Skydeck

Berkeley SkyDeck Fund (skydeck.vc) is a privately held venture capital firm based in Berkeley, California, that serves as the dedicated investment partner of Berkeley SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup accelerator. The accelerator itself was formed as a partnership between the Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and combines accelerator-style consulting with university research resources, a mentorship program of SkyAdvisors, and a network of accredited investors.

The Fund makes a standard investment into each startup selected for the SkyDeck Accelerator cohort — described as $200,000 per startup on the accelerator's overview page and $210,000 on its program and application pages — and can also participate in later-stage rounds involving Berkeley founders. It has the option to invest in Pad-13 incubator teams that raise an institutional round, up to 10% of that round on the same terms as other investors. In a public-private structure, the Fund donates 50% of carried interest, described elsewhere as one-half of fund profits, to UC Berkeley in support of the university's education and research mission.

The Fund is led by founding and general partner Chon Tang, a former founding partner and managing director of quantitative hedge fund Junzi Capital Engineering with degrees from UC Berkeley (BS EECS) and MIT (SM EECS), alongside partner Brian Bordley, a former startup operator who has completed over 300 early-stage investments at the fund. Additional team members include principal Sanjay Velappan and platform associate Grace Clendenin. The firm operates from 2150 Shattuck Ave., PH 1300, Berkeley, California.

Business model

The Fund invests a fixed check into each startup accepted into the SkyDeck Accelerator cohort and may follow on in later rounds with Berkeley-affiliated founders, including pro-rata style participation of up to 10% of an institutional round raised by Pad-13 incubator teams. It is capitalized by outside limited partners including VC firms, individuals and corporations, and shares one-half of fund profits with UC Berkeley.

As a venture fund, returns come from equity stakes in portfolio companies; carried interest is split with UC Berkeley, which receives 50% of carry.

Traction

The Fund reports $85M under management and more than 130 investments made in three years, with 150+ portfolio startups tracked by its platform team. Portfolio highlights include ThinkCyte, Skyloom, Krisp, Chameleon Biosciences, Tatum, SiFive, Prophecy, Ambi Robotics, Kepler Communications, MindsDB, DeepScribe and Coreshell Technologies. The affiliated accelerator reports $2.7B raised by its startups since 2012, 25 Series A/B rounds and 17 exits through acquisitions.

Latest developments

The accelerator is running applications for Batch 23, with applications opening in July 2026 and closing August 21, 2026, interviews from September 8 to October 5, 2026, orientation on November 2, 2026, a program running November 2, 2026 to April 15, 2027, and Demo Day in April 2027. Cohort startups now receive a $210,000 investment from the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund. The fund was also recruiting a platform associate/analyst for its then two-person team.