The funding round was led by Bluestein Ventures, and joined by Acumen America, Beta Boom, KCRise Fund, 1st Course Capital and AssetBlue Ventures. In addition, the company was a 2022 recipient of Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.

This capital investment and support will also help FFM broaden its reach with managed care plans, providers, and community-based organizations to quantify the efficacy of “food is medicine” interventions for treating key health conditions. FFM provides bulk ordering for organizations and direct-to-door access to individuals who can shop meals, produce, or shelf-stable, brand-name grocery items, as well as complementary telenutrition support.

About Free From Market

Free From Market is the first patient-driven digital health platform to provide personalized food access and selection, integrated telenutrition and educational support, as well as the ability to measure health outcomes for individuals living with chronic conditions where food is the standard of care. FFM partners with healthcare payors, providers, nonprofits, and other organizations to offer their members and patients “food is medicine” interventions to  treat health conditions. FFM’s mission is to help all Americans manage their health through food, regardless of income or zip code.

Trive Capital (“Trive”), the Dallas-based private equity firm, is excited to announce its recent investment into Kittyhawk, Inc. (“Kittyhawk” or the “Company”), a leading provider of Hot Isostatic Pressing (“HIP”) services for a variety of industries including space, commercial aerospace, defense, and medical applications.

About Kittyhawk
Kittyhawk is a leading provider of Hot Isostatic Pressing services, supporting a wide array of industries including aerospace & defense and space. With a fleet of high-quality HIP vessels and dedicated team of operators, Kittyhawk is committed to improving the fatigue properties of mission-critical components.

About Trive Capital
Trive Capital is a Dallas, Texas based private equity firm with more than $4 billion of regulatory assets under management. Trive focuses on investing equity and debt in what it sees as strategically viable middle-market companies with the potential for transformational upside through operational improvement. We seek to maximize returns through a hands-on partnership that calls for identifying and implementing value creation ideas.

The Trive team is comprised of seasoned investment professionals who have been involved in over 100 middle-market transactions representing in excess of $6 billion in revenue across Trive’s targeted industry sectors and situations.

The Indian startup scene is a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity, and venture capital has been a major driver of growth. With the emergence of new startups, India’s venture capital scene is booming. From tech startups to healthcare companies, venture capital firms are investing heavily in India’s emerging industries. This article will take a look at India’s venture capital scene and the opportunities it presents.

The venture capital landscape in India is rapidly changing. With the influx of new investors, the capital available to startups is increasing dramatically. New investors are looking to back innovative startups, and venture capital firms are eager to get in on the action. As venture capital firms pour money into India’s startups, the country’s economy is growing and creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Venture capital firms are investing in a variety of sectors, from technology to healthcare. India’s tech startups have been particularly attractive to investors, with companies like Oyo, Flipkart, and Paytm receiving billions of dollars in investments. Healthcare startups are also gaining traction, with companies like Practo and Cure.fit receiving significant investments.

India’s venture capital scene is booming and is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs. With billions of dollars of venture capital pouring into the country, India’s startup ecosystem is growing and creating new jobs and opportunities. From tech to healthcare, venture capital firms are investing heavily in India’s emerging industries, and the future looks bright for India’s entrepreneurs.

LOS ANGELES , Jan. 26, 2023 — People Science, a direct-to-consumer scientific research company providing a scaled research and development (R&D) platform for alternative medicines, today announced $5.3 million in a second seed round of funding led by Acre Venture Partners with participation from Bluestein Ventures, THIA Ventures and FORM Life Ventures. This brings their total seed funding to $8.5M with the prior seed round supported by Noetic Fund, Woven Science, and LifeForce Capital. The company will use the new capital to support their expansion into nutrition and food as medicine alongside their existing research efforts on natural and synthetic psychedelics, the microbiome, cannabis and cannabinoid medicines and digital health interventions. Lucas Mann, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Acre Venture Partners, will join the People Science Board of Directors.

