News and Insights

In 2006, Michael Cox, a chicken farmer in northwest Arkansas, faced a choice that many farmers do: Grow or die. His family had been raising chickens for three generations, first for agriculture behemoth Cargill and then for themselves. Even with 800,000 laying hens, Cox was not big enough to compete: […]

San Francisco, CA – May 4, 2015 – SJF Ventures is pleased to announce it has invested in CA-based Raise.me, a company that is reinventing educational pathways and changing the way students access billions of dollars each year in scholarships and grants for college.  Owl Ventures, First Round Capital, Deborah Quazzo […]

Durham, NC – April 29, 2015 – Validic, the healthcare industry’s leading digital health platform, announced today that it has secured a $12.5 million Series B round led by Kaiser Permanente Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Kaiser Permanente, with participation from existing investors SJF Ventures and Greycroft Partners. The funding […]

Auburn, Washington – March 24, 2015 – SJF Ventures announced today it has led a $20 million Series D financing in Novinium, owner of patented processes for rejuvenating aged underground power cables.  Use of proceeds was for the acquisition of UtilX from Willbros Group, Inc. (NYSE: WG).  UtilX offers the proprietary, […]

Sustainable Reverse Logistics Reducing Waste and Emissions in the Retail Supply Chain 02.24.16 The retail industry faces a large and growing challenge in managing the 3.5 billion products consumers return every year, resulting in financial losses as well as environmental impacts, including 4 billion pounds of waste and 11 million […]

Nelsonville, OH, February 10, 2015 – ED MAP, Inc. has announced a new partnership that will assist Capella University respond to the changing needs and expectations for higher education institutions. ED MAP is a content strategy and logistics company, supporting over 100 institutions and 1 million students. ED MAP’s OPENVUE® […]

NEXTracker Raises $25 Million of Growth Capital Financing from SJF Ventures, Tennenbaum Capital Partners, existing investors; Doubles Manufacturing Capacity Investment Enables NEXTracker to Fulfill Expanding Customer Orders for the Solar Industry’s Most Advanced Solar PV Tracker FREMONT, CA, FEB. 9, 2015 – NEXTracker, Inc., designer and manufacturer of the world’s most advanced […]

Civitas Learning Closes $16 Million In Funding to Continue Trailblazing Efforts in Data Science and Student Success Led by Rethink Education, round includes funding from Gera Venture Capital, SJF Ventures, Austin Ventures and Emergence Capital Austin, Texas – February 3, 2015 – Civitas Learning, the Austin-based predictive analytics Software-as-a-Service (Saas) innovator […]

January 20, 2015 – SJF Ventures is pleased to announce that Bayard Capital has partnered with ServiceChannel and provided growth capital for the company.  As part of the transaction, SJF received proceeds that generated a successful return on its investment. ServiceChannel is a New York-based Software-as-a-Service company that allows facilities managers and contractors to collaborate effectively.  More than 200 brands, including […]

Nora Goldstein BioCycle January 2015, Vol. 56, No. 1, p. 28 Mark Rose’s “career” in organics recycling started at age 13 when he had a job attaching empty bags to a bagging machine at a soil products company in Austin, Texas. “I’ve been in this business ever since,” he notes, […]

Washington – December 10, 2014 –  Optoro Inc., a cloud-based technology company that enables retailers and manufacturers to increase their revenue from returned and excess inventory, today announced that it has closed a $50 million Series C funding. The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) joined […]

12/08/2014 Validic, the healthcare technology interoperability platform for aggregating digital health data, announced today the addition of several new clients and partners, as they continue to expand and grow their global digital health ecosystem. With the addition of several new notable clients in healthcare and wellness, which include WebMD, Pfizer, UPMC, NexJ, and Medhost, […]

September 15, 2014 Rustic Crust was on track for record monthly sales of its all-natural frozen pizza crusts when a fire burned its rural New Hampshire factory to the ground on March 6. Founder and CEO Brad Sterl remembers that day not for the shock or sadness he felt, but […]

Durham — August 13, 2014 — Validic has announced it has raised a $5 million Series A round.  The round was co-led by Greycroft Partners and SJF Ventures.  These funds will be used to fuel growth. The company also recently announced Frost & Sullivan named Validic the winner of the 2014 Best Practices […]

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Aurora Porter from Vital Farms visited the KCAL9 studios Friday to cook up some egg dishes with some of the healthiest eggs for you. Porter says pasture-raised hens produce the healthiest eggs. In a pasture environment, birds may live in small houses – either mobile or […]

New York — June 3, 2014 — Yieldbot, a leading provider of real-time consumer intent to digital marketers, today announced it has raised a $18 million Series B round of funding. The round was led by SJF Ventures with participation from existing investors RRE Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures and Common Angels, […]

New York –  Jun 3, 2014 – MediaMath, the creator of the TerminalOne Marketing Operating SystemTM for digital marketers, today announced a $73.5 million Series C financing round, led by Boston-based growth equity firm Spring Lake Equity Partners, formerly the private equity arm of Tudor Investment Corporation. In addition to the Series […]

Durham, NC  – May 1, 2014 – SJF is pleased to announce its investment in Ayla Networks, a Sunnyvale, CA-based company that has developed a leading IoT (“Internet of Things”) connectivity platform.  Designed for device manufacturers, as well as for retailers and service providers, Ayla’s end-to-end software solution runs across devices, cloud, […]

Raleigh, NC  – March 4, 2014 – Aseptia, a Raleigh, NC-based food processing technology company, announces the closing of a $28 million Series C Preferred Stock financing. Wright Foods is the wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Aseptia, Inc.  Aseptia/Wright Foods utilizes state-of-the-art technology developed at North Carolina State University.  This financing is to support […]

Durham, NC  – March 12, 2014 – SJF is pleased to announce its investment in Validic, a Durham, NC-based mobile health technology company and leader in providing access to standardized and actionable data across a growing spectrum of mobile health apps, wearables and in-home medical devices.  Validic’s platform offers customers the […]