Participated · Series A · Nov 2024

Keychain provides an end-to-end, AI-driven manufacturing and product-development platform for the consumer packaged goods sector. Its newest module, Keychain360, integrates product design, sourcing, manufacturing and compliance into one operating system, allowing retailers to cut product development timelines by months and gain real-time visibility across their supplier networks. The company’s technology is already used by eight of the world’s ten largest retailers, plus 7-Eleven, Whole Foods and seven of the top ten CPG brands, touching more than 30,000 manufacturers and 20,000 brands and retailers. A recent deployment with a top-ten retailer enabled the launch of over 100 products while reducing time-to-market by two months. Since founding less than two years ago, Keychain has launched three products (KeychainOS for manufacturers, its core platform, and now Keychain360) and entered the Irish and UK markets. It previously closed a $30 million Series B round and continues to expand aggressively as private-label demand grows. The company is headquartered in New York and aspires to create the next generation of connected product development for global retail.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2023

Smalls is a cat-only fresh pet food brand that makes ultra-high-protein, human-grade fresh meals formulated for feline long-term health. The company positions its products as avoiding carbs, grains, and unnecessary ingredients common in many cat foods. Smalls says its food yields healthier, more energetic cats and has created a community and conversation among cat owners. Founded in 2017, the brand emphasizes cat-specific nutrition after decades of pet brands focusing on dogs. Financially, Smalls had previously raised more than $35 million in funding prior to the latest round. The company plans to expand growth with the support of its new lead investor, including TV-driven customer acquisition. Smalls produces ultra-high-protein, human-grade fresh food and batch-cooked meal plans sold direct-to-consumer with an exclusive focus on feline nutrition. The company positions itself as a cat-first brand addressing what it describes as long-standing underinvestment in cat-specific products. Since launching in 2017 Smalls has generated eight-figure sales and says it has fed more than 100,000 cats. The recent capital infusion will be used to make the brand more accessible as it enters retail for the first time and to increase product offerings. Smalls plans to expand headcount by nearly 25% and highlights a people-first culture, including a fully remote, four-day work week. The company frames the opportunity against a growing pet industry and rising consumer investment in premium pet care. Smalls sells direct-to-consumer cat food, offering fresh human-grade chicken and beef, freeze-dried proteins (chicken, turkey, duck), treats and non-food items like litter and toys. The company launched in 2018 and was started by co-founders Matt Michaelson (CEO) and Calvin Bohn (COO), who began by cooking food in their New York City apartments before moving into Brooklyn Foodworks. Smalls now manufactures its cat food in a facility in Chicago. After taking a quiz on Smalls' website, subscription plans were offered at roughly $3–$4 per cat per day. Management reports "several thousand" active subscribers, up 4x year-over-year. The company says pandemic-driven pet adoption and a shift toward direct-to-consumer purchasing are growth tailwinds, though it has faced some supply-chain challenges.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2022

