Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF)
VC Fund
San Francisco, United States
Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) is a VC fund in San Francisco focused on Biotechnology and Health Care. The Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) provides benefits to entrepreneurial startups and helps foster the vibrant startup ecosystem around the UC systems located in the San Francisco Bay Area. BCF invests primarily in Seed and Series A stage private companies.
- Total investments:
- 43
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 26%
- Last fund:
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) invests in
BiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalTherapeuticsMedical Device
Stages Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) invests in
Series ASeedSeries BPre-SeedSeries C
Countries Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) invests in
United StatesIreland
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Drew Lanza
|
|||
4 more contacts available
Investment Focus
Industry
- Biotechnology 18 (42%)
- Health Care 14 (33%)
- Medical 8 (19%)
- Therapeutics 5 (12%)
- Medical Device 5 (12%)
Stage
- Series A 14 (33%)
- Seed 11 (26%)
- Series B 7 (16%)
- Pre-Seed 2 (5%)
- Series C 2 (5%)
Country
- United States 31 (72%)
- Ireland 1 (2%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Drew Lanza
Founding Partner
|
Founding Partner | Total investments: 8 | Find email |
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
WaHa
|
WaHa has developed an innovative solid desiccant regeneration engine called the WaHa Vaporator®, which aims to revolutionize air conditioning technology. This patented system offers significant improvements in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions for cooling, dehumidification, and atmospheric water generation applications.Key featuresof the WaHa Vaporator® include:- A novel approach to regenerating solid desiccants for air dehumidification - Independent control of dew point and dry bulb temperatures - Pure water generation, enabling direct evaporative cooling - Compatibility with ultra-low global warming potential refrigerants - Up to 90% reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional systems - Comparable size and weight to existing AC solutions and can be installed by current trades peopleThe WaHa Vaporator® is designed to be a versatile solution for air conditioning in any climate zones. It can also be used for cost-effective and energy efficient atmospheric water harvesting in any climate zone – including arid and cold climates. When compared to alternative technologies, it offers superior reliability and the lowest cost of ownership.WaHa was founded in 2018 to commercialize novel desiccant materials and technologies developed at UC Berkeley over two decades. The company has received seed funding from several sources, including UC Berkeley, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, Mitsui-Kinzoku, TAQNIA, and strategic angel investors. | $8M / Series A / Jul 10, 2025 | |
Arima Genomics
|
Arima Genomics is a biotechnology company that aims to accelerate the understanding of genome sequence and structure. | $22M / Series C / Jun 17, 2025 | |
SOBEREYE INC
|
SOBEREYE Inc. is a Menlo Park, California-based science and technology company that develops objective workforce alertness assessment technology for industrial safety applications. The company's platform, OPTOVERA, measures a worker's neurological alertness state before the start of safety-critical tasks using a 60-second smartphone-basedeye scan — no wearable device required. The core technology measures the Pupillary Light Reflex (PLR), the eye's neurological response speed to a light stimulus. PLR velocity and amplitude are direct biomarkers of autonomic nervous system function and degrade measurably with fatigue, sleep deprivation, and other conditions that affect cognitive performance. The PLR measurement continuously calibrates a biomathematical fatigue prediction model, enabling the system to assess each worker's individual alertness state rather than relying on group-level schedule assumptions. The result is a personalized, physiologically grounded fitness-for-duty assessment that is tamper-resistant and non-invasive. The OPTOVERA platform consists of five integrated modules: Scan (PLR measurement via smartphone camera), Predict (biomathematical fatigue model calibrated by measured PLR data), Checklist (configurable pre-shift operational checklist), Analytics (fleet- and site-level alertness dashboards for safety managers), and Connect (API and integration layer for HRMS, dispatch, and operational systems). SOBEREYE Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and pivoted to workplace safety in late 2017. The company launched its first minimum viable product in March 2018 and received its first purchase order in June 2018. Commercial activity was paused from 2020 to 2022 due to COVID. The OPTOVERA brand was introduced in 2024. ISO 27001 certification