Participated · Series B · May 2022

Oobli has built a sweet protein platform that produces fermentation-derived proteins (sweet proteins) intended to replace sugar in food and beverage applications. Its core products include proteins such as monellin and brazzein that the company says have no glycemic impact and are climate friendly. Oobli has secured regulatory progress, receiving FDA GRAS "no questions" letters for two sweet proteins and reporting four proteins with self-affirmed FDA GRAS status plus one protein with FDA FEMA GRAS status. The company sells protein-sweetened chocolates and partners with food companies to integrate its proteins both as standalone sweeteners and in combination with other natural sweeteners. Oobli is expanding across food and beverage categories and is collaborating with ingredient partners to scale commercialization. The company is based in Davis, Calif. Joywell Foods is a Devis, CA-based food technology and consumer goods company led by CEO Ali Wing. It uses a proprietary microbial fermentation process to produce nature-identical sweet proteins found in exotic fruits and berries. Over the past 12 months the company has scaled its sweet protein platform across multiple proteins. Joywell is developing consumer products and gearing up for commercial launch. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate R&D and scale up commercialization across its entire sweet protein platform. Joywell raised $25M in the financing. Joywell Foods (previously Miraculex) develops a portfolio of naturally sweet proteins, beginning with miraculin sourced from the miracle berry fruit. Its proprietary technology platform produces proteins using both plants and fermentation. The company is led by CEO Karen Huh and is building a new category of foods based on these naturally sweet proteins. Joywell intends to use new financing to develop its technology platform and processes for commercial scale, broaden its sweet protein portfolio, and expand R&D operations. The article reports the company has raised a total of $13.2M to date.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2021

New Culture uses precision fermentation to produce milk casein proteins (alpha, beta and kappa caseins) by inserting DNA sequences into microbes and harvesting the expressed proteins to make mozzarella. The collected casein is blended with water, plant-based fats, vitamins and minerals to create a cheese that investors say tastes, smells and stretches like milk cheese and is cholesterol- and lactose-free. The company plans to first distribute its mozzarella through pizzerias around the country beginning next year and sees potential to expand into yogurts, ice cream and milk in the future, while keeping the near-term focus on mozzarella. New Culture is a three-year-old, Bay Area-based startup. The fundraising is intended to commercialize its animal-free cheese and scale production. Market context in the article notes the U.S. cheese market was $34.3 billion in 2019 (projected to $45.5 billion by 2027) while vegan cheese was about $1.2 billion in 2019 (projected to $4.4 billion by 2027). New Culture develops animal-free dairy cheese by producing dairy proteins via fermentation and combining them with plant-based fats, sugars and traditional cheese-making processes. Founded in late 2018 and led by CEO Matt Gibson and CSO Inja Radman, the company aims to replicate dairy cheese without animals. It closed a $3.5M seed round to support its next phase. The funds will be used to set up an R&D and fermentation facility and to grow the team. The round was led by Evolv Ventures with participation from Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC and SOSV. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, New Culture is focused on building fermentation capacity to advance its cheese production. New Culture is developing dairy cheese by producing essential dairy proteins (casein) through microbial fermentation, enabling what they call “cow cheese without the cow.” Their first product will be fresh mozzarella, created by combining microbially produced casein with plant-based lipids, sugars and minerals. The team is still in development, recreating complex casein micelles and relying on strong protein-engineering expertise. They expect to launch in select US restaurants in 18–24 months and already maintain a waiting list on their website for early tasters. Target customers are vegetarians, flexitarians and other conscious plant-based consumers, with plans to later pursue mainstream dairy consumers. Financially, the company secured $200K in pre-seed funding from IndioBio, a San Francisco–based science accelerator that specializes in biotech food firms.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2021

Zippin develops a checkout-free platform that uses AI, deep learning and sensor fusion to enable retailers to eliminate checkout lines and self-scanners. Its patent-pending system tracks products and shoppers via overhead cameras and smart shelf sensors to maintain high accuracy even in crowded stores. Led by co-founder and CEO Krishna Motukuri, the company has offices in San Francisco, Dallas, Toronto and India. Zippin recently closed a $30M Series B and has raised more than $45M in total funding. The company says it will use the new capital to scale its platform and power tens of thousands of stores by 2025. In recent months Zippin has signed numerous new accounts and launched multiple public checkout-free stores, further solidifying its retail technology. Zippin builds cashierless checkout systems for physical retail using a combination of computer vision, AI, and sensor fusion technology. Launched in 2015, the company powers four autonomous public stores and several private pilot stores globally and recently opened an autonomous concession stand at Golden 1 Center. Zippin has developed the "Zippin Cube," a modular, pre-fabricated microstore (300–500 sq. ft) that can be deployed in less than three weeks. The company plans to accelerate store launches for grocery and convenience chains, sports facilities, airports, and other venues. Financially, the business has raised a total of $15 million to date following the recent Series A. Proceeds from the Series A will be used to invest in product innovation, grow the technical team, and expand sales and partnership efforts.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2020

