The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Feb 2025

Hidden Level builds passive radar and RF direction‑finding technology to detect and precisely locate drones (including dark drones), aircraft, balloons and their operators, delivering real‑time, actionable airspace awareness. The company offers vertically integrated, scalable solutions delivered as hardware or data‑as‑a‑service and emphasizes privacy compliance under Title 18. Its sensors are designed for cost, mobility, performance and broad spectrum coverage and are used in high‑security scenarios such as presidential inaugurations. Hidden Level has active contracts and deployments with federal customers including NASA, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and multiple Combatant Commands. The company plans to use new capital to expand manufacturing, hire across the organization, and grow internationally following successful deployments with over a dozen customers. Hidden Level was founded in 2018 and is based in Syracuse, N.Y. Hidden Level is a sensor-technology company focused on Tactical Passive Radar for Counter Unmanned Air Systems (UAS). The company was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense for APFIT pilot-program funding to transition its technology from development into production. The APFIT award is intended to accelerate fielding of Hidden Level’s capability to the U.S. Army. Hidden Level describes itself as a pre-Series B business and received USD10 million in DoD funding as part of the award. The company was one of only 11 firms awarded APFIT funding by the DoD in 2023. The award is positioned to help deliver capability a year or two earlier than scheduled while supporting the U.S. industrial base through investment in small businesses and nontraditional defense-developed capabilities. Hidden Level builds passive sensing systems that use next-generation radio frequency (RF) sensing technology to provide multi-domain situational awareness and support counter-UAS missions. Its sensors detect and track low-altitude airborne threats using adaptive RF signal detection techniques to increase airspace awareness and inform countermeasure opportunities. The company positions its technology for both tactical and strategic support to Department of Defense missions and for dual-use applications. Leadership says the firm will work with Booz Allen to support DOD missions and provide critical insights for soldiers on the ground. The company’s technology emphasis is on improving decision advantage for warfighters in high-interference environments. No financial metrics for Hidden Level are disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2024

Pathos AI is a Chicago-based clinical-stage biotechnology company using artificial intelligence to re-engineer drug development and advance precision oncology therapeutics. The company applies a causal AI framework that analyzes changes in gene expression associated with overall survival and regulated by a drug's mechanism. Its AI models are fueled by one of the largest multimodal real-world datasets, including patient outcomes, DNA sequencing and RNA sequencing data. Led by CEO Ryan Fukushima, Pathos is using its platform to acquire additional clinical-stage opportunities with phase I results showing a safe and tolerable profile. The company intends to use the latest funds to expand its team of scientists and engineers, accelerate development of its AI-powered drug development platform, and advance its clinical-stage pipeline. This financing and valuation update reflects the company's capital position, bringing total funding to $102M after the Series C.

Participated · Series C · May 2024

Meati Foods produces whole‑cut meat alternatives—cutlets and steaks—made from mycelium, which the company says is non‑GMO and derived from nature. The company has rapidly expanded retail distribution to nearly 7,000 U.S. stores in just over a year, adding 2,000 locations and planning entry into Kroger family stores by April, with placements at Super Target, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Meijer and Wegmans. Production is centered on a 100,000‑square‑foot “Mega Ranch” facility that is fully operational and capable of producing at a rate of tens of millions of pounds annually, with an estimated full capacity of about 45 million pounds per year. Meati has funneled much of its investment into scaling that facility to support continuing rapid growth. Leadership has shifted recently: co‑founder Tyler Huggins stepped down as CEO to transition into an innovation/advisory role, and former CFO Phil Graves is now CEO. The company also reduced headcount by about 13% amid these changes. Meati Foods manufactures whole-food protein using the structural fibers of mushrooms (mycelium) and sells under its Eat Meati product line. Its Mega Ranch is a 100,000-square-foot facility in Colorado that grows, harvests and processes mycelium under one roof. The site is expected to produce an annual rate of tens of millions of pounds by late 2023 and more than 45 million pounds when fully ramped. Current SKUs include Classic Cutlet, Crispy Cutlet, Classic Steak and Carne Asada Steak, sold through retail and foodservice partners such as Sprouts Farmers Market, Sweetgreen and Birdcall, plus direct online drops. Meati says its pipeline is largely pre-sold and plans to be in 7,000 doors by year-end; management projects tens of millions in revenue this year and hundreds of millions in 2024, targeting a $1 billion run rate by 2025. The company is also scouting a larger "Giga Ranch" flagship facility to scale production into the hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Meati produces whole-cut meat alternatives made from mycelium (mushroom root) sold under the Eat Meati brand. Its products are ~95% mushroom root and contain up to 17 grams of protein, 12 grams of dietary fiber, plus zinc and vitamin B12. The company has moved from mostly online sales to a retail debut in restaurants across Colorado and Arizona and reports multiple months of record online sellouts. Headcount has grown from about 30 employees in 2021 to roughly 150 today. Meati is completing a >100,000-square-foot "Mega Ranch" in Colorado that will be capable of producing over 45 million pounds of product and is breaking ground on a larger "Giga Ranch" designed to produce hundreds of millions of pounds annually. Management aims for placement in 10,000 retail doors by the end of 2023 and a $1 billion revenue run rate by 2025. Meati Foods develops whole-cut alternative meats using mycelium — the muscular root structure of fungi — as its single main ingredient. The company has a proprietary process to cultivate its mycelium strain and form naturally fibrous textures into products without chemicals or heavy processing. Meati is developing whole-cut items including chicken breasts, steak and jerky (in final stages) and plans future products such as pork tenderloin and deli meats. Leadership includes CEO Tyler Huggins and CTO Justin Whiteley. The company touts production-scale efficiencies, saying its process can yield the meat equivalent of 4,500 cows every 24 hours while using less than one percent of the water and land of conventional industrial meat. Meati is scaling production capacity via its nearly 80,000 sq. ft. “Urban Ranch” facility, which it said could produce millions of pounds by 2022. The company plans to use recent funding to accelerate scaling, launch products nationally, and more than double its team. Meati converts mycelium (the structural fibers of fungi) into whole-cut steak and chicken replacements and is launching a mycelium jerky as its first commercial product. Co-founders Tyler Huggins and Justin Whiteley lead a team of about 30 people as the company prepares samples for select restaurants and plans to turn on a pilot plant this summer. The company highlights nutritional benefits — claiming about 2 ounces provides 50% of protein, 50% of fiber, and half of daily zinc — and positions its products as better-for-you alternatives to conventional meat. Meati intends to target everyday and quick-serve meat cuts rather than high-end steaks and says its future products will be cost-competitive with beef and chicken. Financially, Meati has raised equity and secured debt capacity to scale production, and cites culinary investors and partners as strategic supporters. The founders trace the pivot to food back to a grant for a mycelium-based electrode that revealed the material’s edible potential.

