UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator Deepens Cross-Campus Collaborations

Since 2018, the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator has supported 337 companies, securing $302 million in funding, creating more than 1,300 jobs and facilitating nine acquisitions, with an impressive 85% success rate.

Claire Marsden is the Venture Accelerator’s program manager of marketing

Activate, the Venture Accelerator’s annual two-month summer incubator program, helps first-time founders validate problem-solution, determine customer segment and competition and test product-market fit. Because Southern California is home to a world-class medical infrastructure, highly skilled engineers and a bustling creator economy, the 2024 summer Activate cohort features 16 healthcare innovation startups and 14 tech-based startups, collectively representing two-thirds of the entire cohort.

The Accelerator continues its strong partnership with UCLA Health, which includes working with UCLA Biodesign Fellows. In recent years, we’ve helped incubate Vonova, AirSolve, Popsy and Dalton Bioanalytics, all founded by leaders driving healthcare innovation. The 2024 Activate program welcomes founders pioneering personalized medicine technology, in-clinic products, mental health support and more — for example, AIRI, U-SNAP and Robert’s App, which gives a non-speaking person greater communication independence.

Drew Hahn (B.A. ’18, ’25) and Cocoon Cao (MSBA ’24) are incubating Carbonsmith, a blockchain-powered marketplace for carbon credits and accounting

The Venture Accelerator is also collaborating with the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering to extend the newly established Break Through Tech AI Program. The program enriches industry-focused training, mentorship and professional readiness in artificial intelligence and machine learning for computer science undergraduates through partnerships with UCLA startups. This initiative is dedicated to increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups in tech, aligning closely with the Accelerator’s mission of inclusion. The 2024 Activate cohort comprises several entrepreneurs developing B2B or B2C technologies, including Neuron, CiviOp, and Real Salary, as well as those focused specifically on sustainable cleantech solutions, like Blaze Power, Carbon Smith and Dragon Energy.

Underscoring UCLA Anderson’s deepening cross-campus collaborations, the Venture Accelerator is a key component in university partnerships. The Accelerator also fully embraces a One Anderson ethos by inviting participation by students and alumni in all the school’s degree programs.

Anderson lecturer Dinesh Moorjani leads an Activate session on product-market fit

The summer 2024 Activate program showcases a diverse cohort of 43 startups that encompass industries such as healthcare, B2B tech, consumer digital, cleantech, real estate, consumer goods, consumer digital and finance. This group consists of 45% current UCLA students (88% at Anderson), 30% UCLA alumni and 25% representing the greater Los Angeles community. Notably, over 70% of founders in Activate identify as underrepresented, aligning with our commitment to diversity and empowerment in the startup ecosystem.

As Venture Accelerator director Trish Halamandaris (’92) says, “UCLA is the No. 1 public university in the U.S. and it is a natural fit for UCLA Anderson to provide the extensive resources founders need to commercialize their intellectual property.”