The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) plans to expand their entrepreneurship support program, Skydeck, into Japan. The program aims to support Japanese entrepreneurs and encourage foreign startups to enter the Japanese market.

Skydeck was launched in 2012 and has operated an accelerator program and an incubator. In Japan, Skydeck plans to develop a program based on one of these models, and is in discussions with JETRO for details.

Skydeck invests in startups through its affiliated funds and returns a portion of the proceeds to Berkeley. So far, it has established its first fund ($23 million) and second fund ($60 million), and is considering partnerships with national universities such as the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. Startups produced by Skydeck have raised $1.7 billion in funding over the past decade, and according to Pitchbook, Berkeley is second only to Stanford University as the top university from which startup founders have raised VC funding.

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Source : https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOGN28E1U0Y3A121C2000000/