BeeHero provides a subscription Precision Pollination as a Service (PPaaS) that deploys proprietary in-hive and in-field sensors to collect audio and biological data, analyzed with machine learning to deliver actionable insights to growers and beekeepers. The platform enables growers to optimize crop yields and quality by monitoring pollination effectiveness and offers beekeepers visibility into hive health. BeeHero manages over 200,000 hives across five continents and records 10 million signals daily. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in California with R&D in Tel Aviv and employs about 60 people. Financially, BeeHero has reported revenue growth of over 270% year-over-year for the past three years and surpassed $44 million ARR in 2023; it has attracted $64 million in funding to date and receives grants from the Israel Innovation Authority, EU Horizon 2020, BIRD and others. Future plans cited include premium beekeeper solutions such as insurance and working capital, and bee-pollinated commodities price-risk hedging products based on its data. BeeHero offers a Precision-Pollination-as-a-Service platform that uses advanced data analytics, machine learning, and low-cost IoT sensors to bring transparency and efficiency to commercial crop pollination. The company has built what it describes as the world’s largest bee and pollination dataset to optimize pollination and improve crop yields. BeeHero enables commercial beekeepers to remotely track and monitor apiaries and provides growers with real-time insights to support decision-making. The company reports close to 100 thousand acres of high-value crops currently pollinated with its service and has begun expansion into Australia, Europe, South Africa, and South America. BeeHero plans to integrate new platform tools for an even more accurate, real-time view of crop development and is increasing investment in R&D. To date the company has raised $64M and intends to use new funding to accelerate growth and adoption of its Sustainable Agriculture Ecosystem. BeeHero equips honeybee hives with IoT sensors and analytics to track bee movements and health in near real time, enabling early detection of issues like mite infestations. Its platform aims to increase crop yields and hive health while reducing labor by replacing infrequent manual hive checks. BeeHero works with several top almond growers in California and expects to manage 100,000 hives by year-end, aiming to become the largest pollination provider in the U.S. (it is currently the fourth largest). The company plans to expand beyond almonds and the U.S. into berries, avocados, apples, sunflower, soybeans and greenhouse crops like tomatoes, with Australia and Europe on the roadmap depending on partnerships. BeeHero is building a large bee-activity database and has research partnerships with the World Bee Project and Japan’s Ministry of Culture. Financially, BeeHero recently raised a $15 million Series A and won $4 million in grants to fund scaling and international expansion. BeeHero equips honeybee hives with off-the-shelf sensors (temperature, humidity, sound, accelerometer), pollen traps, and computer vision to monitor colony health and pollination efficiency and surface insights via an online dashboard. The platform provides early warnings for issues like mite infestations and aims to reduce colony collapse by delivering actionable insights (e.g., queen stress, pollination quality) rather than raw data. The company reports testing on nearly 20,000 hives and cites yield improvements of 30–35% in soybeans and 70–100% in apples and cashews in South America, as well as mortality reductions of 20–25% in some cases. BeeHero positions its service as “pollination as a service” for large-scale agriculture and is focused on expanding operations into the U.S., targeting high-adoption precision-agriculture segments such as California almonds. It emphasizes low-cost, robust hardware and ongoing R&D, exploring additional crops, improved metrics, and partnerships with universities to apply hive data in academic studies. The company has completed a $4M seed financing to support expansion and continued product development.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2019

Kite Hill develops almond milk yogurts, Greek yogurts, cream cheese, ricotta, pastas, dips and kids tubes as nut-based alternatives to dairy. The company was co-founded by Patrick Brown, Monte Casino and chef Tal Ronnen and is about nine years old. Its products are sold at retailers including Safeway, Whole Foods and Amazon. Investors have backed the business in multiple financings, and a recent SEC filing indicates additional capital is being raised. The broader plant-based dairy and cheese markets have seen strong growth (plant-based cheese sales rose 41% through August 2018; plant-based milk beverages rose 9% year ending June 2018), which underpins Kite Hill’s category opportunity. Kite Hill competes with other well-funded non-dairy brands like Califia Farms and Ripple Foods and faces strategic pressure and potential partnership opportunities from large food companies expanding their plant-based portfolios. Kite Hill is a producer of chef-inspired plant-based alternatives to traditional dairy products, offering Greek and European style yogurts, cream cheese-style spreads, soft cheeses and ravioli. Its products are sold at thousands of retailers nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger, Target and Publix. The company reports year-over-year growth driven by product quality and rising consumer adoption of plant-based diets. Management plans to use new capital to expand factory capacity and increase production to meet demand. Kite Hill also intends to invest in marketing, product innovation and hiring to fuel continued expansion. Leadership quotes emphasize sustaining rapid expansion and continuing product development to broaden consumer adoption. Kite Hill is a Hayward, Calif.-based company producing plant-based dairy alternatives including artisanal almond-milk cheeses, yogurts, cream cheese-style spreads and fresh ravioli. The company combines patented biochemistry with traditional cheese- and dairy-making techniques to create cultured nut milks using non-GMO almonds sourced from California’s San Joaquin Valley. Its full product line is sold nationwide through Whole Foods Markets. Kite Hill plans to use proceeds from the funding round to expand distribution and increase consumer awareness of the brand and product lines. CEO Matthew Sade and the investors emphasized the company’s focus on great taste, scientific approach and healthier nutritional profiles as drivers for growth.