frc team 299: valkyrie robotics

What frc team 299: valkyrie robotics does

Valkyrie Robotics is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community robotics organization that runs FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 299 out of Cupertino, California, serving approximately 70 students in grades 8–12 alongside 20 adult volunteers per year. The organization was founded in 2016 when roughly 37 members broke away from the Monta Vista Robotics Team (MVRT) to form an independent, all-inclusive program that accepts students from any school, race, gender, or financial background in the Bay Area. Beyond its core FRC team, Valkyrie operates three sub-programs: Valkyrie Advance (a summer engineering bootcamp for grades 6–8), VEX RoboNinjas team #22999 (grades 6–8), and Project Backpack (a school-supplies initiative for Puerto Rican students affected by Hurricane Maria and COVID-19, founded 2018).

The team develops custom open-source software supporting its competitive robotics work, including Interchange (a networking library for routing data between FRC control system objects and offboard processors, available on GitHub), Controve (a Bazel-based cross-compilation framework targeting RoboRIO, ARM, and NVIDIA Tegra X1 platforms), and a vision-tracking proof-of-concept built on OpenCV with Gaussian blur, HSV color thresholding, contour extraction, and NVIDIA Jetson TK1 hardware acceleration. Technical mentorship comes from industry professionals with backgrounds at Google, Apple, Intel, and Uber.

Valkyrie's funding model relies on four streams: corporate sponsorships structured as tiered donations from $50 (Family) to $5,000+ (Valhalla) with progressive branding benefits, student membership fees of $195 per member, individual donations, and grants. The organization reports $1.5M in cumulative funding raised across all programs, operates from a workshop space donated by K.T. Urban in San Jose, and reaches an estimated 20M+ audience through community outreach events including Maker Faires and FLL demonstrations.

Name

frc team 299: valkyrie robotics

Legal name

Valkyrie Robotics

Website

https://valkyrierobotics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Valkyrie Robotics is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community FRC robotics team based in Cupertino, California, serving 70+ Bay Area students in grades 8–12 annually, supported by industry mentors from Google, Apple, Intel, and Uber.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

STEM Education Services

NAICS

Technical and Trade Schools (6115), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Engineering Services (8711), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Competition Robotics Teams & Coaching (FLL/FTC/FRC, VEX) (EDAMADAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Robotics, Engineering & Makers Camps (EDAMALAE), Robotics Learning Platforms (EDAFANAB), Robotics After-School & Enrichment Clubs (EDAMADAA), Robot Software, Autonomy Stacks & Simulation (ROS, digital twins) (HDAAAIAK)

Keywords

• STEM education programs
• Robotics competition teams
• Engineering education services
• Youth robotics training
• Nonprofit educational programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Cupertino

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate sponsorships at multiple tier levels ranging from $50 to $5000+. Benefits include logo placement on robot, banner, t-shirt, website, team announcements at competitions, and opportunities for workshops or company events.
2. Membership Fees: Students pay a membership fee to join the team. Originally projected at $195 per member with approximately 40 total members (30 from MVRT + 10 rookies).
3. General Donations: Individual donations from community members, families, and supporters to support materials, tools, space, and travel expenses.
4. Grant Funding: Funding raised through grants from various organizations. Team has helped raise $1.5M in funding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Valkyrie Robotics is a community-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that runs an all-inclusive competitive robotics and STEM education program for Bay Area students in grades 8-12. The team builds competitive robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) and offers supplementary programs including a summer engineering bootcamp (Valkyrie Advance), a middle-school VEX robotics team (RoboNinjas), and charitable initiatives such as Project Backpack. Activities are delivered through workshops, mentoring, and hands-on engineering projects supported by industry mentors from companies such as Google, Apple, Intel, and Uber.

Product overview

Valkyrie Robotics is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit engineering-education organization offering a portfolio of competitive and educational robotics programs. The core offering is FRC Team 299, an all-inclusive community robotics program for grades 8-12 with over 70 students. Supporting programs include Valkyrie Advance (summer engineering bootcamp for grades 6-8), VEX RoboNinjas team, Project Backpack charitable initiative, and COVID-19 response efforts. The team also develops custom software tools including Interchange (a networking library for FRC control systems) and Controve (a robot code framework built with Bazel). Technical projects include Vision Tracking systems using computer vision and NVIDIA Jetson TK1 for autonomous targeting. The organization operates from Silicon Valley with a focus on diversity, real-world skills, and STEM education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Valkyrie Advance: Summer engineering bootcamp for grades 6-8 held in Cupertino, California. Students learn programming, mechanical engineering, and design skills over a week-long program.
• Project Backpack
• RoboNinjas

Products and services

• Valkyrie Robotics FRC Team 299 All-inclusive community robotics program for students in grades 8-12 involving more than 70 students and 20 adult volunteers each year. Participants build robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition, learn engineering, programming, and mechanical design, and gain leadership experience supported by industry mentors from Google, Apple, Intel, and Uber.
• Valkyrie Advance Week-long summer engineering bootcamp in Cupertino for middle-school students (grades 6-8) teaching programming, mechanical engineering, and design skills, with team-based challenges at the end of the program.
• RoboNinjas (VEX EDR #22999) VEX EDR competitive robotics team (#22999) serving middle-school students in grades 6-8, providing competitive robotics experience intended to prepare participants for high-school FRC programs.
• Project Backpack Charitable initiative connecting local donors and sponsors with schools in Puerto Rico to deliver school supplies to underserved students in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and COVID-19.
• COVID-19 PPE Production Support Bay Area COVID-19 response effort in which student volunteers in grades 9-10 used 3D printing tools and materials to produce personal protective equipment components for distribution across the region.

