Food tech investment may have declined along with overall venture capital, but Bluestein Ventures is not letting that slow it down.
The Chicago-based early-stage venture capital firm closed on $45 million in capital commitments for its Fund III.
Andrew Bluestein, co-managing partner of Bluestein Ventures, founded the firm in 2014 and brought on Ashley Hartman, also co-managing partner, eight years ago.
They join other venture capital firms, like Kost Capital, Supply Change Capital and Joyful Ventures, that have recently raised new funds to invest in food tech.
“When we started Bluestein Ventures, people would ask us why we were investing in food,” Bluestein told TechCrunch.
Fintech company Kashable is the latest to also grab some venture capital attention for its approach to offering credit and financial wellness products as an employer-sponsored voluntary benefit.
In total, the company raised $45 million in equity capital and over $175 million in debt capital.
Financial wellness is one of the areas many of the startups get into.
“When we first started our journey in 2013, financial wellness was just an emerging concept,” Kumar told TechCrunch.
In addition, Kashable offers financial education resources, including credit monitoring, individual financial coaching and budgeting tools.
In some parts of the world (read: Japan, primarily), eldercare has been an important robotics focus for decades.
In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, Intuition Robotics has been promoting a “companion” robot since 2016 or so.
The latest version of the robot features design tweaks, more powerful hardware and — of course — generative AI integration.
The company is exploring other avenues with generative AI, as well here.
“One example is the ability to paint or write poems together, activities that contribute to cognitive wellness and creativity,” Intuition notes.
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