Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

Anise Health is a culturally-responsive digital mental health company led by Alice Zhang that focuses on people of color, starting with Asian Americans. The platform incorporates culture and intersectionality into provider training and clinical interventions. It leverages machine learning to match clients to providers and integrates online therapy, coaching, and self-guided resources into personalized treatment plans. Anise also offers group services, including psychoeducational webinars and workshops that address organizations’ DE&I and wellness needs. The company is currently available in New York for Asian-identifying adults. It plans to use the newly raised funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach.

Participated · Series A · Dec 2022

Smoodi makes a robotic "healthy smoothie store-in-a-box" vending machine that blends frozen fruits, vegetables and add-ins like protein; the machine is transparent so customers can watch ingredients move through the blend and see the unit self-clean. Machines retail smoothies priced from $5.99 to $7.99 and the company supplies units and frozen consumables to convenience stores, offices, restaurants and other retailers. Since its commercial market launch in 2021, Smoodi reports revenue growth of 25% monthly and zero churn, and the company forecasts 5x growth for 2023. The team is using new capital to scale nationwide, adding a chief revenue officer, chief operating officer and regional managers while increasing production and consumables capacity. Production capacity is currently 200 units per month and management expects consumables demand to grow 10x in the next six to nine months. Smoodi has a new distribution partnership with Dot Foods to take over equipment distribution, accelerate launches across North America, and address frozen supply-chain challenges; the company also plans new flavors, R&D to automate drink-booster dispensing, and tests in Europe.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2020

Manifold Bio has built the mDesign AI-guided discovery platform, which directly measures thousands to millions of biologic variants inside living systems to generate highly predictive data for drug design. This direct-to-vivo approach enables the rapid creation of tissue-targeted medicines—including antibodies, siRNAs, ASOs, and other biologics—by systematically identifying shuttles that move therapeutic payloads across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The company is already applying its technology to discover next-generation BBB shuttles that leverage multiple receptor portals to transport drugs into the brain. Manifold describes its long-term vision as constructing the world’s first “virtual organism” model, powered by the large-scale in vivo data it collects. Financially, the firm just secured a $55 million upfront payment from Roche, with the possibility of earning more than $2 billion in milestones and tiered royalties, providing significant non-dilutive capital for future growth. Manifold may also co-fund one of the partnered programs in exchange for enhanced royalties and retains freedom to apply its BBB shuttle technology to other internal or partnered initiatives.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2020

Kinnos's core product, Highlight, is a patented, hospital-grade color additive platform that temporarily colors disinfectant wipes and solutions to provide staff with an instantaneous visual cue to improve disinfection quality. Highlight is Star Registered by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council and recognized by the World Health Organization; a peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Infection Prevention found it improved disinfection quality by as much as 70%. Highlight is already in use by hospitals, first responders, and transit agencies around the world and the company positions the product as a way to raise the standard of care for cleanliness and infection prevention. Kinnos was founded in 2015 during the Ebola outbreak and is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. The company announced a $15 million financing to meet growing healthcare industry demand and to scale commercial deployment. It also named healthcare veteran Steve Fanning as CEO to lead rapid growth and commercialization. Kinnos is a New York–based startup that makes colorized disinfectant additives to ensure surfaces are covered. Its core products are Highlight powder, a patented additive dissolved into bulk bleach that colors solutions blue and fades after a few minutes, and Highlight wipes, which impregnate wipes at point of use. The company primarily targets hospitals and healthcare settings and has sold to humanitarian organizations deployed to Liberia, Guinea, Haiti, DR Congo and Uganda, with recent shipments to China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Kinnos is a five-person company founded six years ago and conducts third‑party testing to ensure its additive does not reduce disinfectant potency. The additive lasts about five hours in a bucket of bleach and fades on surfaces in about three minutes. After establishing a foothold in hospitals, the company is considering a consumer offering. Kinnos developed Highlight, a patent-pending additive for disinfectants designed to improve visibility, coverage, and end-user compliance. The product was created in response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa and has been field-tested in Liberia, Guinea, and Haiti. Highlight is used by the Fire Department of New York and Kinnos was a grantee of the USAID Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge. The company has received recognition including the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, Collegiate Inventors Competition, and Columbia Venture Competition, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare. Kinnos is led by CEO Jason Kang. Financially, Kinnos recently closed a $1M seed round led by Georgica Advisors with participation from New York Angels, VentureWell, and other strategic angel investors.