# Cultivian Sandbox Ventures

> Cultivian Sandbox Ventures is a VC fund backing Biotechnology and Agriculture. See 45 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Chicago, United States
- Total investments: 45
- Last investment: Jun 2023
- Lead investor: 49%
- Fund size: $135M
- Last fund: Apr 2019
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cultivian-sandbox/
- X (Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/cultiviansbx
- Website: http://cultiviansbx.com

Cultivian Sandbox Ventures is a VC fund in Chicago focused on Biotechnology and Agriculture. Cultivian Sandbox is a venture capital firm focused on building next-generation disruptive agriculture and food technology companies capable of generating superior returns. As early investors and active board members, we employ a hands-on approach to building companies and are often directly involved in setting company strategy, recruiting keyexecutives, and raising additional capital. Much more than simply a financial resource, we are capable of delivering tremendous value though active collaboration with our strategic partners and network, which are unparalleled in the agriculture and food industries.As both experienced operating managers and venture investors we add value to portfolio companies both through our highly skilled team and extensive industry network. Our investment team combines the domain expertise and investment experience from Cultivian Ventures and Sandbox Industries. Our expertise in sourcing, evaluating, closing, managing and ultimately exiting successful equity investments positions us not only to build stronger businesses, but reshape industries.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Cultivian Sandbox Ventures. Shizune tracks 14 team members at Cultivian Sandbox Ventures. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/cultivian-sandbox-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $2M–$23M |
| Series B | $12M–$80M |
| Series C | $13M–$22M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 12 | 27% |
| Agriculture | 11 | 24% |
| Farming | 6 | 13% |
| AgTech | 4 | 9% |
| Food and Beverage | 4 | 9% |

50 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 15 | 33% |
| Series B | 10 | 22% |
| Series C | 4 | 9% |
| Seed | 3 | 7% |
| Series D | 3 | 7% |

