Participated · Equity · May 2026

P2 Science develops proprietary, nature-inspired chemical processes to produce renewable specialty ingredients with a focus on performance and sustainability at scale. The company has launched beauty ingredients including Citrolatum® P, a 1:1 plant-based petrolatum replacement, and CitroComplex® Nourish, a natural oil blend for skin and hair, and entered a strategic partnership with Algenesis to develop 100% biobased, biodegradable polyurethanes. P2 has been recognized by Fast Company in 2025 and 2026 and was selected for L'Oréal's L'AcceleratOR sustainable innovation accelerator. It recently received $2.8 million in non-dilutive ARPA-E funding to accelerate catalyst innovation via AI-enhanced autonomous labs. The company plans to use its new equity financing to scale commercial production in beauty and expand its platform into adjacent markets such as aroma technologies, performance polymers, home care, coatings, and crop care. P2 was co-founded by Professor Paul Anastas and Dr. Patrick Foley at Yale's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering and is based in Woodbridge, Connecticut.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2023

Gastrograph AI offers a predictive human sensory perception platform powered by the company’s proprietary sensory database and machine‑learning algorithms. The company launched SensoryLink, a web‑based interactive Platform as a Service (PaaS), to let users visualize and act on predictive insights. Its system delivers full‑cycle capabilities from curated data collection via a mobile app to high‑resolution predictions of flavor, aroma, and texture preferences across demographic segments. The platform is aimed at helping food and beverage companies create new products, optimize brands, and enter new markets with targeted flavor profiles. Gastrograph AI positions its insights as actionable, real‑time consumer preference information to speed decision‑making for major CPG firms. The company is described in filings as Analytical Flavor Systems, Inc., and is New York–based. Gastrograph AI provides predictive analytics for food and beverage companies, using machine learning to forecast how consumers will perceive flavors. The company collects data from professional tasters across 600–1,000 variables per tasting covering aroma, flavor and texture to build high-resolution taste profiles. It uses those profiles to recommend product reformulations for different demographics and to guide new product development in target markets. More than 75% of Gastrograph’s customers are outside the U.S., with 50% in Asia, and the company is based in New York City. Gastrograph has a partnership with Cornes Technology that began after Cornes approached the startup in 2015 and the two spent two years developing the relationship. CEO Jason Cohen emphasizes that the firm relies on human tasters and their data as the foundation for its machine-learning models rather than replacing humans with machines. The startup recently closed a $4 million Series A to scale its predictive analytics offerings.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2021

Equinom uses its Manna™ technology platform and a large seed vault to breed higher-quality, non-GMO source crops (including pea and soy) optimized for food applications that require minimal processing. Its optimized crops aim to improve taste, nutrition, and reduce cost and complexity for plant-based foods, enabling food companies to deliver tastier and more affordable alternatives to meat and dairy. Equinom plans to commercialize these plant-protein ingredients through established multinational ingredient suppliers and expand seed development and grain production for ultra-high protein soy and pea varieties. The company also intends to invest in R&D and breeding programs for additional crops including chickpea, fava, mung bean, and cowpea, and to add key personnel. Financially, Equinom announced a $35 million tranche of funding and has raised over $71 million in total to date. The company presented this news from Indianapolis. Equinom develops seeds for plant-based proteins using AI-driven technology, a distinct methodology, and a proprietary genomic database to breed improved traits such as protein amount and functionality, flavor, yield, and field performance. The company begins with exotic and ancient crop types and applies non-GMO breeding methods to reverse years of yield-focused breeding that it says reduced ingredient quality. Its sesame seeds are grown on over 100,000 acres across five continents, and Equinom says it has secured 'millions of dollars in contracts' with market-leading food brands for custom-designed ingredients. Improved seeds for pea, soy, and other legumes are slated to debut in October this year. Equinom has collaborated with Sabra, PepsiCo, and Roquette and positions itself as a 'sophisticated ingredient company' targeting food manufacturers seeking lower-cost, cleaner-label plant-based inputs. The company will use new funding to boost sales and marketing and to expand R&D. Equinom is a Kibbutz Givat Brenner, Israel-based seed-breeding company led by CEO Gil Shalev that builds an ecosystem connecting food companies to the supply chain to improve transparency and responsible sourcing of plant protein. The company develops mechanically harvestable seed varieties and has become a preferred supplier for sesame seeds. Equinom plans to launch a high-protein pea variety in 2021. The firm closed a $10M Series B to support its growth. It intends to use the funds to accelerate global expansion and to build talent and infrastructure. The description and plans are focused on supplying high-value plant-protein ingredients to food companies. Equinom develops proprietary software, algorithms and data‑science methods to identify genomic regions controlling complex, multi‑gene crop traits and to select optimal combinations for cross‑breeding. The company deliberately avoids genetic modification and gene editing, positioning its products for a global clean‑label market. Equinom both builds the technology stack and runs breeding programs, selling seed and collecting royalties as a primary revenue stream. Its first commercialized crop is sesame, bred for mechanical harvestability and higher yield; the company targets capturing 5–10% of the $8 billion sesame market. Equinom is now focusing on legumes, starting with peas, aiming to commercialize varieties with 35%–55% higher protein content and improved protein quality by 2021. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Israel; it is building a gene bank/database to improve discovery across species via machine learning. EQUInom is an Israeli seed‑breeding startup that uses computational breeding technology to create seeds for the global food industry. The company applies genomics, bioinformatics, and phenomics in its proprietary breeding platform. It plans to use the new capital to boost its plant‑protein seed breeding program. The $1.25M round was led by Hazera, a field crops and seed production specialist group. EQUInom has signed with Obela, the joint venture of PepsiCo and Strauss Group, to participate in a breeding program using its proprietary technology. Recent market research cited in the article notes the plant‑protein market totaled $7.7 billion last year and could reach $10 billion by 2020, indicating growing demand for protein‑rich crops. The funding round brings the company’s total financing to $2.25M.

