# BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation

> BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation is a VC fund backing Software and Health Care. See 64 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Milwaukee, United States
- Total investments: 64
- Last investment: Jan 2025
- Lead investor: 27%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/5290447
- Website: http://www.brightstarwi.org/

BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on funding for-profit early-stage companies. It works with works with government, educational institutions, other charitable organizations, angel groups, and venture funds to identify, invest or co-invest in, mentor, and promote fast growing early-stage companies to createtechnology-based jobs in Wisconsin.BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation was founded in 2013 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation. Shizune tracks 4 team members at BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/brightstar-wisconsin-found?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $50k–$2.7M |
| Series A | $250k–$5.5M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 19 | 30% |
| Health Care | 16 | 25% |
| Information Technology | 8 | 13% |
| Medical | 7 | 11% |
| SaaS | 4 | 6% |

98 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 31 | 48% |
| Funding Round | 14 | 22% |
| Series A | 3 | 5% |
| Angel | 2 | 3% |
| Grant | 2 | 3% |

7 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 49 | 77% |
| Singapore | 1 | 2% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Andy Shrago | Investment Committee | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andy-shrago |
| Jeffery Harris | Founder & Chairman | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jeffery-harris |
| Michael Malatesta | Investment Committee Member | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mike-malatesta-022a |
| Thomas Shannon | President and CEO | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/thomas-shannon |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Optical X | Optical X is an online and offline retail platform that offers eyecare products including eyewear, contact lenses, and dry-eye products. | $2M | Seed | Jan 15, 2025 |  |
| Midwest Games | Midwest Games is a video game publisher focused on creating opportunities that build meaningful change take a community working together. | $3M | Seed | Oct 30, 2023 |  |
| CHILD Health Imprints | Child Health Imprints is engaged in the development and application of cutting edge informational and computational technologies including IoT, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to the practice of medicine in neonatal intensive care units across the world with the objective of making early diagnosis of critical diseases and improvingoverall quality of healthcare which is being provided to neonates. | $2.5M | Seed | Jan 09, 2023 |  |
| DropCap | DropCap is a tech-enabled rights agency (dropcap.com) and a global rights marketplace used by rights agents and acquisitions editors around the world to find great books (dropcapmarketplace.com). Our mission is to provide independent authors and publishers access to rights licensing opportunities and help indie books go global through foreignrights, audio, and film rights licensing. | $830.5K | Seed | Jun 24, 2022 |  |
| ReadySet | ReadySet is the first immersive 3D VR software designed for product manufacturers, retailers and researchers to autonomously design, test, and implement retail solutions. Learn how CPGs are using virtual reality to innovate amid inventory shortages. This white paper explores how companies are using virtual reality as a collaborative space forin-store planning and market research. It includes information on 3D product libraries, digital store planning, VR market research, and the case study "Does Life-Size VR Replicate Real-World Testing". | $3.3M | Seed | May 27, 2022 |  |
| Spotz | Spotz is a marketplace that connects renters seeking space with hosts. With Spotz, almost any space can be rented and monetized, and we give hosts the tools they need to ensure the process is painless. | $100K | Seed | Mar 15, 2022 |  |
| Immuto Scientific | Immuto Scientific is a biotechnology services company that provides analytical insights to pharmaceutical companies for drug discovery. | $2.3M | Seed | Oct 08, 2021 |  |
| Agricycle | Provider of organic dried fruits intended to empower rural women farmers by transforming waste into opportunity. The company provides all-natural, organic dried fruits and gluten-free flour while empowering women to have sustainable, local jobs and provide them with resources to enable them to better care for their families and themselves,providing consumers with healthy, free and additive free snacks. | $2.4M | Seed | Sep 10, 2021 |  |
| Agricycle | Agricycle is a house of ethical brands using a systems-based zero waste approach to international development. The company transforms food waste and agricultural byproducts across the world into all-natural and organic CPG brands.Agricycle buys the products created using their technology and makes on-trend brands focused on storytelling, naturalfoods, sustainability, and transparency. Each brand uses the byproducts of others, and local products and industries are created with what cannot be exported. This maximizes margins because each brand uses the same supply chain and very similar production process. | $2.4M | Seed | Sep 01, 2021 |  |
| Agricycle | Agricycle is a house of ethical brands using a systems-based zero waste approach to international development. The company transforms food waste and agricultural byproducts across the world into all-natural and organic CPG brands.Agricycle buys the products created using their technology and makes on-trend brands focused on storytelling, naturalfoods, sustainability, and transparency. Each brand uses the byproducts of others, and local products and industries are created with what cannot be exported. This maximizes margins because each brand uses the same supply chain and very similar production process. | $1.5M | Seed | Apr 24, 2020 |  |

10 of 64 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Wisconsin Investment Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/wisconsin-investment-partners) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [gener8tor](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gener8tor) — VC Fund, 9 deals together
- [Angels on the Water](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/angels-on-the-water) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Golden Angels Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/golden-angels-investors) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Cream City Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cream-city-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Tundra Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tundra-angels) — VC Fund, 4 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Casa Verde Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/casa-verde-capital) — VC Fund
- [Poseidon Asset Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/poseidon-assetmanagement) — VC Fund
- [Phyto Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/phyto-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Food and Beverage VC Funds in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/food-and-beverage-vc-funds-united-states)
- [Food and Beverage Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/food-and-beverage-investors-united-states)
- [Construction Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/construction-investors-united-states)
- [Construction VC Funds in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/construction-vc-funds-united-states)
- [Crowdfunding Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/crowdfunding-investors)
- [Crowdfunding VC Funds](https://shizune.co/investors/crowdfunding-vc-funds)

## FAQ

### What does BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation invest in?

BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation invests primarily in Software, Health Care and Information Technology startups, most often at Seed and Funding Round stage. Most of the 64 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation's check size?

BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation typically joins rounds of $50k–$2.7M at Seed and $250k–$5.5M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation participates in.

### How do I contact BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation?

Public channels for BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation?

The team at BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation includes Andy Shrago (Investment Committee), Jeffery Harris (Founder & Chairman) and Michael Malatesta (Investment Committee Member). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co