“There are many solutions for humans to stay well and get better and some of these have been in use for millennia. However, until now, there has not been any great clinical research infrastructure to study these alternative medicines with real people and with rigorous science at scale,” said Noah Craft, MD, PhD, co-founder and co-CEO of People Science. “More than ever before, people are defining their own path to wellness and trying to figure out what makes them better. We are bringing the tools of science directly to the people to help them find answers and to share this knowledge with society.”

People Science is building a new clinical research infrastructure for alternative medicines that connects people, doctors, and scientists through its technology platform, CHLOE (the Consumer Health Learning and Organizing Ecosystem). CHLOE is a modular software technology that combines a consumer-facing mobile app with a rigorous high-quality clinical research platform. Consumers can use CHLOE to help understand which alternative medicines work best for themselves. Companies and other researchers engage with People Science to test their ideas and products directly or by licensing CHLOE. Sponsored clinical studies with CHLOE began in late 2022, with the goal of launching the app to the public in early 2023.

“We invest in companies that are innovating in food and agriculture to improve the health of people and the planet – both what we eat and how we grow it”, said Mann. “We think this platform has the potential to be transformational in unlocking robust evidence and data-based claims that are often lacking in the ‘food as medicine’ space – and such claims have the power to not only propel consumer products forward but also the adoption of more food-driven practices by the medical community.” 

Overcoming The Stigma Associated With Psychedelic Therapies

People Science is filling the void of much-needed clinical research at a time when psychedelic medicines have started to show broad therapeutic potential for treating depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, substance abuse and other mental illness diagnoses. A recent study revealed that the global psychedelic drug market is expected to reach $7.03 billion in 2026. In addition, the global medical cannabis market is expected to grow from $16 billion this year to $46 billion by 2027. Cannabis is often used to provide relief for chronic pain, nausea, sleep issues, muscle spasms and other health conditions.

“We’re seeking to advance and validate knowledge about alternative medicines,” Belinda Tan MD PhD, co-founder and co-CEO of People Science said. “By sharing and creating tremendously valuable evidence through the use of our technology, and including people from all backgrounds, we’re building bridges between our modern society and indigenous cultures. Humans have the power to improve themselves and we are providing them with better tools to do so.”

Unlocking The Evidence That Underpins ‘Food as Medicine’

People Science will work with food companies focused on bioactive ingredients, metabolic health, gut microbiome and other health initiatives to develop evidence around improving the way people feel in a real world setting. To date, the sector has struggled to prove efficacy of many of these food-as-medicine-based interventions at scale. With its tech-enabled, consumer-focused platform, People Science provides the tools needed to make data generation and feedback loops more efficient, scalable and cost effective to build the tangible evidence needed to show the power of food-based solutions in driving better health outcomes.

With this latest round of funding, People Science will continue to develop the CHLOE technology platform to support additional consumer-facing features as well as to support their growing client pipeline for CHLOE software licensing. The core team will expand to support customer growth and retention.

About People Science

People Science is building a people-forward clinical research infrastructure to support the evolution, knowledge and understanding of alternative medicines. As a technology-enabled clinical research services company, People Science empowers individuals to answer the question, “Which alternative medicines work best for me?” through their proprietary CHLOE app. People Science connects clients who make or want to promote the understanding of alternative medicines to the people who test their products. Learn more at peoplescience.health.

Contact:
People Science
[email protected]

SOURCE People Science, Inc.

The Rapidly Growing Platform Built for Insurance Distributors Now Has Over 11,000 Agent Users in Just Over a Year

PALO ALTO, Calif, Jan. 26, 2023 — iLife Technologies, the all-in-one front end “Operating System” (OS) for insurance carriers and agencies, today announced $17M in new funding to continue helping insurance distributors consolidate previously fragmented workflows. With iLife’s industry leading OS, agents can instantly generate quotes & e-apps, communicate and market to clients directly from the CRM, and build insurance websites code-free.

The round was led by Foundation Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, and SCOR Ventures, with participation from GTMFund and OpenView Partners. With iLife’s rapid industry adoption, notable former insurance carrier executives joined the Board at iLife, including John Kim, former President at New York Life, and Deanna Mulligan, former CEO at Guardian Life.

