SJF Ventures is proud to release its 2020 Impact Report, which details the fund’s impact strategy, gives an overview of SJF’s investment and impact themes per sector, and provides a deep dive into the various dimensions of impact for each portfolio company. Download SJF’s 2020 Impact Report here. Please note that the report is interactive,…

BERKELEY, California, September 9, 2020 / PRNewswire / — Solar digital solutions startup Terabase Energy announced Wednesday that it has closed a $6 million Series A financing, led by SJF Ventures. On a mission to drive solar power prices down below one cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2025, Terabase provides proprietary software, automation and digital deployment solutions for utility-scale projects globally. Co-founded by six solar…

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, August 18, 2020 / PRWEB / — Perishable Shipping Solutions (PSS), a leader in the e-commerce market for perishable cold and frozen food fulfillment logistics, announced today that it has closed an $8.7M Series A round of financing. The investment was led by SJF Ventures with participation from Grotech Ventures and others including Supply…

NEW YORK, August 5, 2020 / CREtech /- ROOM, the startup reshaping the modern workspace, today announced it has closed a $12.5 million Series A round to fuel the upcoming expansion of its product portfolio with a suite of modular architectural solutions designed to meet crucial demand for adaptability and flexibility in the office. Backed…

San Francisco, August 5, 2020 / Springboard / – Springboard, a mentor-guided online learning platform that prepares people for in-demand careers, announced today it has raised $31 million in Series B funding, bringing its total capital raised to more than $50 million. This round was led by new investor Telstra Ventures, with participation from Vulcan Capital…

AUSTIN, Texas, July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vital Farms, Inc. (“Vital Farms”), a Certified B Corporation that offers a range of ethically produced pasture-raised foods nationwide, today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 9,303,977 shares of its common stock at a price of $22.00 per share. The shares are expected to begin…

NEW YORK, July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ – Cooks Venture, a vertically-integrated food company re-envisioning the future of agriculture, today announced the closing of a $10 million Series A investment. SJF Ventures and Cultivian Sandbox led the investment with participation from Larry Schwartz and John Roulac, executive producer of the upcoming documentary on regenerative agriculture, Kiss the Ground. Cooks Venture breeds and raises a proprietary slow-growth,…

Stephanie Nieman recently authored an article, Technology innovations tackling the youth, young adult mental health crisis, that was first published in MobiHealthNews.  The piece gives a breakdown of the growing list of digital mental health tools available to these populations, and the various ways to deploy them. July 10, 2020 / MobiHealthNews / – The current COVID-19 pandemic and…

There is no playbook for what to do when your warehouse is hit by a tornado, or when the world is impacted by a pandemic. SJF portfolio company Optoro faced both at once. Resilience, persistence and drive allowed the company to persevere during the toughest challenges, and Optoro’s technology enabled the warehouse to be back…

We, like you, have been dealing with shock, sadness, frustration, and anger in the wake of the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  As with the cases of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others, we know the unfortunate truth that for every George Floyd, there are an unknown number of similar events that go…

SJF Ventures is offering Cleantech Open Office Hours from 10 am – 6 pm ET on Thursday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 13 to support growth-stage companies with the potential to rapidly scale in an economic recovery. During the office hours, cleantech entrepreneurs will present their investment opportunity or discuss top-of-mind issues via video with…

Dave Kirkpatrick recently authored an article, Coronavirus Proves Government Is Important, that was first published in The Hill.  The column covers how attacks on government have weakened our response to the pandemic and climate crisis and highlights the urgent need for proficient and accountable governments to protect all citizens from these crises, especially the poor.  The piece…

SJF Ventures portfolio companies Vital Farms and Cooks Venture were mentioned in the news talking about the effects of the Coronavirus.  The Washington Post discussed changing consumer habits with Vital Farms’ CEO, and The New York Times talked about food supply chain issues with Cooks Venture’s CEO. Stress-baking and hoarding has led to a retail…

Boston, Massachusetts, January 22, 2020 / PR Newswire / – Catalant Technologies today announced the close of $35 million of additional funding from its Series E equity round and expansion of its existing debt facility to scale its product offering and expand into new global markets. Catalant is a leading provider of software that helps companies effectively manage strategy…

Each year, Optoro publishes an impact report outlining the company’s environmental and social impact achievements. Through its mission to make retail more sustainable by eliminating all waste from returns, on average in 2019, Optoro clients were able to keep 96% of returned and excess goods out of landfill. Additionally, the company mitigated 8.5 million pounds…

January 14, 2020 / Triple Pundit / – Picture this: A chicken factory farm with overcrowded hens packed onto the cement floor with a higher risk for disease and without good-quality feed or even fresh air. Now, picture this: Family farms that provide their pasture-raised hens with plenty of feed, nutrients and abundant space to forage for…

St. Louis, Missouri, October 28, 2019  / BusinessWire / – PierianDx, the leading clinical genomics informatics company, today announced that it has closed a $27 million Series B funding round led by ATW Partners and SJF Ventures that also includes existing investors Health Catalyst Capital, Inova Health Systems, RTI International, and ARUP Laboratories. PierianDx provides…

Los Angeles, California, October 3, 2019  / PRWeb / – Today Waycare, an AI-based connected mobility platform for transportation agencies, announced that it has raised $7.25 million in Series A funding led by SJF Ventures, with participation from UpWest, Next Gear Ventures, Innogy, Spider Capital, Goldbell, Zymestic Solutions, and janom. The new funding will drive Waycare’s expansion efforts in North America and Europe,…

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, September 12, 2019  / Starter Story / Hello! Who are you and what business did you start? Hi! My name is Jan Bednar and I’m the CEO and founder of ShipMonk, a technology-driven fulfillment center based in South Florida. Our services are primarily geared towards B2C/eCommerce, subscription box, and crowdfunding fulfillment. We also…

August 5, 2019 – (LinkedIn) – SJF Ventures has been investing in cleantech companies for 20 years. We have seen many funds come and go, most notably Silicon Valley funds that rushed in some years ago only to get burned. The incorrect media conclusion after that saga was ‘cleantech VC failed’. However, funds like SJF have continued…