The Venture Codex

Participated · Series B · Sep 2024

Helaina develops human-equivalent bioactive proteins via a precision fermentation platform, commercializing effera™ Human Lactoferrin as its first ingredient. Effera™ is sold to consumer brands and through strategic distribution partners and will appear in products from Kroma Wellness, The Feed, Levelle Nutrition, Healthgevity and via Mitsubishi International Food Ingredients, Inc. The company positions effera™ to support iron homeostasis, metabolism, a balanced immune response and a beneficial microbiome, and clinical and pre-clinical research reportedly shows it is more effective than bovine lactoferrin; a study will soon be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Helaina plans to scale availability of effera™ for women’s health, active nutrition and healthy aging, and is working toward a future launch of infant formula in partnership with formula manufacturers. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in New York City. Helaina develops a human milk‑equivalent infant milk using precision fermentation that programs yeast to produce proteins nearly identical to those in human breast milk. Founded in 2019 by food scientist Laura Katz, the company has produced its first protein and plans to recreate breast milk’s components one at a time. Its product is designed to provide calories and to help build immunity against fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. Helaina plans to scale manufacturing with partners and pursue U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval as it prepares for commercialization. The company intends to use its proteins across clinically proven consumer products to create a new “consumer immunology” category and aims to price products to be accessible. Its latest financing supports capability growth, executive hires and finalizing go‑to‑market plans.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2024

Boostly provides automated SMS marketing and feedback software that uses behavioral-based marketing and gamified texting experiences for restaurants. Its platform aggregates first-party customer data, accelerates SMS subscriber opt-in 5x faster than traditional solutions, and delivers engagement rates 10x higher than standard text marketing. Boostly serves over 1,200 restaurant locations across the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2017 by restaurant-tech veterans Shane and Mikey Murphy and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, the company emphasizes intuitive design, transparent reporting, revenue attribution, and white-glove customer service. It recently raised $22 million in growth capital to fuel innovation and expansion, coming six months after a $5.6 million Seed round. The company plans to use the capital to further product development and expand its market footprint while helping restaurants unlock the value of their first-party data. Boostly provides an automated marketing platform for restaurants that builds a CRM from online and offline customer sources and uses SMS marketing to drive orders and revenue. The platform integrates with a restaurant’s existing technology to gather customer data and deliver targeted messages, claiming engagement rates roughly 10x greater than traditional SMS systems. Boostly says it has enabled thousands of restaurants across North America and has facilitated over $50 million in restaurant sales since inception. The company highlights customer outcomes, including a cited pizzeria reporting over $20,000 in additional monthly sales and double- to triple-digit growth versus the prior year in early months after adoption. Founded by repeat entrepreneurs Shane and Mikey Murphy, Boostly emphasizes ease of use and ROI for restaurant owners. With new funding, the company plans to expand its team, enhance the platform, and increase market presence.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2023

Science On Call is a Chicago, IL–based provider of an AI-powered help desk that offers 24/7/365 tech support for restaurants. Led by CEO Andy Freivogel, the company fields a dedicated team of restaurant technologists whom customers can text, call, or email to resolve issues across point of sale, internet, Wi‑Fi, online ordering, email and phone systems. Its team leverages a proprietary database of technology resolutions compiled from hundreds of restaurants to solve common tech problems in minutes. Customers include Gregorys Coffee, Go Get Em Tiger Coffee, &pizza, and Primanti Bros, which use the service to ease staff burden and reduce internal IT spending. The company intends to use the funds to expand product offerings and enhance its go-to-market strategy. The recent $2.6M seed financing is intended to support those plans.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2022

HourWork is a Boston, MA-based SaaS recruitment and retention platform that helps quick-service restaurant (QSR) franchise owners manage applicant flow and improve employee retention. The platform is used by more than 5,000 QSR franchisees and the company added 4,000 franchise locations in 2021, bringing its footprint to over 6,000 locations. Customers include franchisees of major multi-unit operators across McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Domino’s, Wendy’s, and others; HourWork has also begun expanding beyond QSR with wins like Sodexo. The company was founded by CEO Rahkeem Morris and COO Rob Snyder. HourWork plans to use the new funding to scale its customer success, sales, and marketing teams. Carla Harris joined HourWork’s board as an observer. HourWork is a Boston, MA-based provider of a SaaS recruitment and retention platform focused on hiring and retaining hourly workers. The platform is used by more than 5,000 quick-service restaurant franchises across the United States. Franchisee customers include large multi-unit operators across brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Domino's, Wendy’s and White Castle. Founded by CEO Rahkeem Morris and COO Rob Snyder, the company targets understaffed hourly labor markets with recruitment and retention solutions. HourWork plans to scale customer success, sales, and marketing teams and execute planned product development initiatives. The company raised new capital to fund that growth and product roadmap.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2022

Meez is a recipe management app that lets chefs and foodservice teams digitally manage and execute recipe workflows — from creation and costing to organization and training. Founded in 2020 by CEO Josh Sharkey, the company serves fine dining and fast-casual restaurants, culinary schools, ghost kitchens and catering companies. It has grown from around 750 customers at seed to roughly 1,200 kitchens worldwide, with tens of thousands of active users and 41 employees. Meez says it nearly tripled revenue since the beginning of the year and offers a free plan plus two paid tiers for kitchen teams starting at $49 per month. The company plans to deploy new funding into product and engineering, marketing and new premium features that let chefs assess recipe-driven profitability and adjust menus based on sales, demand and margin data. Longer-term product work includes a baker-focused component for ingredient percentages and an effort to create a universal recipe language for storing, creating, organizing and sharing recipes. Meez offers a collaboration-focused recipe keeper and culinary operating system that centralizes recipes, training, prep workflows and operational resources in one platform. The product handles recipe ingestion and scalability, and includes ingredient yields, unit conversion, a menu cost calculator, automated allergen tagging and nutrition analysis. Launched in 2020, Meez describes itself as a “Google Drive for chefs” and serves a mix of restaurants and culinary schools. Its customer roster includes major restaurateurs like Jose Andres and Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the Institute of Culinary Education. The company grew from 20 paying customers in December 2020 to more than 750 today, and reported revenue growth of roughly 22% month over month. Meez plans to use new capital to build an iOS app, advance technology (menu planning and self-onboarding automation), test direct-to-consumer recipe engagement, attract new restaurant customers and expand its team (currently 17 employees, with plans to add about 10).