“Over the last two decades, I’ve led and advised some of the largest life insurance companies in the world, and I’ve seldom seen a company as innovative and game-changing for this industry as iLife,” said John Kim, now Founder and Managing Partner of Brewer Lane Ventures. “Nelson and his team are arming agents and carriers at all levels with everything they need to excel at their jobs. We are delighted to support iLife on this next phase of their journey.”

Historically, agents have had to piece together 10-14 different pieces of software to complete sales and marketing workflows, making sales cycles long and costly with poor experiences for both agents and consumers. With iLife, they are able to complete all their critical workflows in one place, eliminating redundant sign-in’s and data entries, leading to a dramatically better productivity and cost savings for agents, agencies, and carriers.

“It was a no-brainer for us to invest in iLife for a second time. Their team is incredibly talented and dedicated to building the best platform to support life insurance agents. They’ve had incredible customer traction in an otherwise difficult macroeconomic environment, and their ability to partner with the top insurance carriers at this stage in their journey is remarkable. We can’t wait to see how iLife transforms the life insurance business for years to come,” said Rodolfo Gonzalez, General Partner at Foundation Capital.

Since launching in the summer of 2021, iLife has expanded from two carrier partnerships to 27 carriers, and continues to quickly gain industry adoption. With more than 11,000 agent users, the company achieved 633% YoY revenue growth, with per user spend increasing almost every single month since launch, and several Enterprise deals to be announced later in the year.

The Series A funding will be used toward product engineering and growth. In total, the company has raised $21M in funding from leaders in the fintech and insurance industries. iLife will be announcing noteworthy partnerships with top carriers and IMO’s in the near future. For more about iLife, visit http://www.ilife.tech.

About iLife

iLife’s software helps insurance agents grow and build their life insurance business. Trusted by over 11,000 agents, iLife’s software solves pain points in insurance distribution by providing all critical workflow functions in one place, shortening sales cycles, reducing back office expenses, and providing better experiences. To learn more about iLife, visit iLife.tech.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE iLife Technologies

The inaugural production allows fans and creatives to extend The Disco Ball story and share the rewards of ownership

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 26, 2023 — StoryCo today announced it has closed a $6 million seed funding round from a notable group of investors with expertise in art, media, games, entertainment, and technology. The round was co-led by Collab + Currency and Patron with additional investment from Floodgate Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, Sfermion, Flamingo DAO and angels Lloyd Braun, Sabrina Hahn, Packy McCormick, GMoney, and executives from UTA and WME.

StoryCo has also announced the launch of its ground-breaking collaborative storytelling platform, where established Hollywood creators and passionate fans combine forces to build the next great media franchises and jointly participate in their success, and revealed the upcoming release of The Disco Ball, its first story universe led by Story Architect Kyle Killen (Halo, Fear Street: Part One – 1994, Awake, Mind Games) and world-renowned artists shelby and sandy.

StoryCo founders Justin and J.P. Alanís commented on today’s news: “We feel so fortunate to have Kyle as our first Story Architect working alongside shelby and sandy to create a new immersive storytelling experience. Kyle and shelby and sandy are trailblazers at the forefront of a new technological movement at StoryCo. We are building a new model that will drive the development of incredible new stories and allow our community of creatives and fans to contribute meaningfully to its expansion.”

Releasing on the StoryCo platform in early 2023, The Disco Ball is an immersive and collaborative storytelling experience – a first-of-its-kind interactive narrative unfolding across the StoryCo site, social media and real-world interactions. The Disco Ball follows Captain Alma Cooke and her team of astronauts on the International Space Station as they are thrust into an existential journey to save the multiverse – a journey that can only be completed with the community’s help. By deciphering puzzles, discovering artifacts, and solving quests as the story unfolds on the StoryCo platform, the community will experience Alma and her crew’s story and assist as they fight forces that seek to end the Universe as we know it.

Community members can now claim their Disco Ball StoryPass to collect and earn digital art related to key story moments and characters, culminating in an exclusive piece of rare digital art that also conveys the right to control the future of The Disco Ball story. Visitors to StoryCo can sign up today to join the community, claim their StoryPass and access pre-release content.

