Endless West broke into the reverse‑engineered food and beverage scene in 2018 with Glyph, a commercial “molecular whisky” that won awards. Cofounders Alec Lee and Mardonn Chua, who previously worked at stem‑cell startup Extem, developed the core technology to analyze and recreate beverages at a molecular level. The company sells its own products and operates a research and manufacturing arm called Blank Collective to partner with spirit brands, retailers and manufacturers. Endless West says its approach lets brands cut production costs, substitute more sustainable ingredient sources, and accelerate or replicate aging by infusing wood molecules directly into spirits. With a new $60 million Series C, the company is expanding production capabilities by 10x to 20x to support broader commercial partnerships. The startup frames its work as a form of digital documentation for vintages and flavors, while acknowledging potential risks around recipe copying and market consolidation. Endless West develops original molecular spirits by studying the molecular composition of wines and spirits and extracting key flavor and aroma molecules from plants, fruits and yeasts. Its consumer portfolio includes Glyph (a whiskey-inspired molecular spirit with three expressions), Gemello (a Moscato d’Asti-inspired molecular spirit) and Kazoku (a saké-inspired molecular spirit). The company also operates Blank Collective, a B2B platform that manufactures private-label alcoholic beverages, bulk spirits and alcoholic concentrates and provides branding, product development and manufacturing services. Founded in 2015 by scientists Alec Lee and Mardonn Chua and based in San Francisco, Endless West has raised $33.7M to date. The company intends to use the new financing to accelerate technology development and R&D and to expand U.S. distribution for its products and Blank Collective offerings. Ava Winery builds wines in a laboratory by analyzing the molecular profiles of expensive wines and reconstructing them as bioidentical matches, without grapes, yeast, or fermentation. The team, led by founder Alec Lee and bioengineers in San Francisco, is initially focused on cloning three wine expressions: a Moscato d'Asti, a Dom Pérignon and a newly started Pinot noir. The technical challenge is quantifying concentrations across the 80–200 compounds in a wine and managing synergistic and anti‑synergistic effects to match taste, mouthfeel and appearance. Ava plans to pursue regulatory licensing (the team expects that process to take about six months) and is uncertain whether it will be allowed to label the product as “wine.” The company is considering direct‑to‑consumer sales and is also talking with large distributors and retailers about broader placement. Longer term, the founders see the same synthetic approach applied to other luxury goods such as chocolate and coffee. Ava presented its product publicly at IndieBio SF’s demo day.

Total raised

$84M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Feb 2022