Two Events. One Mission. Berkeley Is Building.
Last week, the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator hosted two events that sit at the heart of what we are here to do: build deep tech founders, accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough innovations, and invest in the people who will carry this work forward.
We are in a race against time. The geopolitical landscape makes this urgent. The United States must build new innovations faster, train the next generation to create real value in society, and produce the kinds of jobs that secure a better future. At the same time, we know that great innovation can come from anywhere. Technology doesn’t care where it’s born. It will become ubiquitous regardless of origin, but it needs people, ecosystems, and markets to grow.
The US is one of the world’s largest markets and a centerpiece of global innovation. At BGA, we believe the center of gravity for commercializing deep tech is right here in Berkeley. We have the talent, the real estate, and the will. As UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons says, we are change-makers, focused on bringing prosperity to people of all walks of life.
Event One: “From Soil to Scale”
Our first event, co-hosted with the Berkeley Fisher Center for Business Analytics at UC Berkeley and made possible with the support of the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, brought together 14 Ukrainian AgriTech startup founders through the Berkeley chapter of the AGRO AgriTech Accelerator. The program is supported by the U.S. Government through the Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (AGRO) Activity, implemented by Chemonics International and the IT Ukraine Association. Over several intensive days, these founders pitched, pressure-tested their business models, and confronted the realities of entering the US market head-on. The week culminated in “From Soil to Scale,” a founders panel at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business that brought Ukrainian AgriTech face-to-face with Bay Area investors, researchers, and ecosystem players.
Dmytro Kushneruk, Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco, attended and captured the spirit of the moment: even amid ongoing challenges, Ukraine continues to demonstrate resilience, innovation, and global relevance, and supporting Ukrainian companies on the West Coast remains a Consulate priority.
As Kseniya Sydorkina, Chief of Party and Director of the AGRO Program, put it: these founders came in technically strong and left strategically sharper. That gap, between having a solution and being ready for a market, is exactly what BGA exists to close.
Ukrainian AgriTech is not a niche story. It integrates precision farming, AI, satellite monitoring, and drone technology, positioning Ukraine as a global leader not just in food production but in agricultural innovation. We were honored to connect that force to the Berkeley ecosystem.
Event Two: The Berkeley Robotics Innovation Showcase
If the AgTech event represented Berkeley’s role in global innovation, our second event brought that mission home, literally.
More than 100 people gathered at BGA for a multigenerational community showcase that brought Berkeley High School’s robotics clubs face-to-face with investors, researchers, engineers, and civic leaders. The afternoon featured a keynote by Ken Goldberg, the William S. Floyd Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley and one of the world’s leading voices in robotics and AI. In the room alongside him: Scott Nisbett from Berkeley 100, Jeremy Alberga from Bakar BioEngenuity Hub, Liz Redman Cleveland, Eleanor Hollander, and Reuel Cooke from the Berkeley Office of Economic Development, Andrea Bernal from the Berkeley Mayor’s Office, Vice Mayor Igor Tregub and Olga Bolotina, Duffy Ross from the Berkeley Public Schools Fund, Hannah Stuart from UC Berkeley’s Mechanical Engineering Department, Leighton Elliott from NOVA Robotics & AI, and the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership robotics affinity group. ToborLife AI brought a live Unitree R1 humanoid robot to the showcase, giving attendees a visceral sense of where the technology is heading. A special acknowledgment to Wyn Skeels, BUSD Career Technical Education Program Manager, who was instrumental in making this event happen even though he couldn’t be in the room. And a warm thank you to Antoinette and her team at Lunch-In Kitchen for keeping everyone fed with their signature fresh, handmade food.
Berkeley High brought two teams: the varsity squad (Team 5419) and an junior varsity team consisting of all-freshmen (Team 5499). They presented the robots they built and competed with this season, and then did something harder: they presented their work to a room full of professionals, many for the very first time. The students were remarkable. As one of them put it, it was “a space of community. Almost a space of family.” That is exactly what BGA set out to build.
A special thank you to Andres Jimenez Larios of Bay City News for covering the event with care and capturing the spirit of the day so well. Read the full story in SF Gate.
My co-director Nirav Bisarya said it plainly: “The future will be high schoolers who are already familiar with working with their hands and solving problems. That will create different opportunities.” Deep technologies are about building real things. Building real things requires people. That doesn’t just magically appear one day. We have to invest in it, deliberately and consistently.
You Have a Role to Play
This vision extends beyond the loyal, energetic community members who show up and help move this mission forward. It extends to you.
I often say we already have all the technology to solve the world’s problems. What we lack is the political will. We have the money. We have the resources. What we need is to work collaboratively, interdisciplinarily, and across generations, with a shared purpose.
On May 27, 2026, we host our Space Tech event. Our Quantum Hackathon is coming up on May 30, 31. And if you are between 16 and 22, I want to personally invite you to apply to our Summer Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Academy, running in June and July right here in downtown Berkeley, with scholarships available.
We have momentum. Let’s keep it moving forward, together.