IPIRA Startups

IPIRA Startups

Kuro Labs Inc.

Brief Description

Kuro Labs measures more of the world than ever before, with instrumentation in mobile devices, laptops, desktops, datacenters, vehicles, and even our own bodies. Kuro Labs developed Normal, a battery diagnosis service that suggests personalized actions that can be taken to extend the battery life.

Inventors Eemil Lagerspetz, Adam Oliner, Anand Padmanabha Iyer, Sasu Tarkoma Company Founders Adam Oliner (UC Berkeley postdoc), Jacob Leverich Timeline 2013. Company founded 2014. Acquired by Splunk!

Knit Health Technologies

Brief Description

Applying artificial intelligence to clinical decision making in healthcare.

Inventors

Jonas Raphael Knecht, Maya Petersen, Jonathan Kolstad

Company Founders

UC Berkeley Professor of Business Jon Kolstad, UC Berkeley Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Computational Precision Health Maya Petersen and Jonas Knecht (UC Berkeley PhD 2025, Computational Precision Health, Econometrics)

Timeline 2025. Company founded

ReRx Therapeutics

Brief Description

ReRx is developing novel oral small molecule therapeutics to treat patients with severe metabolic diseases including obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and liver diseases. The company's therapeutics target metabolic pathways involved in regulating energy homeostasis and improve treatment outcomes compared to similar pharmacological agents.

Obesity and its associated metabolic diseases remain leading causes of preventable illness and mortality worldwide. Current front-line treatments, notably injectable incretin analogs that suppress appetite and reduce food...

Spiral Devices LLC

Brief Description

Spiral Devices LLC is a biotechnology company committed to developing and commercializing technologies that improve the in vivo delivery of biological molecules for studying and treating disease. The company's BioDriver particle bombardment device delivers biolactive molecules into cells.

The company was co-founded by Kenneth Greenberg, to commercialize technology he invented as a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in MCB Neurobiology, where he developed gene therapies for neurological diseases using chemogenetics,...

Resvita Biosciences

Brief Description

Resvita Biosciences seeks to restore and maintain the vitality of the skin by properly considering the skin microbiome as part of the human body. A harmless skin probiotic will continuously deliver the therapy that a body would to maintain skin health.

Through synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, the company's goal is to develop a safe and versatile skin microbial platform that can address the causes of skin aging and disease. Resvita Biosciences has a unique patented approach, a rich product pipeline, clear regulatory advantages, and an experienced...

Calyx

Brief Description

Calyx is a materials science company that harnesses biology to provide low cost and highly accurate sensors for real-time detection and analysis of air chemicals in a variety of industries, including safety, healthcare, transportation, and food. The company offers commercial customers phage-based sensing and analysis of multiple gasses.

Company co-founders Ray Chiu and Benson Fan developed the company’s founding technology as a capstone project while they were students in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Masters in Bioengineering program. With the encouragement of UC Berkeley...

Colusa Software

Brief Description

Colusa commercialized software for developers to produce memory-protected high-performance internet components in popular programming languages. The company provided a cross-language virtual machine that provided secure execution within systems such as databases and operating systems.

Microsoft Corporation acquired Colusa Software Inc. in 1996. Co-inventor, co-founder, and CEO Robert Wahbe became an executive at Microsoft after Colusa's acquisition.

Inventors

Steven Lucco, Robert Wahbe

Company Founders

Robert Wahbe (UC Berkeley PhD, computer science,...

Ekso Bionics

Brief Description

Since 2005, Ekso Bionics has used exoskeleton technology to enhance natural abilities and improve quality of life. The exoskeleton industry leader, offering technologies that help those with paralysis to stand up and walk, enhancing worker capabilities globally, and providing research for the advancement of R&D projects intended to benefit U.S. defense capabilities.

Formerly known as Berkeley Bionics and Berkeley Exotech.

Inventors

Russdon Angold, Andrew Chu, Nathan Harding, Homayoon Kazerooni, Jean-Louis Racine, Adam Zoss

Company...

AsparaGlue

Brief Description

AsparaGlue has developed a superglue-like medical adhesive for external wound closure and internal tissue adhesion. The proprietary technology is the world’s only biocompatible and biodegradable medical superglue.

Inventors

Philip Messersmith, Subhajit Pal, Ji Soo Shin, Kelsey Gray DeFrates

Company Founders

UC Berkeley Professor Phillip Messersmith (Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering and Materials Science & Engineering) and Subhajit Pal (postdoc, 2022-present, Messersmith Lab)

Timeline 2023. Company founded; joins Berkeley Skydeck...

MaxiVio Inc.

Brief Description

MaxiVio, Inc. is building next‑generation light engines by uniting novel quantum materials with electron and photon structures in a highly integratable form. The foundational photonic solution for AI ecosystems offers a new class of light engines that merge quantum materials with advanced electron–photon engineering in an ultra‑integratable platform. This breakthrough unlocks AI‑driven wearables, creates seamless interfaces between the physical and digital worlds, and cuts the energy footprint of data‑intensive hyperscale computing.

Inventors

Peidong Yang, Maria...