Investor and Partner Quotes:

“StoryCo has created a pathway for an entirely new form of storytelling, allowing for a freedom of creative expression that previously didn’t exist,” said Kyle Killen. “I’ve long been looking for a way to immerse the audience more deeply into the story by making them a part of both the story and the creative process, and the technologies made available by StoryCo now enable that to happen.”

“We are honored to be the first Story Artists on the StoryCo platform,” said shelby and sandy. “It has been an incredible experience working with Kyle and the StoryCo team to empower a new form of community storytelling through amazing art that brings The Disco Ball world to life.“

“Despite Hollywood and the entertainment industry growing into such a massive business around original IP in recent years, the creative talent that help to imagine and bring these stories to life are often overlooked and excluded from the value they help to create. We believe that better models will emerge which help emerging creative talent to capture and share in the value around these IP. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the StoryCo team as they look to build a platform which does just this, helping creatives attain more control and ownership of the IP they help to create,” said Jason Yeh, General Partner at Patron.

“Historically, fans of the most well known stories and IP are often downplayed as mere consumers, not as owners, collaborators, or sources of inspiration. That changes today. Our team couldn’t be more excited to back StoryCo, the internet’s first open ecosystem of story creation, interaction, and most importantly—ownership,” said Derek Edward Schloss, Managing Partner at Collab+Currency.

About StoryCo:

StoryCo is a platform where creators and passionate fans connect, collaborate, co-create, and co-own the next generation of story franchise IP alongside established Hollywood talent. Founded by brothers Justin Alanís and J.P. Alanís, StoryCo is backed by notable investors in art, media, games, entertainment, and technology. More information about StoryCo and its inaugural production, The Disco Ball, can be found at www.story.co.

For further information, please contact:
Justin Alanis
[email protected]

For media inquiries:
M Group Strategic Communications
Dillon Arace
[email protected]

SOURCE StoryCo

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 26, 2023 — Roots Homes, the company pioneering fractional homeownership, announced a $2.2mm funding round led by Other Ventures, with participation from Behind Genius Ventures and Waveline VC. The funds will enable the startup to accelerate the growth of their Las Vegas operations following a successful beta launch late last year. Roots’ mission is to make homeownership easy for Millennials and Gen-Z by offering a truly convenient way to own a home.

Roots’ fractional homeownership service upends the all-or-nothing nature of homeownership by allowing renters to purchase shares in their home each month. Roots will provide customers with a shopping budget to find a home. When they find one they like, Roots will buy it for them so they can move in. If the customer eventually wants to buy the home from Roots, they can, but they never have to. The equity a renter builds can be held long-term, go towards a downpayment, or be cashed out if they choose to move out. Roots will buy “most homes” in Las Vegas for their customers, allowing them to “test drive” a home to see if they like it before committing to buy it. Terms are 12 months and can be renewed year after year until a customer decides to either move out or purchase the home from Roots.

“In the last 10 years, wages have increased 34% while home prices have doubled. That means you need to save twice the money to buy a home with only 34% more income. For most people, homeownership is impossible,” said Lauren Self, Founder and CEO of Roots. “Roots eliminates the barrier to entry that traditional homeownership requires and makes it easy for renters to own by doing exactly what they’re doing now – renting.”

Roots began onboarding early customers late last year. They met their first customer, Trish Vea, in a Facebook group where Las Vegas locals look for housing. At the time, Vea’s large family was living in an apartment and dreamed of owning a home to give them more space. Vea said about Roots, “We are living proof that dreams come true. Roots helped us find a home in the area we like at a price we could afford. If you are looking for a home, I definitely recommend Roots. Let them make your dreams come true.”

For more information on Roots please visit www.Roots.Homes

SOURCE Roots Homes

Announces Work With Publicis And Dentsu, Advisors Actor Adrian Grenier, Activist Chelsea Miller And Ex-Lyft Exec Mike Masserman

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 26, 2023 — ValuesCo (www.values.co), a Web3 startup powering community-driven rewards ecosystems for good, has closed a $2.7 Million seed round. With the climate crisis, rising inequity, and hyperpolarization, 83% of Millennials & Gen Zs desire brands to align with their values (5WPR’s 2020 Consumer Culture Report). ValuesCo is enabling a collaborative future for brands, creators and nonprofits to co-create social & environmental impact with their audiences. The platform transforms marketing and community engagement into participatory experiences driving quantifiable impact. “I started ValuesCo to empower young people to feel more agency and understand that grassroots solutions to the world’s biggest challenges are possible,” says Co-founder & CEO Andrew Berkowitz.

