The CITRIS Foundry hosted a Demo Day on December 9, 2015, to mark the graduation of the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 cohorts of startup companies. More than 130 mentors, partners, and friends gathered in the Banatao Auditorium at UC Berkeley to celebrate the companies’ growth over the past year.
The six graduating teams gave presentations about their accomplishments and experiences as University of California-based startups in the CITRIS Foundry incubation program. After delivering lightning pitches onstage, each company demonstrated their products and services while responding to questions about market strategy, new customers, and job openings.
It’s been an exciting 12 months for this cohort. Here are some of the highlights shared at Winter Demo Day 2015:
- Bash’s mobile app for organizing events with friends was covered by TechCrunch when it debuted, and the company will soon be testing new features that integrate with current messaging services.
- Bioinspira produced a small, low-cost sensor prototype to detect natural gas leaks based on insights from more than 100 industry experts. The company raised over $350K to develop their product evaluation kit for early customers.
- CalWave successfully deployed an ocean-based demo of their wave energy generator in October 2015 and qualified as a top 20 finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wave Energy Prize competition. They are preparing to scale up the size of the prototypes and continue testing in larger tanks and coastal island zones.
- Meeglo completed extensive prototyping and user testing of their handheld biofeedback device to support deep breathing, meditation, and anxiety relief. They are developing a complementary mobile app to prepare for the product launch in summer 2016.
- SimpleWater’s municipal water treatment system is undergoing certification through a small-scale, local pilot installation. The company is also preparing to launch a direct-to-consumer home water treatment product called “DropDrop” in summer 2016.
- WattTime’s cloud-based software for choosing cleaner electricity sources launched this year with several product partners and it now drives the majority of sales for two customers. The team is continuing to scale WattTime across additional Internet of Things (IoT)-based products by working with larger enterprise-scale partners.
Congratulations to our graduating companies from Fall 2014 and Spring 2015!
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The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute drive interdisciplinary innovation for social good with faculty researchers and students from four University of California campuses – Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz – along with public and private partners.
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