UDAX Berkeley Startup Accelerator Launches Cohort 2

Last fall, UC Berkeley’s Center for Digital Assets (CDA) hosted the inaugural cohort of Ripple’s University Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX).

In only six weeks, nine startup teams iterated on their projects, with teams launching on the XRP Ledger Mainnet, onboarding more than $1.5 million in inventory, tripling active users, and increasing tokenized asset volume by $19 million. Across the cohort, startups reported an average 67% increase in product maturity and 92% growth in fundraising confidence. The cohort’s demo day also put founders in front of representatives from 13 venture capital firms.

This fall, it’s happening again.

UDAX, which is a global program run through Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), brings together startup teams innovating on digital assets. According to Ripple, during Cohort 1, “Ripple engineers and UC Berkeley faculty, lecturers, and industry experts worked alongside nine startups to transform ambitious concepts into market-ready solutions” in just six short weeks.

The startups worked on products across tokenized capital markets, decentralized insurance, payments, creator tools, and other applications of digital assets. Ripple described the pilot as a catalyst for “immediate traction,” with several teams recording meaningful improvements during the six-week program.

Accelerating Growth

According to Hugh Harsono, who helps run Ripple’s startup accelerators around the world, UDAX serves as a “bridge between founders having an idea and [bringing] their idea to the market.”

“Founders are really good at building their idea and anticipating challenges in the next 30, 60, 90 days,” Harsono tells me. “Where an accelerator comes in is to push them to think about the 6-month, 1-year, [and] 2-year mark.”

“I think that’s where the biggest value-add from the accelerator is,” Harsono continues. “You can encourage the founder to commercialize what they’re building for a larger market.”

“You’re looking at bridging early stage innovation and commercialization,” Harsono sums up.

To Harsono, Berkeley is the natural place to build that bridge.

Building at Berkeley

According to Harsono, Berkeley’s positioning as a leader in the startup space and its physical proximity to the energy of Silicon Valley is what made it the ideal place to launch UDAX last year.

“Berkeley’s heavy research culture is definitely something that we’re utiliz[ing] to drive that innovation,” Harsono says. “We’ve funded a lot of work throughout different universities, with Berkeley being one of them…and some of those research projects have translated into startup ideas.”

Berkeley’s ecosystem and Ripple’s mentorship came together for the first time last fall as Cohort 1’s startups launched into building products across fintech, climate science, and more with the support of UBRI and UC Berkeley CDA.

“Ripple Engineers act as technical mentors,” Harsono tells me, referencing the product-focused support that is provided to participating teams. “We have the same on the business side.”

Berkeley’s physical proximity to Ripple’s headquarters also shapes the mentorship and support available to teams participating in the program. “With Berkeley’s cohort specifically, it’s so close to [Ripple’s] SF office,” Harsono says. “This year’s demo day is going to be on site at Ripple’s campus, so there’s going to be a lot of interaction for the founders with Ripplers and engineers.”

As for the people that make up the UDAX cohorts, Harsono tells me, “Our founders come from all different walks of life. I’ve had PhD students who were working on a research project and decided to commercialize that research project. On the other hand, we have self-taught founders…[who] found blockchain fascinating and taught themselves how to develop their own product.”

At UDAX, these founders learn the skills they need to build scalable companies.

“With UDAX, [startups] grow and develop, and they scale,” Harsono says. “We really want to see startups grow and succeed after our program.”

Cohort 2 & Beyond

As UDAX returns to Berkeley this fall, with its kickoff beginning September 15, 2026, Harsono is excited about the innovative ideas put forth by this year’s teams. “I’m excited about the new founders that we have,” Harsono says. “We have a lot of awesome projects that are focused in all kinds of industries, from digital assets, to construction, to robotics.” Many of the projects, Harsono says, are based on cutting-edge digital assets research, which makes them especially interesting.

Looking to the future, Harsono tells me, “I have full faith in [Cohort 2’s] startups graduating our program successfully. What I really want to see is their ability to scale post-UDAX participation.”

Harsono encourages anyone with an idea to apply to participate in a future cohort of UDAX Berkeley. “We have a list of requirements on our website that are rolling year to year…but if you don’t necessarily meet all of those, we always encourage people to apply.”