was achieved in 2024. The PLR measurement methodology was validated in a peer-reviewed study presented at ICIAP 2017 (International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing), conducted in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II across 30 subjects, and published by Springer. OPTOVERA is deployed across industrial verticals where worker fatigue represents a material safety risk, including mining, transportation, logistics and warehousing, construction, and aviation. The platform is sold on a business-to-business basis and is designed to integrate into existing pre-shift gate workflows without disrupting operations. The company operates two web presences: optovera.com (product platform and demand generation) and sobereye.com (corporate identity). Localized platform content is available in English, Latin American Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese. | $100K / Pre-Seed / May 28, 2024 | |
Osteoboost
|
Bone Health Technologies specializes in developing medical devices designed for low bone mass. Its solution is a gentle mechanical stimulation that mimics weight-bearing exercise, providing an effective non-drug intervention. It offers the OsteoBoost device that relies on safe, natural, and effective whole-body vibration technology usingvibrational energy to turn stem cells into the bone using the same mechanisms as physical exercise. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $5M / Mar 04, 2024 | |
Zeda
|
PrinterPrezz is driven by a mission to bring more ideas for innovative medical devices to market faster, connecting medicine and manufacturing to become the first Medifacturing™ company in the world. By developing advanced medical devices using processes that combine expertise in 3D printing, orthopedics, and semiconductor technology. | $16M / Debt Financing / Mar 07, 2023 | |
|
Zeda
|
PrinterPrezz is driven by a mission to bring more ideas for innovative medical devices to market faster, connecting medicine and manufacturing to become the first Medifacturing™ company in the world. By developing advanced medical devices using processes that combine expertise in 3D printing, orthopedics, and semiconductor technology. | $52M / Series B / Mar 07, 2023 | |
Telesair
|
Telesair is a medical device company in stealth mode that is developing breakthrough respiratory care solutions to move patients from the hospital to home sooner. Their solutions elevate the existing standard of care by enhancing outcomes for patients and the health system. | $22M / Series A / Jan 10, 2023 | |
Valitor
|
Valitor, Inc. has developed novel methods of modifying therapeutic proteins to achieve substantial control over their pharmacokinetics, target specificity and bioactivity. Their technology platform can be broadly applied to improve the pharmacological properties of many protein drugs that are currently approved or under development. They currentlyhave three development pipelines in the fields of dermatology, ophthalmology, and orthopedics that highlight the capabilities of their novel drug products. | $28M / Series B / Oct 05, 2022 | |
Vicinitas Therapeutics
|
Vicinitas Therapeutics is a biotech startup that specializes in developing medicines that impact patient lives. Its vision is to use its proprietary Deubiquitinase Targeting Chimera (DUBTAC) platform to restore the levels of aberrantly degraded proteins that cause disease to confer therapeutic benefit. | $65M / Series A / Jul 28, 2022 | |
Applaud Medical
|
Applaud Medical, Inc. was established to develop and commercialize an innovative new treatment for kidney stones, a condition diagnosed in more than 2 million individuals every year in the U.S. alone. Treating large stones currently requires anesthesia in an operating room . The current least invasive surgical intervention only renders 50% ofpatients stone-free. Applaud’s innovative kidney stone treatment will - for the first time - allow urologists to effectively treat 5-15 millimeter stones with a simple outpatient procedure. | $5.7M / Venture - Series Unknown / Jul 27, 2022 | |
| See all 43 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
Boutique Venture Partners
6 deals together
Photon Fund
6 deals together
SOSV
5 deals together
Agilent Technologies
4 deals together
DOV Management
4 deals together
Sand Hill Angels
4 deals together
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FAQ
What does Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) invest in?
Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) invests primarily in Biotechnology, Health Care and Medical startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 43 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF)?
Public channels for Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
Who are the partners at Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF)?
The team at Berkeley Catalyst Fund (BCF) includes Drew Lanza (Founding Partner). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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