Participated · Equity · Jul 2026

Plantopia leverages molecular farming to develop plant-based dairy proteins, with a flagship casein product intended to mimic the texture, structure, and melting behavior of traditional cheese. The company is transitioning from research and development toward commercial-scale production. Its technology is positioned as a sustainable alternative to conventional animal-based dairy ingredients. The recent US$9 million financing led by Schreiber Foods and Siddhi Capital is intended to support commercial production, regulatory expansion, and manufacturing capabilities. The company aims to enable high-performance plant-based dairy ingredients for the food industry. The article does not provide operating metrics such as revenue or user figures.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2026

Founded by Sandra Velasquez and launched in 2020, Nopalera describes itself as a modern Mexican lifestyle and beauty brand built for the "modern beauty explorer." Its product lineup includes signature fragrances, hair care, bath and body products, and candles. Nopalera sells through Ulta.com, Ulta Mexico, Ulta Middle East, Credo Beauty, Mecca, Amazon, hundreds of independent retailers nationwide, and its own website. The founder began the brand in 2019 while in New York City and has positioned the company around Latino cultural representation in beauty. The company recently raised $4 million in growth capital led by Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund to accelerate retail expansion and product development. The new financing also added Morgan Stanley to Nopalera's board of directors.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2025

EdiMembre develops an edible hollow‑fiber bioreactor platform called CraftRidge designed to produce structured whole‑cut (block) cultured meat without removing scaffold fibers. Its edible hollow‑fiber membranes are made from legume protein isolates via a patented phase‑inversion method that yields micro‑ and nanoporous films promoting cell adhesion while allowing passage of larger molecules. The company has demonstrated applicability across single cells, cell aggregates and adherent cells, and with multiple cell types and species in partnership work. CraftRidge is currently offered as a bench‑top research device (3 g capacity) sold for R&D at $250, and EdiMembre aims to deliver a 1 kg device by the end of 2025 with a future target of 30 kg systems. EdiMembre is a spinout from MilliporeSigma (Merck KGaA) and its co‑founder Ryan Sylvia is named on related patents; the firm is already engaging partners to validate non‑meat applications of the membranes (e.g., legume‑protein pasta). The company has begun a seed round after completing a pre‑seed financing.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2025

Lembas has built a proprietary computational AI discovery platform that rapidly screens, analyzes and designs food-grade bioactive peptides, with an initial product called GLP-1 Edge designed to enhance the body's own GLP-1 response. GLP-1 Edge has been demonstrated in cell and animal models to stimulate GLP-1 secretion to blood and is shown in multiple consumer formats including gummies, powder, and capsules. The company positions the ingredient for integration into bars, shakes, snacks, beverages and supplements to address the global weight management market. Lembas emphasizes food-as-medicine applications and plans to scale commercialization and deepen commercial agreements across the ingredients, food and supplements value chain. Backed by university-patented pending technology, the team combines entrepreneurs and interdisciplinary scientists with executive experience from leading food companies. Founded in 2024 and based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lembas emerged from stealth following its early validation.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2025

Chef Robotics builds AI-enabled robotic systems and a ChefOS platform for food manipulation to automate meal assembly, offered as Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS). The company has deployed systems with brands including Amy's Kitchen, Sunbasket, Chef Bombay, and Cafe Spice and has produced over 44 million servings in production. Chef collects real-world production data from each meal to train its AI models and accelerate an AI data engine flywheel that improves system performance over time. The company plans to accelerate production deployments and scale its go-to-market team, investing in sales and marketing to increase deployments. Chef currently serves customers in the U.S. and Canada and plans to expand to the U.K. in 2025. Headquartered in San Francisco, Chef positions its RaaS equipment financing to reduce customers' upfront CapEx. Chef Robotics develops a robotic arm and underlying software (ChefOS) that focus on food assembly rather than direct cooking, using sensors such as cameras to train models for manipulating a wide variety of ingredients. Much of the hardware is off‑the‑shelf while the company differentiates on software and AI to handle ingredient variability. It commercializes via a RaaS (robotics‑as‑a‑service) model to reduce upfront costs for customers. The company plans to use new funding to deploy its go‑to‑market strategy and hire engineers and technicians, expanding a team that currently numbers around 30. Chef reports having robots at food companies in five cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Fortune 500 food companies. Recurring revenue reportedly quadrupled from 2022 to 2023, though the company did not disclose specific sales figures. Chef Robotics develops a robotics and vision system designed to automate aspects of food preparation, aiming to increase production volume, consistency, and reduce food waste. The product uses artificial intelligence that learns to handle an expanding set of ingredients and improves over time. Its modular architecture is intended to let customers scale capacity similarly to hiring more staff while maintaining uptime and consistency. The company has emphasized flexibility so customers can change menus often with minimal hardware changes. The team includes former employees of Cruise, Google, Verb Surgical, Zoox, and Strateos. Chef is focusing on fast-casual restaurants as an early target market and has not yet publicly demonstrated its robot.