Ripple's UC Berkeley Accelerator Graduates Nine XRP Ledger Startups With 92% Fundraising Boost

Markets 2026-01-17 01:58

Ripple's UC Berkeley Accelerator Graduates Nine XRP Ledger Startups With 92% Fundraising Boost

Ripple announced Thursday results from its inaugural University Digital Asset Xcelerator program, graduating nine startups building applications for the XRP Ledger after a six-week intensive accelerator at UC Berkeley.

The UDAX program ran in fall 2025 as the latest evolution of Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative, partnering with UC Berkeley to bridge early-stage innovation with institutional readiness for XRP Ledger development.

Teams spanning tokenized capital markets, decentralized insurance, and creator economy applications participated in the pilot cohort, culminating in a demo day attended by 13 venture capital firms at Ripple's San Francisco headquarters.

Startup Traction and Metrics

WaveTip, a platform enabling instant tips for Twitch streamers, successfully transitioned to XRP Ledger Mainnet during the program and launched on the Chrome Web Store.

X-Card, which tokenizes physical collectibles into liquid assets, onboarded over $1.5 million in inventory and secured partnerships with merchant communities representing thousands of collectors.

BlockBima, building automated climate-risk microinsurance for vulnerable communities, tripled its active users while refining fundraising narratives under guidance from industry mentors including Andrea Barrica.

Participating teams reported average increases of 67% in product maturity and 92% in fundraising confidence by program conclusion, according to Ripple.

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Capital Markets Applications

CRX Digital Assets leveraged the accelerator to sharpen strategies for exporting Brazilian credit offerings to global markets using Ripple's payments network, increasing tokenized volume from $39 million to $58 million.

Blockroll launched stablecoin-backed virtual cards for African freelancers using RLUSD momentum to streamline remittance settlements from the United States.

"With RLUSD, Blockroll can offer additional institutionally accepted stablecoins that streamline remittance settlements and enable financial access use cases such as stablecoin-backed debit cards that work globally," said Sadiq Isiaka, Blockroll CEO.

Program Structure

The six-week program combined mentorship from Ripple engineers with UC Berkeley faculty expertise, featuring development support, fundraising sessions, and access to XRPL core developers.

Additional cohort highlights include Spout finalizing equity tokenization models, EXFIL doubling active users while forging 50-plus strategic relationships, and Mintara Labs validating crypto-bank insurance strategies while generating revenue.

Ripple indicated applications are now open for future UDAX cohorts targeting mission-driven founders building on the XRP Ledger ecosystem.

Read next: Dash Leads Crypto Market With Triple-Digit Weekly Gains Amid Privacy Rotation

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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