Our longest-standing UC Berkeley equity ownership program, with more than 35 years of history (first documented in 1991), enables the campus to receive equity ownership and participation rights (in lieu of a portion of cash payments) by licensing its intellectual property to companies and becoming an early shareholder.

Similar to our IP-acquired equity program, UC Berkeley’s non-open-sourced software copyrights represent another form of intellectual property licensing that can result in equity ownership and participation rights.

Equity ownership and participation rights are sourced (in lieu of cash fees) through the mechanism of access to facilities or services (“AFS”), fee for service, or lease agreements. Startup companies in these programs tend to be cohorts in Berkeley’s various incubator / accelerator / foundry programs, are leasing space, labs, or other facilities on campus with preference to retain valuable cash for working capital and provide Berkeley equity instead.

The Open Source Software Startup (“OS3”) agreement is a non-cash framework that governs the commercialization of certain UC Berkeley-developed software distributed under an open source license, enabling startups to obtain defined rights to use, develop, and commercialize the software while ensuring appropriate mission alignment to UC Berkeley. Built in collaboration with our serial entrepreneurs and VC partners, the OS3 is designed to be founder and VC friendly, providing measured equity and participation rights while bringing clarity to the commercial use of open source software.

The Innovation Access Agreement (“IAA”) addresses a common scenario in which VCs request a “clean bill of health” memo for startups that do not use UC licensed technology but were formed within the UC Berkeley ecosystem. As a long standing routine operational document, it incorporates a small founder and VC friendly participation component that does not impede VC or founder activity, yet appropriately positions Berkeley to make a future investment at the same fair value as other investors.

Venture Capital firms can sponsor research at UC Berkeley that may result in new intellectual property. Companies emerging from such sponsored research provide predefined equity ownership and participation rights to both the sponsoring VCs and UC Berkeley.

Similar to the VC Sponsored Research Program, the Corporate Sponsored Research Program enables companies to collaborate with Berkeley researchers on targeted projects. These partnerships provide companies with early access to cutting-edge research and technical expertise. Project agreements can include equity ownership or participation rights for the corporate sponsor and UC Berkeley.

The UC Berkeley Entrepreneur-In-Residence (“EIR”) Program provides seasoned entrepreneurs with the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge Berkeley research, with the potential to become CEO and lead the commercialization of groundbreaking innovations. The program pairs high-value opportunities with experienced entrepreneurs to transform Berkeley discoveries into startups that advance the University’s mission, while UC Berkeley retains significant equity and participation rights in the resulting companies.

UC Berkeley’s ability to accept gifts of private equity across the full private equity lifecycle from company formation and seed stages, to highly de-risked and pre-IPO companies allows the campus to build a diversified long-duration portfolio. Often, such gifts enable the campus, through existing company investor rights agreements, to invest alongside future rounds of financing.

The Participation Rights Program reflects the strong bonds between UC Berkeley, its faculty, and alumni. Through this program, serial faculty and alumni founders, driven by their deep affinity for Berkeley’s mission, create opportunities for the University to invest alongside other investors at fair value. These opportunities can take many forms: designation of UC Berkeley as a major investor in investor rights agreements, side-letters with codified participation rights, granting rights of first offer on unused pro-rata shares, or encouragement to Boards and major shareholders to include UC Berkeley in their allocation decisions. In many ways, this program operates like a close-knit family.

UC Berkeley’s local equity management capabilities extend to other UC campuses that have a formal partnership with UC Berkeley. Through its Venture Capital Services Team, UC Berkeley manages the equity portfolios of partner campuses and is positioned to identify and utilize unused investment capacity in startup financing rounds, allowing UC Berkeley to participate in opportunities originating across the broader UC system.

True to UC Berkeley’s culture of innovation and frontier thinking, we are continually developing new avenues to secure equity ownership and participation rights across our campus and the broader UC system. As these stealth-mode programs launch, we will add them here along with brief summaries.