investors, Berkeley SkyDeck is open to startups from around the world. As a UC Berkeley program, SkyDeck offers rich access to university faculty and countless resources, as well as a home base for startups to launch in Silicon Valley. In addition, SkyDeck provides access to an unparalleled network of exceptional advisors and talent. In past cohorts, we've had intimate fireside chats with GPs of some of the world's top funds: Sequoia, a16z, Index, and many, many more.
Startups selected for SkyDeck’s Cohort program will receive a $210,000 investment for 7.25% equity, access to a network of 500+ advisors/mentors, and the opportunity to pitch to a network of investors on Demo Day.
Roughly 20 startups are selected every 6 months to receive a $210,000 investment from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund. Startups from all over the world are eligible and encouraged to apply. Historically, about half of the startups were founded outside the US.
https://skydeck.berkeley.edu
Applications Open July 2026 – August 21, 2026Interviews September 8, 2026 – October 5, 2026
Orientation Monday, November 2, 2026
Start & End Dates November 2, 2026 – April 15, 2027
Cohort Demo Day April, 2027
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RIIICO - a German deep-tech startup that automates the creation of 3D digital twins for factories by using artificial intelligence and computer vision to transform raw LiDAR laser scans into smart, interactive CAD models. Founded in 2021, the company allows manufacturers to visually redesign factory layouts, reconfigure assembly lines, and simulate robotics directly in a web browser, reducing spatial planning time by up to 80%. Their innovative technology attracted a $5 million Seed funding round led by Pi Labs, with heavy-weight backing from Earlybird Venture Capital, the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, and prominent angel investors like Joe Kaeser (former CEO of Siemens). https://riiico.com
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ENKRYPT AI - Enkrypt AI is a Boston-based artificial intelligence security and compliance startup that provides an end-to-end trust layer to protect, govern, and red-team enterprise LLMs and agentic AI workflows. Founded in 2022 by Yale PhDs Sahil Agarwal and Prashanth Harshangi, the platform specializes in implementing real-time guardrails and automated threat detection to prevent hallucinations, jailbreaks, data leakage, and compliance violations. After raising $2.35 million in Seed funding from investors like BoldCap, Berkeley SkyDeck, Kubera VC, Arka VC, Veredas Partners, and Builders Fund, Enkrypt AI achieved a major milestone in August 2026 when it was acquired by Anaconda Inc. to integrate native, trillion-token scale security directly into Anaconda's AI-development suite. https://www.enkryptai.com