The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Nov 2025

Atlantic Fish Company is a Triangle-based startup leveraging cellular agriculture to cultivate scalable, eco-friendly seafood. Its first product, the Vista Cut, is a cultivated black sea bass filet aimed at easing pressure on overfished wild stocks. Progress in product development has accelerated thanks to a clear regulatory pathway emerging for cultivated proteins. The firm has bolstered R&D with federal SBIR grants from USDA and NSF, plus matching state grants from NC IDEA and the One North Carolina Small Business Program, and a research loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Recent hiring, including senior scientist Dr. Khanh Vien, has strengthened its technology platform. Fresh capital will fund pilot-scale production and customer development with sustainability-minded restaurants and distributors. CEO Doug Grant currently splits time between Washington, D.C. and North Carolina but anticipates relocating as operations expand. Revenue has not been disclosed as the company remains in pre-commercial stages.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2025

uFraction8 develops microfluidics-based filtration systems that use hydrodynamic phenomena to provide a new mechanism of filtration for perfusion processes. Its technology is aimed at helping bio-manufacturers increase productivity with energy-efficient and scalable perfusion systems. The company targets industrial processes that use cell cultures to produce food, biopharmaceuticals and other bio-based products and chemicals. The technology was originally developed at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering. uFraction8 is co-founded by Dr Brian Miller and Dr Monika Tomecka and currently employs seven people across Scotland and Poznan, Poland. The company intends to use recent funding to further commercialise its technology.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

Uncaged Innovations develops an animal-free leather alternative made from plant collagen using its proprietary BioFuze technology combined with roll-to-roll manufacturing. The company aims to mimic the texture and performance of traditional leather while reducing environmental impact: its product emits fewer greenhouse gases and uses less water and energy than conventional leather and is biodegradable. Uncaged focuses on scaling production to supply commercial customers and plans to support a commercial launch with the new funding. The company intends to expand its team, notably growing the manufacturing team to increase output. Founded by CEO Stephanie Downs and CTO Dr. Xiaokun Wang, Uncaged is positioning its solution as a sustainable replacement for animal leather. Uncaged Innovations develops a platform of biomimetic substitutes for animal hides, producing vegan leather alternatives that aim to match the luxury feel and durability of traditional leather. The company has built a formulation library based on composite plant-based proteins and polypeptides, leveraging grain proteins as the fundamental matrix to mimic the fibril structure of collagen. Its bioleather platform offers tunability to produce materials with varied mechanical and aesthetic properties for multiple end-use applications. Led by CEO Stephanie Downs, Uncaged positions its materials as sustainable replacements that mitigate environmentally harmful practices in the leather industry. The startup plans to use the recent funding to launch its vegan leather product. Financially, the company completed a $2M Pre-Seed raise.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

NS/TX Industries (doing business as NEW/SCHOOL FOODS) operates a vertically integrated manufacturing platform built around a proprietary, tuneable scaffolding and texturization technology for meat and seafood analogues. The platform supports production of whole-cut formats (steaks, filets), non whole-cut formats (burgers, strips), and a wide range of species analogues with tuneable texture, flavor delivery systems, and cleaner-label nutrition. The company operates a 28,000 sq. ft. facility in Toronto and launched a V1 commercial assembly line in late 2024, achieving more than a 10x reduction in production costs through extensive trials, equipment upgrades, digital QA, and process breakthroughs. Those developments generated new patents and proprietary equipment designs. NS/TX provides production, R&D, and co-manufacturing services and delivers consumer- and restaurant-facing products via its NEW/SCHOOL FOODS brand. The company has raised over $30 million USD in private and government funding and is now scaling via construction of an automated V2 Assembly Line to increase capacity by over 10x and further lower costs.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2022

Bucha Bio is a Houston, TX-based biomaterials science company developing biobased materials for multiple industries. It is developing two materials, SHORAI—an alternative to animal leather, plastic leather, or other synthetic materials—and HIKARI, a translucent material with processing capabilities that will be formally introduced in November. The company raised $1.1M in Seed funding to accelerate its move to market. Backers include New Climate Ventures, Lifely VC, Beni VC, Prithvi VC, Asymmetry VC, Alwyn Capital, and Chris Zarou. Bucha Bio plans to use the funds to secure co-manufacturers to scale material production and to support construction of a new Houston headquarters. It also plans to enable new form factors, including biofibers, biopackaging, and hard biocomposites, targeting industries such as fashion, automotive, home goods, electronics, and construction. Bucha Bio develops novel biomaterials from fermented bacterial nanocellulose and plants. The company designs next-generation materials with applications in textiles, packaging and hard construction materials. An expansive library of plant-based formulations combined with a proprietary consortium of bacteria underpins its material innovations. Bucha offers a signature luxury biotextile, MIRAI™, inspired by the Japanese word 'future' and the Italian phrase 'look with emphasis', which is available for reservation. Founded in 2019 and a graduate of SOSV's IndieBio program, the New York-based company plans to scale production of MIRAI™. It raised $550K in funding to support that scale-up.