8 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 20 | 44% |
| Canada | 1 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 2% |
| Ireland | 1 | 2% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Amanda Donohue-Hansen | Managing Director | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amanda-donohue-hansen |
| Ariel Choi | General Counsel | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ariel-choi-8b71 |
| Dan Phillips | Managing Director | 13 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dan-phillips |
| Robert Shapiro | Managing Director | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/robert-shapiro |
| Ronald Meeusen | Managing Director | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ron-meeusen-e70d |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Debut | Debut Biotech develops biotechnology-based beauty ingredients and formulations in a vertically integrated manner, beginning with AI-powered discovery and continuing through biosynthesis, biomanufacturing, downstream processing, and finished formulations. The company utilizes its BeautyORB platform to computationally screen vast chemical librariesand predict novel bioactives, which then proceed through validation, safety testing, and formulation for skincare and haircare applications. Debut employs both engineered microbial fermentation and cell-free enzymatic systems to produce these novel ingredients sustainably and then transitions them into proprietary formulations or custom white-label products. | $34M | Series B | Jun 01, 2023 |  |
| Debut | Debut Biotech develops biotechnology-based beauty ingredients and formulations in a vertically integrated manner, beginning with AI-powered discovery and continuing through biosynthesis, biomanufacturing, downstream processing, and finished formulations. The company utilizes its BeautyORB platform to computationally screen vast chemical librariesand predict novel bioactives, which then proceed through validation, safety testing, and formulation for skincare and haircare applications. Debut employs both engineered microbial fermentation and cell-free enzymatic systems to produce these novel ingredients sustainably and then transitions them into proprietary formulations or custom white-label products. | $40M | Series B | Jun 01, 2023 |  |
| Leaf Agriculture | Leaf Agriculture is the provider of a unified farm data API and it builds the future of food and agriculture. | $5M | Seed | Mar 29, 2022 |  |
| Full Harvest | Full Harvest helps growers get the most out of a harvest and food companies save money by bringing farm excess to market.We are a B2B platform connecting large farms to food businesses to sell significantly discounted, yet perfectly good surplus and imperfectly shaped produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.Approx. 20 billion pounds ofproduce go to waste in the U.S. annually simply because they are not perfectly shaped for strict retailer standards. We aim to solve this problem by creating a marketplace for this unutilized edible and delicious produce.Our vision is three-fold: bring an additional revenue stream to farmers, lower the cost of healthy food production, while significantly reducing wasted food and resources. A win-win for everyone. | $23M | Series B | Dec 17, 2021 |  |
| Full Harvest | Full Harvest helps growers get the most out of a harvest and food companies save money by bringing farm excess to market.We are a B2B platform connecting large farms to food businesses to sell significantly discounted, yet perfectly good surplus and imperfectly shaped produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.Approx. 20 billion pounds ofproduce go to waste in the U.S. annually simply because they are not perfectly shaped for strict retailer standards. We aim to solve this problem by creating a marketplace for this unutilized edible and delicious produce.Our vision is three-fold: bring an additional revenue stream to farmers, lower the cost of healthy food production, while significantly reducing wasted food and resources. A win-win for everyone. | $23M | Series B | Dec 17, 2021 |  |
| Nuritas | Nuritas is revolutionising the discovery of novel, natural and scientifically proven active ingredients that can manage and improve human health. The company’s disruptive computational approach to discovery uses artificial intelligence and genomics to, for the first time ever, rapidly and efficiently predict and then provide access to the mosthealth-benefiting components hidden within food, called bioactive peptides. | $45M | Series B | Nov 11, 2021 |  |
| Culture Biosciences | Culture Biosciences provides a platform of cloud-connected bioreactors, software tools, and process development services that support upstream bioprocess development for biotech and biopharma applications. The company’s offerings include remote experiment design, monitoring, and data analysis through an integrated cloud software interface pairedwith single-use bioreactors for microbial fermentation and cell culture experimentation. Its services encompass clone and strain screening, process optimization, characterization, and bioprocess modeling to help scientific teams refine and scale their workflows. Clients access real-time data and analytics to inform decisions and collaborate across teams using the platform’s tools. Culture Biosciences’s technology is used to advance development of therapeutics, synthetic biology products, and related bioprocesses. Culture Biosciences was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $80M | Series B | Oct 14, 2021 |  |
| Yard Stick | Yard Stick measures soil carbon. Scientists and farmers alike know that climate-friendly agricultural practices have the potential to remove atmospheric CO2 at gigaton/year scale. When these practices are adopted, more carbon is stored in soils, improving soil health and fighting climate change. But significant measurement challenges have heldsoil carbon efforts back - until now.By reducing the cost of soil carbon measurement by 90%+, Yard Stick will dramatically expand the opportunities for evidence-based regenerative practices to simultaneously improve ecosystem health, increase farmer income, and combat climate change. | $5M | Seed | Sep 17, 2021 |  |
| Debut | Debut Biotech develops biotechnology-based beauty ingredients and formulations in a vertically integrated manner, beginning with AI-powered discovery and continuing through biosynthesis, biomanufacturing, downstream processing, and finished formulations. The company utilizes its BeautyORB platform to computationally screen vast chemical librariesand predict novel bioactives, which then proceed through validation, safety testing, and formulation for skincare and haircare applications. Debut employs both engineered microbial fermentation and cell-free enzymatic systems to produce these novel ingredients sustainably and then transitions them into proprietary formulations or custom white-label products. | $22.6M | Series A | Aug 12, 2021 |  |
| Debut | Debut Biotech develops biotechnology-based beauty ingredients and formulations in a vertically integrated manner, beginning with AI-powered discovery and continuing through biosynthesis, biomanufacturing, downstream processing, and finished formulations. The company utilizes its BeautyORB platform to computationally screen vast chemical librariesand predict novel bioactives, which then proceed through validation, safety testing, and formulation for skincare and haircare applications. Debut employs both engineered microbial fermentation and cell-free enzymatic systems to produce these novel ingredients sustainably and then transitions them into proprietary formulations or custom white-label products. | $22.6M | Series A | Aug 12, 2021 |  |

10 of 45 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Sandbox Industries](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sandbox-industries) — VC Fund, 17 deals together
- [Cavallo Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cavallo-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Middleland Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/middleland-capital) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Radicle Growth](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/radicle) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Open Prairie](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/open-prairie) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Pangaea Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pangaea-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Cultivian Sandbox Ventures invest in?

Cultivian Sandbox Ventures invests primarily in Biotechnology, Agriculture and Farming startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 45 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 Cultivian Sandbox Ventures's check size?

Cultivian Sandbox Ventures typically joins rounds of $2M–$23M at Series A, $12M–$80M at Series B and $13M–$22M at Series C. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Cultivian Sandbox Ventures participates in.

### How do I contact Cultivian Sandbox Ventures?

Public channels for Cultivian Sandbox Ventures 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 Cultivian Sandbox Ventures?

The team at Cultivian Sandbox Ventures includes Amanda Donohue-Hansen (Managing Director), Ariel Choi (General Counsel) and Dan Phillips (Managing Director), among 14 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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