News and Insights

March 27, 2020

Vital Farms and Cooks Venture Discuss Effects of the Coronavirus on Food Systems

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 […]

January 22, 2020

SJF Invests in Catalant Series E

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 […]

January 21, 2020

Optoro Publishes 2019 Impact Report

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 […]

January 14, 2020

Vital Farms Launches Traceability Initiative

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 […]

October 28, 2019

SJF Co-Leads PierianDx Series B

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, […]

October 3, 2019

SJF Ventures Invests in Waycare

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 […]

September 12, 2019

How This Immigrant Entrepreneur Built A $60 Million/Year Fulfillment Business

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, […]

August 5, 2019

Cleantech – A Forest of Funds

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, […]

June 11, 2019

20 Years of Impact – SJF Reflects on 20th Anniversary, Thanks Partners and Supporters

Please feel free to download our 20th celebration graphic via PDF.

May 22, 2019

HYLA President & CEO Named Finalist for EY Entrepreneur of The Year 2019 Southwest Division

May 22, 2019 / realwire / – HYLA Mobile, the world’s leading provider of software technology and services for mobile device trade-in and reuse solutions, announces that its President and CEO, Biju Nair, has been named as a finalist for 2019 EY Entrepreneur of The Year Southwest Division awards. This award recognizes […]

May 21, 2019

SJF Ventures Invests in Interplay Learning

Austin, Texas, May 21, 2019  / INTERPLAY LEARNING / – Interplay Learning, the leading provider of online training for skilled trades utilizing virtual reality (VR) and 3D simulations, today announced it has completed a $5.5 million Series A round of financing. S3 Ventures led the investment round with participation from SJF Ventures, […]

February 19, 2019

Portfolium Acquired by Instructure

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 19, 2019 / PRNewswire / — Instructure, Inc. (NYSE: INST), the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that helps people learn and develop from their first day of school to their last day of work, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Portfolium, the student success network built to showcase the […]

January 10, 2019

TemperPack Raises $22.5 Million Series B

Richmond, VA, January 10, 2019 / FORBES / – On Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted 6-3 to ban the use of Styrofoam. In doing so, it joined major metropolitan areas like New York, Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, DC in eliminating the use of polystyrene foam within city limits. […]

December 12, 2018

SJF Featured in Tideline and ICM White Paper: The Alpha in Impact

December 12, 2018 / TIDELINE / – New research from Tideline and Impact Capital Managers (ICM), a network of private fund managers committed to impact investing, shows that a social and environmental focus on investment management can, in fact, boost financial returns. The new white paper, titled The Alpha in Impact, […]

October 29, 2018

SJF Leads $10 Million Series A in ShipMonk

Deerfield Beach, Florida – October 29, 2018 – ShipMonk announced today it has closed a $10 million Series A financing round led by SJF Ventures with participation from Grotech Ventures, Supply Chain Ventures, and a strategic group of individual angel investors. The company will use the financing to continue its […]

September 26, 2018

HelloFresh Furthers Curbside Recyclability with TemperPack

Richmond, VA / (PRWEB) / September 26, 2018 – HelloFresh, the largest meal-kit company in the US, has made a substantial commitment to sustainability by replacing their box liners with curbside recyclable ClimaCell™ created by TemperPack. The new liners perform as well as EPS foam (Styrofoam) on an inch-per-inch comparison, but […]

September 4, 2018

Fit4D Raises Additional $4 Million To Fuel Growth and Product Innovation

New York / (PRWEB) / September 4, 2018 – Fit4D, a leading diabetes management technology services company based in New York City, announced an expansion financing led by existing investor SJF Ventures with new investors C&B Capital, Esther Dyson and North Haven Capital. Existing investors Blue Cross and Blue Shield of […]

August 31, 2018

Use electrons. Not too many. All clean.

August 31, 2018 – (LinkedIn) – I attended the Electrification 2018 EPRI conference last week in Long Beach. I came away inspired to further invest in ‘electrifying everything’ to reduce carbon emissions and enhance performance and employment.  But I was also schooled by utility experts on the challenges to the grid, […]

July 30, 2018

The Wall Street Journal Discusses Optoro’s $75 Million Funding Announcement

(The Wall Street Journal) – Logistics technology specialist Optoro Inc. has raised $75 million in new funding to expand development and sales of its software aimed at helping retailers handle returns and resales of merchandise, a capability taking on greater importance under e-commerce. The new funding round, led by Franklin […]

June 28, 2018

Has healthcare technology exceeded its humanity?

June 28, 2018 – (MobiHealthNews) – It is highly likely that the following statement has been erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein, but we can hope he, at least, also had some internal debates on the topic. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” At SJF […]