UC Berkeley has a long legacy of innovations and leaders that have created groundbreaking products, revolutionary companies, and entirely new industries. The university plays a critical role in California’s economy. The campus continues to expand the dynamic ecosystem that fosters research and its translation into real world applications, including incubator and accelerator space on and off campus.

• To date over 237 startup companies have been founded to commercialize IP rights under license from UC Berkeley.
• The university holds the the largest CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing portfolio in the United States with 20 US patents to date.
• Since 2019 the Shared Special User Facility for Innovation & Entrepreneurship program enables early- stage startups to conduct R&D in faculty labs under rigorous oversight. Learn more at ipira.berkeley.edu/ssufie.
• A drug royalty, monetized for $93 million, helps fund biological research facilities, students, faculty recruitment and retention, and new initiatives.
• UC Berkeley is 1 of 5 universities that founded two-thirds of all biotechnology companies in California.

Innovation

UC Berkeley has a long legacy of innovations and leaders that have created groundbreaking products, revolutionary companies, and entirely new industries. The University plays a critical role in California’s economy. Last year the campus continued to expand the dynamic ecosystem that fosters research and its translation into real world applications. As of June 2019, UC Berkeley owned:

*Number does not include more than 100 copyright licenses (such as software licenses).

Developing Entrepreneurial Talent

According to several recent surveys UC Berkeley continues to be a global leader in producing successful entrepreneurs. In 2019, 

 

Pitch Book ranked the top 50 universities that produced VC-backed entrepreneurs on a global basis — and UC Berkeley came in second among all research universities, before Harvard, MIT, Columbia and others.

 

CrunchBase published a survey ranking UC Berkeley among the top five universities from which the most successful company founders in the US had graduated.

Companies Founded by UC Berkeley Faculty and Alumni

Steve Wozniak of Apple, Gordon Moore of Intel and Eric Schmidt of Goggle are among the many UC Berkeley alumni who have founded and run successful corporations. Other prominent companies founded by UC Berkeley affiliates: