# CircleUp

> CircleUp is a VC fund backing Food and Beverage and Food Processing. See 99 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 99
- Last investment: Oct 2022
- Lead investor: 26%
- Fund size: $125M
- Last fund: Oct 2017
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circleup
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/circleup
- Website: https://circleup.com/equity
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CircleUp

CircleUp is an investment platform that provides capital and resources to innovative, early-stage consumer brands with a modern, scalable approach to private markets. CircleUp is comprised of internally-managed equity funds, a credit program, and an Insights and Connections team - all powered by Helio, CircleUp's proprietary machine learningplatform. Helio collects and analyzes billions of data points to evaluates 1.3 million consumer businesses and predict future business success.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for CircleUp. Shizune tracks 10 team members at CircleUp. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/circleup-growth-partners?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $340k–$4M |
| Series A | $1.4M–$10M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food and Beverage | 41 | 41% |
| Food Processing | 16 | 16% |
| E-Commerce | 15 | 15% |
| Organic Food | 13 | 13% |
| Fashion | 11 | 11% |

67 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Funding Round | 36 | 36% |
| Series A | 22 | 22% |
| Seed | 15 | 15% |
| Series B | 10 | 10% |
| Convertible Note | 3 | 3% |

11 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 73 | 74% |
| Canada | 2 | 2% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 1% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Aditi Dashputre | Partner | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/aditi-dashputre |
| Ben Lee | Investment Committee, CircleUp Funds | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ben-lee-3 |
| Karen Howland | Managing Director | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/karen-howland |
| Patrick Robinson | Managing Director | 5 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/patrick-robinson |
| Rory Eakin | Co-Founder, Board of Directors | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rory-eakin |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Partake Foods | Partake Foods is a food and beverage company that specializes in selling allergy-friendly cookies. The company's products are free of the top 12 allergens so families can eat safely, healthfully, and deliciously — even on-the-go. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. | $20.8M | Series B | Oct 04, 2022 |  |
| Koia | Koia is a food and beverage company that specializes in manufacturing plant protein drinks. The company is driven by its mission is to empower people through plants,100% Plant-Based Protein and natural ingredients. Each 12 oz bottle is packed with 15-19g of plant-based protein with amazing taste and under 5g of sugar.The company was founded in2014 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. |  | Convertible Note | Apr 15, 2022 |  |
| Partake Brewing | Partake Brewing is the craft non-alcoholic beer brand that focuses on flavor, health, socializing, and inclusivity for people who choose not to drink alcohol whether as a need or increasingly as a lifestyle choice. | $16.5M | Series B | Mar 06, 2022 |  |
| Sanzo | Our mission is to bridge cultures by highlighting unique Asian flavors through clean, natural beverages. Our flagship line is a flavored sparkling water, crafted with real fruit and offering a refreshing experience that honors the authenticity of these bold, beloved flavors. | $10M | Series A | Feb 21, 2022 |  |
| Everything Legendary | Everything Legendary specializes in plant-based, gluten-free, and soy-free food. | $6M | Series A | Feb 08, 2022 |  |
| Mented Cosmetics | Mented Cosmetics is a direct-to-consumer beauty brand that sells makeup, skincare, and personal care products. The company focuses on creating pigmented products for various skin tones. All products are cruelty-free and vegan. | $5M | Series A | Jan 17, 2022 |  |
| Three Spirit | Three Spirit is a developer of plant-based alternatives to alcohol. Their process includes maceration, fermentation, distillation, reverse osmosis, freeze-drying, and ultrasonic extraction. It has no bubble wrap, nothing artificial, and plastic free. Three Spirit's products are made with high-quality functional ingredients grown by innovativeand ambitious cultivators. | $3.7M | Seed | Aug 03, 2021 |  |
| Verb Energy | Verb Energy makes simple, healthy, tasty energy products anyone can enjoy. Verb Energy makes healthy and delicious energy products for every day. Our flagship product is the Verb Caffeinated Energy Bar. | $8M |  | Jun 21, 2021 |  |
| Verb Energy | Verb Energy makes simple, healthy, tasty energy products anyone can enjoy. Verb Energy makes healthy and delicious energy products for every day. Our flagship product is the Verb Caffeinated Energy Bar. | $8M | Series A | Jun 21, 2021 |  |
| Los Sundays Tequila | Los Sundays is a lifestyle brand disrupting a product-focused category. Strategically built to engage organically with consumers through today's most influential channels – social media, fashion, and immersive events.Los Sundays combines original and relatable content with award-winning tequila to captivate and inspire the new generation oftequila consumers. | $3.5M | Series A | Jun 16, 2021 |  |

10 of 99 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [301](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/301-inc) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Blueberry Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blueberryventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Cambridge Companies](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cambridge-companies-2) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Echo Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/echo-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Imaginary Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/imaginary-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [GroundForce Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/powerplant-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does CircleUp invest in?

CircleUp invests primarily in Food and Beverage, Food Processing and E-Commerce startups, most often at Funding Round and Series A stage. Most of the 99 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 CircleUp's check size?

CircleUp typically joins rounds of $340k–$4M at Seed and $1.4M–$10M 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 CircleUp participates in.

### How do I contact CircleUp?

Public channels for CircleUp include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) 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 CircleUp?

The team at CircleUp includes Aditi Dashputre (Partner), Ben Lee (Investment Committee, CircleUp Funds) and Karen Howland (Managing Director), among 10 team members tracked by Shizune. 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.

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