Investing in Scientific Innovation
Blue Bear Ventures (BBV) engages founders working on the frontiers of science and technology with the ambition to solve the most pressing challenges we face in the world today.
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Sustainable Economies |
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Applied Biology |
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Emerging Tech |
Our Philosophy
Founding Team
The most important aspect of our deep tech companies are the founding teams. We’re not investing in just an idea and a single founder – we’re investing in the co-founding team and the early employees that help a company through its growth. For a company to make an impact, it must be surrounded by individuals with the right combination of technical skills and entrepreneurial spirit.
Building Trust
BBV builds strong relationships with companies we invest in based on trust. We are not traditional investors that just look at metrics, but are also confidants who help the founders and team. We advise our companies in all areas from the earliest stages so they can focus on their ultimate goal of bringing their breakthrough technologies to the world.
The Journey
The journey of climbing a mountain is non-linear. Our objective is to guide our companies through the peaks and valleys while helping them making the right choices with conviction. We are not the authorities in directing founders along their path – we leave that to the founders. Instead, we see ourselves as part of the companies team, providing clarity along the way. We are with our companies through their entire journey. Not just the beginning.
Our Portfolio
Our founders are scientists and engineers from the top research institutions in the world. They have founded some of the most promising deep technology startups emerging from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, MIT, and Stanford.
Aether Bio
Engineering enzymes for biological manufacturing using deep learning and high-throughput robotics. Santa Cruz
Aluna
Smart respiratory health management system for patients with asthma and chronic respiratory diseases. UCSF Berkeley
Ayar Labs
Helping companies keep up with skyrocketing volumes of data by miniaturizing fiber optic transceivers. Berkeley MIT
Clarity
Providing high density air quality monitoring solutions for smart cities. Berkeley
Coreshell
Engineering novel, liquid-deposited nanolayer coatings for Lithium Ion Batteries to enable cheaper and faster battery production. Berkeley
Correlia Biosystems
Next-generation high-throughput protein assays for pharmaceutical applications. Berkeley
DNA Lite
Developing oral and non-immunogenic gene therapies delivered to the gastrointestinal tract. Berkeley
EngageLively
Making it easy for everyone to create dynamic, interactive and portable content. Berkeley
GenEdit
Transforming the delivery of gene therapies and enable the next generation of non-viral, gene editing-based therapeutics. Berkeley
ImpriMed
Precision medicine for pet cancer patients by identifying personalized drug combinations. Stanford
mFluidx
Rapid DNA tests for infectious disease diagnostics. Berkeley
New Sun Road
Providing modular smart micro grid management solutions for energy infrastructure in the developing world. Berkeley
Numericcal
Enabling the deployment, optimization and management of Deep Neural Network Models for edge computing. Berkeley MIT
Synkrino Bio
Building new drugs to target inflammation directly from patients using an AI + Immunology discovery engine. UCSF
Unnatural Products
Drug discovery platform accelerating early stage drug discovery of macrocyclic peptide therapeutics. Santa Cruz
Xinampa
Building the largest sustainable energy marketplace in Latin America using IoT and AI enabled data streams. Berkeley
YourChoice Therapeutics
Revolutionizing birth control for women and men by developing hormone free contraceptives. Berkeley
BioAmp Diagnostics
Rapid diagnostics to counteract antibiotic resistance and empower physicians to treat patients with the right antibiotic at the right time. Berkeley
Immulus
Next generation biomanufacture of cell therapies. Harvard
ANA Therapeutics
COVID-19 treatment with niclosamide. Berkeley
Cypris Materials
Delivering the Next Generation of Color. Caltech Colorado State
What Our Founders Say
BBV has been our greatest supporter from the very beginning and we wouldn't be where we are without their incredible support and guidance.
The BBV team continues to act as an amazing sounding board that offers a depth of experience and diverse points of view as we work to address key areas of risk across our business. We would not be here today if it were not for their early mentorship and support.
BBV's ability to truly understand our technology and value proposition and their help in refining our story and business model was invaluable… The fact that I consider the partners my close friends is icing on the cake.
BBV has some of the most industry-savvy technology investors we have worked with. Their insight into the growth path of a young company has been pivotal for us... and their quick understanding of our position has delivered durable signposts as we continue to iterate our strategy over years.
The BBV Team's mentorship and insights were invaluable to Clarity's early-stage growth… (BBV was) willing to work closely with us to overcome our early challenges and provide access to their valuable networks...
BBV’s team is very sincere about wanting the founders to be successful as they continuously try to go above and beyond to help you - I realized this during the Series A (and) I’m very appreciative of that from the team.
There are few VCs that provide solid and patient support to very early stage companies, fewer who do so in the hard sciences - BBV not only does that well but goes beyond and jumps into the adventure with you.
As an inexperienced founder, the advice I received from BBV in my early days was unparalleled… BBV listened, trusted, and (were) honest with the founders.
BBV has been with our company since our inception at Cal. In addition to capital, they've introduced us to advisors to build out our product and have been unconditionally supportive even during tough times. Patrick, Alic and Deepak are excellent people to be working with.
The Team
As a team of investors, entrepreneurs and technologists, we are driven to help entrepreneurs build world-changing companies from their ground-breaking discoveries.
Building on our success from operating the CITRIS Foundry startup accelerator at UC Berkeley since 2013, we’re moved to found BBV because of the incredible technology and talent we have seen in the UC Berkeley community. Through our unique relationship with the University, we’re excited to provide a smoother startup path and expert guidance to deep tech entrepreneurs.
Alic co-founded CITRIS Foundry shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in Mech. Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2012 and has been growing a diverse portfolio of startups that develop technologies ranging from health and therapeutics to novel sensors and AI. He has advised and/or invested in 50+ science and technology startups which have cumulatively raised $500M+ in funding.
Alic Chen
General Partner
Patrick brings 35+ years of technology management and investment experience to BBV. He is currently or has previously served on the boards of YC Research, CITRIS, UC Berkeley College of Eng., Audience (NASDAQ:ADNC) and several venture-backed startups. Patrick previously spent 26 years in CTO and sr. exec positions at HP (NYSE:HPQ), Cadence Design (NASDAQ:CDNS) and multiple computing technology startups.
Patrick Scaglia
Founding Partner
Deepak advises entrepreneurs at the UC Berkeley Haas Business school and is a mentor at various accelerators in Silicon Valley. He has 10 years of venture investing experience across 3 institutional funds. Prior to investing, he was part of 4 medical startups as either an entrepreneur or in management roles, having an exit with Cepheid (NASDAQ:CHPD), a molecular diagnostic company.
Deepak Gupta
Partner
Linda is the Founder of Fife Avenue Partners, a fund administration and CFO outsourcing practice servicing Venture Capital Funds and high net worth individuals. For over 15 years she has served in various roles in the Alternative Investments industry. Linda’s career has spanned roles as an accountant for a multi-billion dollar asset management firm, a fund administration firm and 9 years at BDO and KPMG where she focused solely on Alternative Investment clients. With experiences in fund audits, administration and in back office accounting and operations for fund managers, she has over 15 years of relevant industry experience that she leverages to bring about positive outcomes for clients.
Linda Maduwura
CFO
Irfan was a founding member of the Societe Generale Private Investment Banking launch team, advising sophisticated single-family offices. He has also supported ventures with their business model and capital raising processes in the US, Argentina and Singapore. He volunteers for Unicef with focus on the SDGs advocacy and is a Hatch member of the Founders Factory. He holds a MSc. from King’s College London and has lived in six countries across four continents.
Irfan Vissandjee
Senior AssociateGet in Touch