Led · Series B · Dec 2017

ESS Inc. develops and manufactures second-generation iron flow battery systems, including the containerized Energy Warehouse™ (EW) and the battery-in-a-building Energy Center™ (EC). The technology uses earth-abundant iron, salt, and water for a safe, fully recyclable electrolyte and is designed for multi-hour storage (up to 10 hours) with long operating life and unlimited cycling. The company targets time-shifting of renewables, demand‑charge management, ancillary grid services, and transmission‑ and distribution‑level applications. ESS is shipping to customers on four continents and has an order pipeline it intends to serve by scaling manufacturing. To support deployments and project financing, ESS has partnered with Munich Re to offer an insurance-backed warranty. The company highlights a design-build approach for multi‑MW projects and aims to lower levelized cost of storage per kWh. Ess, Inc. develops and manufactures the Energy Warehouse™, an all-iron flow battery for commercial and utility-scale energy storage. The battery is designed to provide 4+ hours of flexible energy capacity and over 20 years of operating life with no capacity fade. Its electrolyte uses iron, salt, and water, positioning the product as an environmentally safe, long-life storage solution. The company plans to expand and automate its manufacturing process to scale production. The new funding is intended to enable a production capacity of 900 MWh per year. Ess was established in 2011 and is based in Portland, Oregon; Craig Evans is the CEO. ESS Inc. develops and commercializes an All-Iron Redox Flow Battery designed for long-duration energy storage (6–12 hours) using earth-abundant iron, salt and water. The company reports the chemistry yields no degradation over 10,000 cycles and supports 20+ year lifetimes, targeting bulk energy shifting from wind and solar and multiple behind- and front-of-meter use cases. ESS moved into a new 23,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Portland, OR and plans initial customer deployments this fall, with a production ramp of its 125kW/1MWh system in 2016. Financially, ESS closed a $3.2M Series A led by Pangaea Ventures and complements roughly $4.5M in development grants from ARPA-e, ONAMI, Oregon Best and others. The Series A proceeds will fund tooling investments for volume production of low-cost battery components and support market development activities. ESS was established in 2011 and is headquartered in Portland, OR.

Participated · Series D · Sep 2016

Heliatek develops and manufactures organic photovoltaic solar films sold as HeliaFilm®. The company is expanding manufacturing capacity with a new roll-to-roll facility on its Dresden site to add one million m² p.a. when fully ramped up. Management plans to install the facility over the next 18 months while continuing a worldwide rollout of HeliaFilm® products to the building-material and automotive industries. The funding announced includes equity, a loan and subsidies that will finance the capacity expansion. Heliatek expects the expansion to create more than 50 new high‑tech jobs in Saxony. The company is led by CEO Thibaud Le Séguillon. Heliatek develops organic solar films produced via a roll-to-roll manufacturing process. The company is supplying prototypes and pilot units to building and construction material companies, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. It focuses on commercializing flexible, lightweight solar-film products for integration into various surfaces. Heliatek completed an €18m Series C and has raised €46m in total to date. The company intends to use the new funds to expand its sales efforts. Heliatek was founded in 2006 and is led by CEO Thibaud Le Séguillon and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer. Heliatek GmbH, based in Dresden, Germany, develops organic solar cells incorporating proprietary tandem technology from so-called "small molecules," organic dyes synthesized from hydrocarbons. Formed in 2006 as a spin-off from the Universities of Dresden and Ulm, the company focuses on efficient, flexible and very lightweight PV modules on a film substrate. The recent financing will be used to build a production facility in Dresden to manufacture those film-based PV modules. The company completed a $27M (€18M) second round of financing led by Wellington Partners with participation from Bosch, RWE Innogy Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, the High-Tech‑Gründerfonds, eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners AG, Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen Startup GmbH & Co. KG and GP Bullhound Sidecar. Prior to this round, Heliatek received seed investments of €500,000 from the High-Tech‑Gründerfonds and €100,000 from Dr. h.c. Harald Eggers. The funding is intended to scale manufacturing capacity for its organic PV modules.