The Venture Codex

Participated · Series B · May 2026

Panthalassa builds self-propelled, autonomous floating nodes that capture wave energy to generate continuous clean electricity and run AI inference computing onboard, transmitting results to land via low-Earth-orbit satellites. The company has spent about a decade developing its power generation, propulsion, autonomy, and at-sea computing technologies and demonstrated capabilities with Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and Wavehopper prototypes in 2021 and 2024. Panthalassa plans to deploy its Ocean-3 pilot node series in the northern Pacific in 2026 to demonstrate AI inference at sea and to refine manufacturing ahead of commercial deployments in 2027. The platform uses the ocean for free supercooling to extend chip lifetimes and avoids transmitting power to shore by performing computing onboard. The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and recently raised $140 million in a Series B to complete a pilot manufacturing facility and accelerate initial deployments.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2026

Founded in 2023 and based in Reno, Nevada, Positron develops energy-efficient AI inference hardware, including its shipped Atlas inference system. Atlas has already been delivered to customers such as Cloudflare, and the company claims its hardware can deliver more than 3.5x performance per watt versus Nvidia's latest products on certain inference workloads. Positron is developing a next-generation chip called Asimov, targeting tape-out in late 2026 and production in early 2027. The company emphasizes U.S. manufacturing and energy efficiency as core differentiators. Positron has raised roughly $309 million to date, including a $230 million Series B in February 2026 that valued the company above $1 billion. CEO Mitesh Agrawal has led the company since before its seed round.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2025

Aether Biomachines combines purpose-built artificial intelligence with high-throughput robotics to create proteins that function as molecular assemblers for manufacturing and environmental applications. The company’s proprietary Protein Function Model, trained on in-house experimental data, has already generated seven new protein classes capable of extracting rare earth metals, recycling plastics, capturing CO₂, degrading PFAS, and enabling complex pharmaceutical synthesis. Its first commercial materials, RapidPrint and Ultra, are polymer additives that allow 3D-printed parts to be produced up to 10× faster and with 2× the strength of current industry benchmarks, a key advantage for defense and aerospace customers. Aether plans to scale these materials products while expanding its protein-design platform to address additional industrial challenges. The firm positions itself as a catalyst for a new industrial revolution by replacing large, costly chemical plants with nanoscale protein machinery that works more efficiently and sustainably. Total capital raised now stands at $64 million, providing resources to accelerate product commercialization and deepen partnerships across manufacturing, sustainability, and national security sectors.

Led · Series A · Aug 2025

The Better Meat Co. is a Sacramento, Calif.-based maker of plant-based meats that uses fermentation to produce Rhiza mycoprotein ingredients. Rhiza mycoprotein is described as an all-natural, whole-food, complete protein and clean-label ingredient that is shelf-stable, free from common allergens, neutral in taste and color, and delivers a meat-like texture. According to the company, adding Rhiza to meat improves nutrition and mouthfeel while reducing saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and develop new products. Its leadership team includes CEO Paul Shapiro, CFO Nikhil Prashar, EVP of Tech Moran Farhi, and VP of Ops Andrea Choe. The company has raised a total of $43M to date. The Better Meat Co. is a Sacramento-based food tech company that supplies a mycoprotein ingredient called Rhiza to food manufacturers. It transforms microscopic fungi via fermentation into Rhiza and operates as a business-to-business ingredients supplier. The company produces Rhiza at a Sacramento pilot plant that uses a 9,000-liter fermentation system and has completed 100 harvests. The Better Meat Co. reports seed-to-harvest production in just a few hours and significant cost reductions, claiming cost parity with commodity beef. The company recently received a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recognizing Rhiza as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). It plans to use new funding to scale Rhiza production further. Better Meat Co, based in Sacramento, makes white-label plant-based formulations designed to be blended with animal meat to create hybrid products for beef, chicken, crab, fish, pork, and turkey. Its 'meat enhancers' are allergen-free and positioned as cost-competitive with similar animal-derived ingredients. The company sells B2B to food manufacturers seeking to boost sustainability, nutrition credentials, and cost effectiveness of animal-derived products. Customers include Perdue Farms, which used Better Meat Co's formulations in its Perdue Chicken Plus range of nuggets, patties, and tenders. Better Meat Co emphasizes partnership with major meat companies to drive environmental and public health impact. Financially, the startup has raised $8.1 million in a seed round and previously raised $1.6 million in pre-seed financing, bringing total capital raised to just shy of $10 million. Better Meat Co creates proprietary plant-based ingredient blends formulated to mix invisibly into meat products; its first product, Albina 100, combines wheat protein, mushroom, pea fiber and umami extracts. Albina 100 is shelf-stable, described as looking like a packet of croutons, and is specifically formulated for ground pork applications such as sausages, meatballs, chorizo, and dumplings, with future formulations planned for beef, chicken and other meats. The company says a 30% blend of Albina 100 into ground pork maintains similar protein while reducing saturated fat and cholesterol by about 30% each and calories by about 12%. Better Meat Co reports that roughly 80% of consumers in blind taste tests preferred meatballs made with 30% plants. The team emphasizes trade secrets and processes including extrusion as their IP approach rather than patents. The company is targeting foodservice initially while remaining open to CPG partners and aims to be cost-competitive with the meat it replaces.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2025

Mast Reforestation provides post-wildfire reforestation services and is integrating biomass burial (Biomass Carbon Removal & Storage, BiCRS) to generate restorative carbon removal credits. The company is launching its first restorative biomass burial project, Mast Wood Preserve MT1 in central Montana, with burial activities planned for 2025 and expected generation of up to 30,000 tonnes of removal credits through 2026, available for presale. Mast pairs burial with restoration using native species grown from wild-collected seed in-house and manages two large nurseries, Silvaseed and Cal Forest, producing an average of 36 million seedlings annually. The MT1 project is designed as a geotechnically engineered, anoxic chamber protected under a 100-year easement, and Mast has submitted the project for a BeZero rating while pursuing registration and future verification with Puro.earth. Since 2020 Mast has specialized in carbon-financed reforestation across the U.S. and Canada and has restored thousands of acres in California, Montana, and Oregon. The company lists buyers such as Shopify and TIME CO2 and is using recent funding to scale its restorative reforestation and durable carbon removal efforts. DroneSeed’s core product is an automated drone system that delivers engineered seed packets and, when needed, applies treatments to accelerate forest recovery after wildfires. Its drones map terrain, select optimal planting sites, and deploy squirrel-resistant, nutrient-filled seed “pucks,” while collecting granular data for auditing and growth tracking. The company has expanded operational capability through FAA approvals for swarms and beyond-line-of-sight flight, and has grown its team to over 60 employees. To address nursery and seed shortages it acquired Silvaseed, a roughly 150-year-old seed supplier, and committed to expanding that seed-sorting and seedling-growing capacity. DroneSeed now grows millions of seedlings annually and says it is doubling capacity, positioning itself as a vertically integrated, one-stop reforestation provider. Financially, the company is pursuing carbon futures (“ex ante” credits) as a funding mechanism to accelerate projects and provide upfront capital for large-scale restoration. The recent funding round is intended to scale operations, expand nursery capacity, and support its integrated reforestation and carbon-finance model.