Outrider builds autonomous yard operations systems and offers autonomous yard operations as a service to logistics-dependent enterprises, aiming to improve safety and increase efficiency by eliminating hazardous, repetitive manual tasks. The company works with customers across package shipping, retail and eCommerce, consumer packaged goods, and automotive to launch and scale those operations. Product scaling in 2025 is focused on distribution center applications, while the technology is also suited for intermodal rail and port terminals for future freight-transportation use cases. Outrider is led by founder and CEO Andrew Smith and is based in Brighton, CO. The company has raised over $250M in equity capital to date. With the new funding, Outrider plans to scale to hundreds of systems with key customers and address additional use cases while extending its market leadership and protecting its patented innovations. Outrider develops an autonomous system that combines electric yard trucks, operational software, and site infrastructure to move and manage trailers in distribution yards. The system handles hitching and unhitching, connecting and disconnecting trailer brake lines, and monitoring trailer locations; its latest hardware includes robotic arms designed for harsh environments. Outrider has 20 autonomous systems deployed at customer sites and its test facility as it finishes final capabilities and proprietary safety mechanisms. Customers include Georgia Pacific and other partners that have participated in joint testing since 2019, and the company says its customers represent more than 20% of all yard trucks operating in North America. Outrider employs about 175 people and plans to use the new funding to hire in the U.S. and internationally and to transition from testing and validation to commercial operations at scale. Founded in 2017 as Azevtec, the company aims to productize the system and scale to thousands of systems operating on Outrider software over the next few years. Outrider develops a three-part system comprised of an autonomous electric yard truck, site infrastructure, and software to manage yard operations. The system automates trailer movements, hitching/unhitching, connecting/disconnecting brake lines, and trailer location tracking. The company emphasizes dual benefits of electrification and autonomy—reduced maintenance, lower operating costs, and cleaner power. Outrider targets distribution yards, citing about 400,000 such yards in the U.S. as a sizable opportunity. The Golden, Colorado startup has completed multiple pilot programs (including with Georgia‑Pacific) and now employs 110 people. Financially, the company recently raised a $65M Series B, bringing total funding to $118M. Outrider develops an integrated, three-part system for automating distribution yard operations: management software, autonomous zero-emission yard trucks with vision-based robotics, and site infrastructure. The system handles tasks such as moving trailers, hitching/unhitching, connecting/disconnecting brake lines, and monitoring trailer locations, and integrates with existing supply chain software used by large enterprises. Outrider is demonstrating its solution through pilot programs with Georgia-Pacific and four Fortune 200 companies in designated sections of their distribution yards. The company is led by founder and CEO Andrew Smith and is based in Golden, Colo. It has more than 75 employees, including 50 engineers focused solely on distribution yard automation. The article reports the company raised $53M in funding (seed and Series A rounds).

Participated · Series D · Aug 2020

Parsable develops a Connected Worker platform that digitizes industrial front-line, deskless workers by replacing paper-based processes with mobile and laptop workflows. The platform lets workers access individual devices, helping maintain separation and avoid shared computers on factory floors—a capability that increased usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parsable’s customer base is concentrated in essential industries such as consumer packaged goods, food, beverage, agriculture, paper and packaging. Registered users grew 11x year-over-year and deployed sites tripled; the company reports users in more than 100 countries and support for 14 languages. Customers include Georgia-Pacific, Henkel and Shell. The company has 120 employees and plans conservative hiring for essential needs while expanding internationally into Asia, EMEA and Latin America. Parsable has developed a Connected Worker platform to bring digital tools to deskless industrial workers who traditionally relied on paper-based processes. The solution runs on most smartphones and tablets so workers can tap, swipe and enter information while walking around environments where desktops are impractical. The product is intentionally simple and familiar to long-tenured workers while also appealing to younger, more tech-savvy staff; the platform is extensible and already supports smart glasses (about 10% of its business). Parsable positions its offering as a digital guide to capture work, aiming to increase efficiency, reduce safety incidents and improve quality. The company counts 30 enterprise customers (including Ecolab, Schlumberger, Silgan and Shell), 30,000 registered users, and around 80 employees, with plans to reach 100 by the end of Q3. Parsable was founded in 2013 and is using recent funding to continue building its product and scale operations.