The second annual Born in California® Presented by U.S. Bank startup demo days hosted by UC Irvine included 41 investment-worthy startups from all ten University of California campuses. Founders pitched to more than 120 investors who are actively seeking deals from university-based startups and several engaged with investors that resulted in follow-on meetings.
Born in California represents a significant milestone for UCI in the process of moving knowledge from campus into the market where it can improve lives. Many UCI startups represented at Born in California were developed from discoveries made in university labs – and not long ago these discoveries felt too new and ambiguous to place in a market or imagine as a viable product.
Errol Arkilic, UCI’s Chief Innovation Officer set a power tone for the event in his opening remarks, “What we are all working on is turning new knowledge into products and services that benefit mankind. There is no higher calling, and we have the pleasure to be here today, where the public and private sectors come together to make it happen.”
U.S. Bank was the presenting sponsor for the second year. “The teams invited here this morning represent the gold standard for innovation and represent an important sign for aspiring students; going to college and being an entrepreneur do not have to be mutually exclusive. Born in California shows the next generation of students that you can go to college and be an entrepreneur” stated Michael Parham, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Business Owner Advisory Services, Southwest Region, U.S. Bank.
The event kicked off with startups exhibiting their products or services to attendees, where investors could casually speak with founders and teams about their products. Founders appreciated the opportunity to visually display their ideas and engage with guests, while further refining their answers and presentation skills. There was a palpable buzz in the room with networking among the investors and special guests.
A huddle started early at the table of UC Davis startup Frinj Coffee, where curious onlookers learned that Frinj brought coffee growing and cultivation to California for the first time through 60 farms and approximately 100,000 trees. Frinj seeks to improve coffee plant genetics which drift and lose quality over time. UC Berkeley startup Loak added an element of fun to the mix with its location-based “gamified” augmented reality platform which offers B2B subscription models complete with premium templates.
“I was impressed by the quality of the teams and program. I was particularly excited by the Loak team out of UC Berkeley and their augmented reality demo. The level of interactivity & engaging presentations from all the companies was top notch. I look forward to joining the next event as well”, remarked Faraz Fatemi, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
On the life science front, PurposeBio, a UCLA startup, was driving home a compelling solution to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and touting a team of rockstar individuals, and UC Irvine startup IVOS Medical featured their exclusive product for faster, safer, cleaner intubation which addresses a long-standing issue that the pandemic highlighted with prevalence.
“Optic issues associated with intubation have occurred throughout my career, the impact of these issues was most pronounced during the pandemic. Patients would present to the hospital with low blood oxygen levels at baseline. During the intubation process, medication is administered to pause breathing. This short period of not breathing would drop the patient’s oxygen to critically low levels if medical professionals did not intubate the lungs rapidly. We decided to act and help solve the “Achilles heel” of video laryngoscopy.” says Gabriel Punsalan, Co-founder & CEO of IVOS Medical.
Demos continued during the welcome reception which provided a social environment for everyone to mix and engage in networking. Entertainment for the evening was representation of UCI invention of a different sort with co-founder and CTO of startup Xidas and former UCI Professor of electrical engineering and computer science, Mark Bachman providing a musical background to the evening.
The next day boasted a vigorous schedule with opening remarks at 8:00am and 41 startup presentations before the 4pm close.
Event sponsor Sunstone Management’s CEO & Managing Partner, John Keisler, spoke about their intention to bring more startups into their portfolio. “We [Sunstone] have about 55 early-stage entrepreneurs in our portfolio that we’ve brought on in the last twelve months that we are excited about. We hope to bring on another ten or so in the next year from events like Born in California where we will use our Sunstone Community Fund to help inspire and support early-stage university-based entrepreneurs.”
In addition to Sunstone, the audience of representatives from the investment community hosted a broad spectrum of members including representatives from Tech Coast Angels, Elevation Ventures, Auctus Capital, Vida Ventures, Vamos Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The tight schedule tested each founders’ pitching skills, and many passed with flying colors; Crystal Nyitray, Ph.D. CEO and Founder of UC San Francisco startup Encellin pitched perfectly while only using one slide and addressed tough questions as if they were part of the script for the day.
Other standouts from the day included UC San Francisco startup DIATIRŌ who presented a breakthrough approach to addressing organ shortage, increasing the longevity of transplanted organs, and improving outcomes; UC Davis startups Digestiva and Optimized Foods. Digestiva is working with a proprietary class of protease enzymes to improve digestive efficiency, and Optimized Foods is tackling food tech with cultivated clavier grown from cells and a Psilocybin scaffold. UCI startup TechImmune featured a surprise appearance and pitch from Allergan Pharmaceuticals Founder and retired CEO, Gavin Herbert who is TechImmune’s board chairman.
While no formal announcements were made at the close of the 2022 event, UCI Beall Applied Innovation remains engaged with investors, startups, and Innovation & Entrepreneur leads from all 10 UC campuses to track and promote any connections made as a result of the Born in California event.
For information on Born in California 2023, please contact Grace Han, Director of Development. For information on UC Irvine startups please contact Matt Hanson, Director, New Ventures.