ValuesCo (formerly Socialstack) has been used by watersports brand Starboard to incentivize cleanup of 770,000 pounds of ocean plastic, AfrofutureDAO to drive $1.1 Million to African history preservation, Christie’s to launch a social token experience, and the first two nonprofits to launch rewards tokens – Gen Z-founded OneUpAction debuted at Billie Eilish‘s 2022 tour.

The startup has begun working with global advertising holding companies Publicis Groupe and dentsu on client concepts and projects. 43 of the top 100 brands (Interbrand Best Global Brands 2022) have entered Web3 – including Nike & Reddit – with loyalty being the most common use case. Learning about this technology by harnessing it to build connection and community has become standard. However, brand purpose hasn’t been a core component, though acting on and communicating purpose has soared over recent years.

Investors in the round include leading Web3 funds including Flori Ventures, Metaweb Ventures, OWN Fund, and angels such as Celo President Rene Reinsberg and entrepreneur Richard Spanton Jr. ValuesCo has brought on key strategic advisors such as actor & UN Goodwill Ambassador Adrian Grenier, Gen Z activist & Muhammad Ali Foundation Humanitarian of the Year ’21 Chelsea Miller, ex-Lyft head of global policy & social impact Mike Masserman, and philosopher & author of Sacred Economics Charles Eisenstein.

“I am honored to join ValuesCo as an advisor – building blockchain tools that are easy to use and align monetary value exchange with real human value, are the foundation to an inclusive Web3,” says Adrian Grenier. “The team’s mission is fully aligned with my personal values.”

ValuesCo focuses on several gaps in Web3: education, consumer adoption of Web3 wallets, hands-on support required to launch a social token, and real-world impact. New paradigms of communities will emerge this decade through Web3’s enabling technology, and ValuesCo is committed to steering brands, nonprofits, and creators to build with purpose.

Values disrupts rewards & loyalty and the experience economy with purpose-driven communities and activations. Missions enable brands to enter Web3 without directly interfacing with blockchain.

The Values App enables rewards ecosystems for communities – and time-bound activations launched by brands. Values empowers communities to design & launch a social token with no code or blockchain knowledge. Community members create wallets instantaneously with phone/email login and earn tokens by completing actions and submitting proof via photo/social media, scanning QR codes, and more. Tokens are redeemed for rewards like products, experiences, and digital collectibles.

Starboard’s customers have participated in beach cleanups and verified goods purchased to earn branded tokens that can be redeemed for trees planted, discounts, and merchandise.

Today, the company unveils its new product Missions to drive shared purpose activations where brands and consumers embark on journeys together. Missions call on brands to champion impact goals that are reached through community action. “Corporations have largely not built in-roads to incentivize their communities to contribute to ESG performance,” says Justin Markell, ValuesCo Chief Strategy Officer “It’s time for a shift where consumers help fulfill on shared purpose with their actions and produce exponential change.”

With Missions, brands fund a reward pool and invite collaborators, including nonprofits & creators on ValuesCo, while unlocking the storytelling potential of the metaverse. The climate positive app is built on Ethereum, Polygon and Celo.

Over the past year, ValuesCo has cemented itself as a leader in the Web3 community space, empowering its communities to receive $2 Million in grant funding from blockchains including its own $350,000 grant fund, backed by Celo and its Climate Collective. It launched tokens for BridgingTheGap Ventures, which calls World Health Organization & Pitbull collaborators, and renowned DJ/activist BLOND:ISH‘s Bye Bye Plastic foundation. AfrofutureDAO, the first community on ValuesCo, is announcing a $1.65M grant from The HBAR Foundation, and the launch of its app for museums and cultural institutions. The DAO is a collective of African creators monetizing and digitizing art and historical archives to uplift the continent.

