The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · May 2026

Calori is focused on answering what a person needs to eat to be the healthiest version of themselves by combining personal data, scientific insights and real-world behavior. The company intends to build infrastructure that enables precision nutrition rather than guesswork. In early 2026 Calori raised a €1M pre-seed round led by Wave Ventures, with participation from Karaoke Club, Joyance Partners, Korpun Siemen Oy, angel investors from ŌURA, Wolt and AMD Silo AI, plus growth funding from Nordea. The funding is earmarked to continue product and infrastructure development. The announcement did not disclose revenue, user metrics, prior funding rounds or company valuation.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2025

Lucky Energy produces better-for-you energy drinks that contain only five ingredients, feature maca and beta-alanine for focus and endurance, and deliver 0 sugar, 0 calories and no artificial additives. The company’s products have gained strong consumer traction, highlighted by the viral sell-out of its Black Label line sold exclusively online. Lucky Energy is now stocked in more than 15,000 retail locations nationwide and plans to enter Walmart, Sheetz and Cumberland Farms in December. Sales are on track to double year-over-year, underscoring the brand’s momentum within the $100 billion energy-drink market. To accelerate growth, the firm has assembled a seasoned leadership team that now includes former Red Bull North America CEO Dan Ginsberg and new board members from Paine Schwartz Partners. Lucky Energy markets primarily through its website, TikTok Shops and Amazon while expanding brick-and-mortar distribution. The company positions itself as a modern energy-drink powerhouse for athletes, creators and everyday achievers seeking clean, functional beverages.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

NOMU ENTERPRISE’s core product is the NOMU POD, billed by the company as the world’s first reusable-cup drink machine. Paired with a mobile app, the system lets users mix and match over 150 ingredients—tea, coffee, fruit and more—to create more than one million customizable beverages, which are prepared automatically within minutes. The app features an AI bartender named “NOMU-chan” that recommends drinks based on mood or health preferences and allows users to browse popular community recipes. Drinks are served in a stainless-steel reusable cup called “NOMU TASO,” and the platform visualizes plastic waste reductions while a proprietary ecosystem for sustainability is under patent application. A year-long pilot installation has begun inside Yokohama City Hall, conducted in partnership with the city government. Looking ahead, the company plans to expand machine deployments domestically and overseas, enhance its AI-driven drink platform, and open a branded “NOMU Experience Store.” To fund these initiatives, NOMU ENTERPRISE has raised a cumulative ¥750 million across pre-seed and seed rounds.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2025

Founded in 2023 by Stanford-trained, board-certified dermatologist Dr. James Kilgour, KilgourMD develops clinically grounded scalp treatment and prevention serums and recently launched a shampoo and conditioner. The brand centers on treating scalp aging as a root cause of hair thinning and offers a proprietary two-step scalp serum system whose trial showed 95% of participants had decreased shedding within six weeks and clinically meaningful regrowth by four months. KilgourMD reported profitability in 2025 and sells a bottle of scalp serum every 20 seconds, with more than one-third of customers recommending the products to others. Products are currently sold exclusively at kilgourmd.com. The company plans to expand its active ingredient pipeline, create new formulations, and run additional clinical trials focused on underserved populations.

Participated · Series B · May 2025

Epicore Biosystems develops sweat-sensing wearables and cloud analytics that provide real-time, personalized hydration and health insights. The company was spun out of Northwestern University’s Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and the John Rogers Laboratory and is led by CEO Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari. Its clinically validated biowearable solutions and cloud analytics are deployed globally and licensed by Fortune 1000 companies, the Department of Defense, and the National Institute of Health. Epicore raised an additional $6M in Series B funding, bringing the total Series B to $32M after an initial $26M tranche led by the Steele Foundation for Hope. The company intends to use the funds to expand its Connected Hydration solution into industrial markets in Australia, the Middle East and Asia, scale real-time cloud analytics with personalized hydration guidance, and validate new biomarkers for kidney health and stress management. Backers in the new tranche included Alumni Ventures and Joyance Partners. Epicore Biosystems is a Cambridge, MA–based digital health company that builds advanced sweat-sensing wearables and a connected cloud analytics platform. Its product suite includes the Gx Sweat Patch (commercialized with PepsiCo and Gatorade), the Discovery Patch® Sweat Collection System (an FDA Class I device), and the Connected Hydration wearable and cloud platform tailored for industrial workers. The company’s clinically validated biowearable solutions and analytics are deployed globally and licensed by Fortune 500 companies, the Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health. Led by CEO Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari, Epicore was spun out of Northwestern University’s Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and the John Rogers Laboratory. The company raised $26M in a Series B and intends to use the funds to drive global adoption of its personalized hydration and cloud analytics platform. Epicore plans to expand into new biomarker targets relevant to kidney health, women’s health, malnutrition, and environmental toxin exposures. Epicore Biosystems develops clinically validated biowearable products and cloud analytics that deliver real-time personalized insights for hydration, stress and wellness. Its flagship Connected Hydration solution comprises a flexible wearable patch, a mobile application and a cloud analytics engine. The wearable patch has an extended battery life of over 1,000 hours and never requires charging. Epicore’s products and analytics are deployed globally and are licensed by Fortune 500 companies, the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. Led by CEO Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari, the company says it will use new funding to expand access to personalized hydration insights by scaling Connected Hydration across Japan and Asia. The company is based in Cambridge, MA.