Investor profile
Berkeley Xcelerator (Berkeley RDI)
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The Berkeley Xcelerator, operated under UC Berkeley's Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence (RDI), is a completely non-dilutive, free accelerator designed to help founders turn breakthrough ideas into scalable, venture-backable companies at the frontier of AI and Agentic AI. Open to founders globally regardless of UC Berkeley affiliation, it offers unparalleled access to Berkeley's frontier research in Agentic AI, AI Safety & Security, elite mentorship from faculty and top venture investors, cloud/GPU credits from partners such as Google Cloud, OpenAI, and Nebius, and a culminating Demo Day at the Agentic AI Summit. Originally launched in 2019 as the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator—a joint venture of Berkeley Engineering's SCET, the Haas School of Business, and Blockchain at Berkeley—the program has evolved under Berkeley RDI to now focus on AI and Agentic AI startups at the pre-seed and seed stage. Across its history, the Xcelerator has incubated 110+ global teams that have collectively raised $650M+ in follow-on funding, making it one of the most impactful university-based, non-dilutive accelerators in the world.
Notable quotes
“We are excited to be able to reach a stage of maturity that we graduate from SCET and join forces with Berkeley RDI.”
“Berkeley Xcelerator has truly delivered its promise to inspire, empower, and actually help blockchain startups to reach their potentials.”
“Large Language Model Agents is the next frontier.”
Team
Dawn Song
Co-Director, Berkeley RDI
Jocelyn Weber Phipps
Deputy Director, Berkeley RDI; Founding Director, Berkeley Xcelerator
Christine Parlour
Co-Director, Berkeley RDI (Finance, DeFi)
Alpin Yukseloglu
Director, Xcelerator; Strategy Consultant, Blockchain@Berkeley
Alexander Fred-Ojala
Technical Program Manager, Xcelerator; Co-Instructor, Applied Data Science
Ikhlaq Sidhu
Chief Scientist, Xcelerator & SCET
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| AutoAPE | Accelerator/Grant | — | 2024-04-12 |
| Glacier Network | Grant | — | 2024-06-06 |
| AltLayer | Accelerator | — | 2023-01-01 |
| Acala Network | Accelerator | — | 2020-03-01 |
| Finoa | Accelerator | — | 2020-03-01 |
| Nodle | Accelerator | — | 2020-03-01 |
| Stake Technologies (Astar) | Accelerator | — | 2020-03-01 |
| Exabits | Accelerator | — | 2024-01-01 |
| Supra Oracles | Accelerator | — | — |
| AnChain.ai | Accelerator | — | — |
Frequent co-investors
| VC firm | Deals together |
|---|---|
| Polychain Capital | 3 |
| Pantera Capital | 2 |
| Digital Currency Group (DCG) | 2 |
| Hack VC | 2 |
| Protocol Labs | 1 |
| Draper Venture Network | 1 |
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