Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator: 2023 Cohort Announcement

Cementing itself as the premier university blockchain accelerator in the United States — with 85 alumni teams securing over $450M in follow-on funding — UC Berkeley’s Blockchain Xcelerator is proud to announce its sixth cohort. With 16 teams spread across 4 countries and 4 notable Berkeley-led teams, this cohort shapes up as a cornerstone for infrastructure, consumer and sustainability use cases for the industry with a company even featured during New York Fashion Week!

The program received over 400 applications for 16 available spots, making this selection process the most competitive to date! Please read on for more details and visit our website for more insight on our Xcelerator.

The teams are:

Acurast

Acurast is a real-world data source built with innovation, ingenuity, and integrity. Starting in the Polkadot ecosystem, Acurast transforms the delivery of data with a multi-chain first application ecosystem where communication is easy, effortless, and accessible. Acurast offers a streamlined marketplace with the advantages of trusted execution environments.

AltLayer

AltLayer is a system of highly scalable application-dedicated execution layers that derive security from an underlying L1/L2. It is designed as a modular and pluggable framework for a multi-chain and multi-VM world. At its core, AltLayer is a system of several optimistic rollup-like execution layers called flash layers with a novel innovation that makes them disposable and therefore highly resource-optimized.

Apocene

Also featured during New York Fashion Week, Ap0cene is a global fashion brand focused on tech and sustainability. We are empowering designers through blockchain technology and providing a one-of-a-kind consumer experience.

Campaign Labs

Campaign is a no-code platform for brands to build loyalty apps with NFTs. Built by UC Berkeley alums, Campaign enables brands to build or supplement loyalty programs, driving LTV and long-term retention with customizable rewards.

Cube3

Founded in the backdrop of constant smart contract exploits, Cube Security Inc leverages the power of AI for performing smart contract audits. Cube3 is on a mission to become Web 3’s leading firewall network. The founders come with immense domain expertise having built two successful, industry-defining, firewall companies for web2, and have extensive web3 experience.

Corner Market

Corner Market is a B2B payment solution for small and medium businesses. Based on Polygon and Oasis Network, CornerMarket is a Web3 marketplace that allows merchants to build NFT-based loyalty programs like coupons, memberships, and more while helping consumers save money and earn crypto on daily spending.

Demox Labs

Demox Labs is a team based in the Privacy L1 Aleo blockchain ecosystem building private & autonomous finance for individuals using ZK Chains. Their first offering is the Leo Wallet, which is a privacy-first wallet representing a safe and easy way to interact with the Aleo blockchain, a Blockchain at Berkeley alum-founded company.

FortyTwo Finance

FortyTwo Finance is a team based in the Cosmos ecosystem building Modular DeFi apps. Another company founded by a Berkeley graduated team, its first product is an interchain yield aggregator simplifying the process of earning yield and contributing to the ecosystem.

Hito Inc.

In a departure from software offerings, Hito represents a smartly designed self-custody crypto hardware wallet that has all the safety features for a smooth crypto experience. Hito also offers an app graphic interface to oversee assets related to your keys stored in the Hito Wallet, with multiple supporting integrations offered.

Kryptik Wallet

Kryptik offers a digital wallet that allows you to save, send, and collect with ease. Made in the Ethereum ecosystem by Berkeley-based founders using threshold cryptography, Kryptik allows you to access a world of possibilities across 10+ blockchains from a single app. One secure wallet. One simple interface. One magical future.

Novasama Technologies

Novasama is a team building web3 client applications (mobile and desktop) for the Polkadot & Kusama ecosystems. Their first offering includes Nova Wallet for Polkadot which enables cross-chain transfers within the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems as well as support for staking, governance, NFTs and voting.

Societal Labs

Societal is an EVM-compatible app chain designed for the creation and management of DAOs. Societal serves as a DAO tooling solution where you can organize, govern, and grow on-chain communities. It represents a key social use case for crypto and is based within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Sortium

Sortium is your AI-powered production team, just a prompt away. Tap into our dynamic AI & Web3 platform to craft professional assets in real time using natural language. Generate exceptional content, streamline tokenization, and simulate economics and behavior on the boundless Substrate infrastructure. Sortium is revolutionizing the creation process, rapidly enhancing efficiency and leveling the playing field for all. Experience the industry-standard output you deserve for all your game and virtual productions.

TX Labs Foundation LTD.

TX Labs is a multichain team building products within the crypto ecosystem. Blockless (built by TX Labs) is a customizable execution layer for Web3 and a WASM-based verifiable serverless platform. It also features ZK Verifiable Execution for improved transparency.

Zip Inc

Zip.network is the first chain-agnostic super-app platform connecting dapps and users, built on top of a fully open-sourced framework. Users can aggregate wallets, manage assets and positions, get recommendations and search, pin executable protocols, and immediately use them with one click. Operational burdens like wallet creation, asset bridging & swapping, and contract execution are fully abstracted away. Open-sourced AI-powered metrics are used to attribute contributions and automate the reward distribution process.