The name reflects the organization’s belief that society must realign economic value with values to create a just, regenerative future. “Value” in Latin is to be worth, or importance of something. “Co” is together. “Web3 enables new means of exchange, but we’re after something deeper – to help communities create value together,” Berkowitz explains. “By providing tools that align value with values through action, we see Web3 as a way to drive thousands of experiments that incentivize positive behavior through new forms of rewards and shared ownership.”

About ValuesCo – https://values.co/

ValuesCo is a climate-positive Web3 technology and experience company that powers rewards ecosystems for good. Brands, nonprofits and creators use our tools to inspire action that aligns value with values for the next gen. Founded & led by Millennials & Gen Zs, we believe a thriving world is realized through radical collaboration, access, and fun. ValuesCo is a 1% for the Planet member.

About Publicis Groupe – https://www.publicisgroupe.com/

Founded in 1926 and headquartered in Paris, Publics is the 3rd largest communications group in the world. Through a powerful alchemy of creativity and technology, we are driving business transformation across the entire value chain. Clients include Walmart, Verizon, Disney, and Visa.

About dentsu – https://www.dentsu.com/

Dentsu is the network designed for what’s next, helping clients predict and plan for disruptive future opportunities in the sustainable economy. Taking a people-centered approach to business transformation, dentsu combines Japanese innovation with a diverse, global perspective to drive client growth and to shape society.

About Celo – https://celo.org/

Celo is a carbon negative blockchain. It began with the intention of becoming the first carbon neutral platform by contributing offsets through the network protocol, making the resources powering it carbon-negative from the get-go. To date, Celo has offset over 2,285 tons of carbon through its work with Project Wren. It’s equal to the CO2 absorbed by 320,000 pine trees for a year. It’s enough to make Celo 8 times carbon negative based on Wren’s estimates.

Contact:
Andrew Berkowitz
[email protected] 

SOURCE ValuesCo

The investment completes Redivivus’ pre-seed fundraising round, totaling over $1 million

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Jan. 26, 2023 — Redivivus, a lithium-ion battery recycling startup, today announced an investment from ENEOS Innovation Partners, a corporate venture capital firm committed to delivering new energy, materials, and services to help realize a carbon neutral, recycling-oriented society for future generations. The investment by ENEOS Innovation Partners marks the final tranche of the pre-seed fundraising round by Redivivus, totaling over $1 million.

Redivivus provides safe end-of-life battery logistics. While the majority of the battery recycling industry is focused on materials processing, Redivivus is concerned with the first step of safely transporting hazardous end-of-life batteries prior to recovering critical elements through their patented technologies, Redi-Shred® and Redi-Cycle.

The initial collaboration between Redivivus and ENEOS Innovation Partners will accelerate the development of Redi-Shred®, a passivation technology to safely process end-of-life batteries at any state of charge or health. In the next phase, the goal is to develop a mobile system for specific use cases including the deployment of battery logistics vehicles. Toshihiro Horio of ENEOS Innovation Partners stated, “We hope for a truly eco-friendly, safe, and reliable battery recycling by innovation.”

Redivivus is utilizing the pre-seed funds to build their first integrated Redi-Shred® system. The company is planning pilot programs with partners in the United States. The three-part passivation system includes cryogenics to slow the thermal kinetics of batteries in any state of charge or health, customized shredding equipment and conveyance, and a neutralizing bath to render material ready for transport.

“The pre-seed funding round is a stepping stone to showcase the need for technology that is considerate of the realities of battery recycling” stated Luke Workman, Redivivus CTO.

Redivivus CEO, Erika Guerrero, concluded “Redivivus is honored for the opportunity to create global recycling technology. The collaboration with ENEOS Innovation Partners is aligned with our commitment to a global view on technologies that improve life for all beings.”

About Redivivus

Redivivus is the complete solution to lithium-ion battery recycling. Our proprietary technologies provide white-glove logistics, disassembly and material recovery service for end-of-life batteries. If you are interested in recycling with Redivivus, please fill out the form at https://www.redivivus.tech/survey or send us an email at [email protected]. Discover more at www.redivivus.tech.

SOURCE Redivivus