Quantifiable outcome

• $1.5M in funding raised for students and programs
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• K.T. UrbancoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017K.T. Urban donated workshop space to Valkyrie Robotics, allowing the team to move into a new workshop in the last few days before the 2017 Bag and Tag deadline. This partnership enabled the team to have dedicated operational space for building and testing their robot.
• Team 254: The Cheesy PoofsminorOthers · 1 January 2017Team 254 hosted Valkyrie at Chezy Champs off-season competition in September 2017. Team 254 are winners of the 2017 St. Louis Championship (World Champions).
• Team 1323: Madtown RoboticsminorOthers · 1 January 2017Team 1323 hosts Madtown Throwdown off-season competition, which Valkyrie planned to attend. The event allows teams to register multiple robots with separate drive teams and pit spaces.
• Western Region Robotics Forum (WRRF)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017WRRF collaborates with Valkyrie for Bay Area Maker Faire demonstrations and team members attend WRRF Summer Workshops for continued learning. WRRF coordinates regional FRC activities and workshops.
• Team 100: The WildhatsminorOthers · 1 January 2017Team 100 co-coordinated the FIRST Robotics panel at Bay Area Maker Faire where Valkyrie demonstrated their robot.
• Team 2643: Dark MatterminorOthers · 1 January 2017Team 2643 co-coordinated the FIRST Robotics panel at Bay Area Maker Faire where Valkyrie demonstrated their robot.
• Star Kids AcademycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerValkyrie Robotics partnered with Star Kids Academy, which offers state-of-the-art robotics classes for Elementary through Middle School students in the South Bay Area. Star Kids provides education in multiple robotics hardware and software platforms, incorporating NGSS standards through STEM learning taught by instructors following ISTE teaching standards. Valkyrie refers students to this program and collaborates on STEM outreach.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology): Governing body of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FLL, and FTC in which Valkyrie competes. It is not a direct competitor but the closest enabling infrastructure provider, defining the competition rules, structure, and ecosystem around which Valkyrie's entire program is built.

Direct peers

• REC Foundation (VEX Robotics): Runs the VEX Robotics competition platform (VEX IQ, VEX EDR, VEX U), the main alternative youth robotics competition to FRC. Valkyrie itself operates a VEX EDR team (RoboNinjas #22999), making the REC Foundation the closest directly comparable organization in the youth robotics competition space.
• Star Kids Academy: Bay Area robotics education provider offering classes for elementary through middle school students on multiple robotics platforms. A direct operational partner of Valkyrie and a closely comparable community robotics education provider in the same South Bay geography.
• Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy: Provides K-12 and post-secondary robotics curriculum, teacher training, and competition programs. Highly comparable to Valkyrie in mission and in combining competitive robotics with hands-on STEM skill building, though at much greater institutional scale.
• FRC Team 254 (Cheesy Poofs): Bellarmine College Preparatory's championship-winning FRC team in San Jose, California. Operates a community-based FRC program with strong industry mentorship, representing the upper bound of what a Bay Area FRC nonprofit can achieve and the most directly comparable peer in mission and geography.
• FRC Team 1678 (Citrus Circuits): Davis, California-based FRC team, multiple-time World Champion and known for technical excellence. Closely comparable as a California community FRC program and a high-performance benchmark for what an FRC nonprofit can deliver technically.
• KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (Botball): Runs the Botball autonomous robotics competition for middle and high school students. Closely comparable to Valkyrie in combining competitive robotics with hands-on STEM skill development and computer-vision-style programming challenges.
• BEST Robotics: Middle and high school robotics competition with a strong industry-mentorship model focused on workforce-relevant skill building. Comparable to Valkyrie in combining competition with applied engineering, though it serves a different geographic footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Project Lead the Way: Large national nonprofit providing STEM and computer science curriculum to K-12 schools. Overlaps with Valkyrie on STEM education and workforce-development outcomes but operates at much greater scale and delivers classroom-based rather than competition-based programming.
• Code.org: Major nonprofit promoting computer science education in K-12. Adjacent to Valkyrie's programming-focused curriculum (C++, Python, computer vision) but with national scope and classroom-based delivery rather than team-competition-based.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/valkyrierobotics
• Facebookfacebook.com/valkyrierobotics

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about frc team 299: valkyrie robotics