The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Aug 2025

One Stop Wellness evolved from a digital employee-wellness platform into a behavior-change tool that combines real-time vitals tracking, voice-guided wellness education, and AI-powered food recognition tailored to culturally relevant foods. The company is launching an AI-powered food scanner designed to recognize and analyze foods commonly eaten in Black and Caribbean communities. The recent funding will support the scanner launch and expansion of partnerships across the Dallas–Fort Worth region and beyond with employers, health systems, and schools. One Stop Wellness is McKinney-based, Black-founded, B Corp-certified, and a portfolio company of the grant-backed McKinney Innovation Fund. The company has signed its largest client and is preparing a rollout to 150,000 users, a launch expected to generate more than $3.8 million in annual revenue. Its platform uses real-time vitals, visual assessments, and food intake analysis to identify health risks and deliver personalized guidance.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2024

NEXT Life Sciences is developing Plan A™, a device-based, non-hormonal male contraceptive that places a biocompatible Vasalgel® hydrogel in the vas deferens to block sperm flow. Plan A™ is designed to provide up to 10 years of pregnancy prevention while remaining reversible via a dissolving procedure. NEXT acquired the worldwide license to Vasalgel® in 2022 and has since optimized the technology toward clinical development. The company plans to start clinical trials for Plan A™ in 2024 and intends to pursue FDA marketing authorization following trials. NEXT’s leadership includes experienced executives and clinicians from medical device and contraceptive fields. Financially, the company recently received a $400K grant from the Male Contraceptive Initiative and completed a prior fundraising round led by Bolt.com founder Ryan Breslow and The Family with participation from Transform VC and angel and early-stage venture investors. NEXT Life Sciences, based in Los Angeles, is a medical device company developing Plan A, a non-hormonal, long-acting, reversible on-demand male contraceptive. Plan A's design utilizes a hydrogel (Vasalgel®) that acts as a flexible filter to block sperm flow in the vas deferens. NEXT acquired the exclusive worldwide license for Vasalgel® in 2022 and aims to advance the technology through FDA authorization and to market. The company plans to start clinical trials for Plan A in 2024, followed by submission to the FDA. NEXT announced an oversubscribed $2.5M funding round led by The Family, bringing total seed funding to date to $4M. Ryan Breslow has joined as a strategic advisor, and NEXT says its executive team has prior leadership experience in medical device and contraceptive commercialization. NEXT Life Sciences is developing Plan A™, a reversible male contraceptive that uses Vasalgel®, a proprietary hydrogel the company acquired. The Plan A procedure is similar to a no‑scalpel vasectomy but inserts a hydrogel filter to block sperm flow rather than cutting the vas deferens. Preclinical studies showed rapid restoration of sperm flow after Vasalgel® was dissolved and flushed from the vas deferens. The company raised $1.55M in seed funding to support development and commercialization of Plan A. NEXT is led by CEO L.R. Fox and has assembled a Medical Advisory Board to guide contraceptive development, including Dr. Charles Carignan. The company aims to initiate clinical trials by the end of 2023.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2023

Keep Labs builds a lockable, sensor-equipped storage container that holds pills, boxes or other items and uses a precision scale and app to detect and record medication use. The company launched in 2019 and has begun shipping its first-generation consumer product, priced at $299. Keep ran a large preorder campaign (about 15,000 preorders, roughly 5,000 paid in full) and runs an active beta with about 150 users. After COVID-era manufacturing setbacks the team refocused on medication adherence and pursued enterprise partnerships, including the McKesson Digital Health Network in Canada and a program with Savvy Cooperative. Keep charges a nominal subscription fee for aggregate adherence data and emphasizes HIPAA/PIPEDA-compliant security (TLS 1.3, AES-256, PBKDF2-SHA256, MFA, regular audits and third-party testing). The company is developing a second-generation product that adds a cooling capability for temperature-sensitive drugs.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

AvoMD builds a clinical AI platform designed to synthesize patient data, surface evidence-based guidance, and support clinicians with end-to-end AI copilots embedded in the EHR. The company positions its product to reduce clinician friction caused by fragmented datasets and multiple applications, aiming to drive measurable improvements in outcomes, cost savings, revenue, and operational efficiency. AvoMD announced a strategic partnership with DynaMed from EBSCO Clinical Decisions to integrate trusted evidence-based knowledge into the EHR via Ask Avo. The business emphasized clinician-centric design, saying it delivers results “with love, not alerts.” Financially, AvoMD has secured a $10M Series A to accelerate product development and commercialization. The announcement credits engaged customers, partners, and its team for supporting the company's growth.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

eddii is a diabetes-management app that integrates with Dexcom's real-time APIs to gamify continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data through a virtual in-app character. The app delivers games, educational character-led activities, AI-enabled conversation, real-time feedback, and in-app rewards to engage children living with type 1 diabetes. eddii's integration supports Dexcom G6 and G7 and streams real-time glucose updates into its interface. In a randomized controlled trial enrolling 92 children using Dexcom CGM, eddii produced a statistically significant 5% improvement in Time In Range, roughly 1.5 additional hours per day. The company will launch a beta in Oklahoma in the summer and plans a nationwide U.S. rollout later in the year, with intentions to expand into adult T1D and adjacent markets. eddii recently closed a $2.5M seed round led by Kapor Capital with participation from Atento Capital, MedMountain Ventures (MMV), StartUp Health, and angel investors; the CEO and founder is Farhaneh Ahmadi, PhD, who lives with T1D.