Led · Series B · Mar 2024

Pandion is a Seattle-based parcel network that manages package journeys for e-commerce brands, picking up at fulfillment centers, sorting through its connected sortation centers, and delivering via a network of 500,000+ final-mile drivers. Founded in 2020 by Amazon Air founder Scott Ruffin, the company leverages machine learning and a proprietary universal label to optimize delivery decisions and lower prices versus national and regional carriers. Pandion currently reaches more than 80% of U.S. homes and operates sortation centers near Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, with capacity to deliver millions of packages. The company provides brands instant access to delivery options and faster transit times for customers such as Saks Fifth Avenue. Pandion plans to use new funding to build additional technology offerings, expand geographic reach, and increase delivery speed. Recent leadership hires and a board addition are intended to support this next phase of growth. Pandion operates a parcel network purpose-built for e-commerce, using machine learning to more efficiently transport packages and save retailers and consumers time and money. The company is opening its first 150,000 square foot sortation facility in Quakertown, Pennsylvania this fall, a site leased through Cabot Properties that can sort and deliver millions of packages per month. Pandion plans to hire more than 80 people at the Quakertown facility and is scaling its technology and sortation-center teams ahead of the holiday shopping season. The team includes executives with experience running Amazon fulfillment, Walmart sortation, FedEx and UPS operations, and machine-learning work for companies like Cruise, Stitch Fix, and Tesla. The company has assembled an advisory board of former senior operations and C-suite executives from major logistics and retail firms. Pandion emerged from stealth in February 2021 and was founded by Scott Ruffin, an Amazon Air and Walmart e-commerce transportation veteran. Pandion is a parcel network purpose-built for e-commerce, offering next-generation delivery management software that uses machine learning to avoid shipping delays and optimize delivery networks. The platform aims to enable consistent one- and two-day shipping and to scale capacity up and down to meet peak-period demand, addressing constraints in legacy parcel providers. Pandion positions itself to help retailers deliver faster, more cost-effective service and to make on-time delivery possible for more retailers regardless of size. Founded in 2020 by Scott Ruffin, the team includes delivery and supply-chain executives from Amazon, Walmart, FedEx, Macy’s, HP, Accenture, and Deloitte. The company emerged from stealth and plans to use its seed proceeds to grow the team and expand ongoing customer pilots. Pandion says it is a long-term scalable solution to e-commerce capacity problems exposed during peak seasons.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2024

Zephyr AI, based in McLean, Va., develops fast, explainable artificial intelligence and data-federation tools to advance precision medicine in oncology and cardiometabolic disease. The company is building improved data federation capabilities and machine learning algorithms and is deploying one of the largest clinicogenomic datasets spanning multiple disease states and data partners. Zephyr AI says it will use the new capital to enhance analytical speed and to fortify its training and validation datasets. The funds will also support expansion of the company’s scientific and commercial teams to accelerate delivery of its growing pipeline of insights to market. The team combines software engineers and biologists to generate translatable insights and build tools for patients, providers, and researchers. Zephyr AI has had two abstracts accepted for presentation at the AACR annual meeting in April 2024. Zephyr AI develops a proprietary suite of AI and data-science technologies that ingest complex, disparate healthcare data to generate translatable insights for precision medicine and drug discovery. The company emphasizes a three‑pronged approach: multi‑dimensional datasets, transparent AI, and analyses within structured biological networks and longitudinal outcomes. Since its founding in 2021 by Red Cell Partners, Zephyr has built a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, software engineers, and computational and molecular biologists. Zephyr prioritizes industry partnerships to access and maximally utilize broad healthcare datasets. The company aims to produce tools and products to support patients and providers, with focus areas including diabetes and cancer. Financially, Zephyr closed an $18.5 million seed round to expand dataset curation, refine machine‑learning models, and derive actionable insights for patient care and drug discovery.