# FTW Ventures

> FTW Ventures is a VC fund backing Biotechnology and Food and Beverage. See 14 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 14
- Last investment: Feb 2026
- Lead investor: 14%
- Fund size: $2M
- Last fund: Apr 2019
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ftw-ventures
- Website: http://www.ftw.vc/

FTW Ventures is a VC fund in San Francisco focused on Biotechnology and Food and Beverage. Food for Thought Worldwide (FTW) Ventures is an early-stage venture fund investing in breakthrough hardware, software and biotech solutions for the massive, worldwide Food System. We believe in feeding people better by leveraging responsible science & technology to improve the quality, access and enjoyment of food.FTW Ventures was founded byBrian Frank, a serial entrepreneur turned investor, that now serves as its General Partner.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for FTW Ventures. Shizune tracks 2 team members at FTW Ventures. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/ftw-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 7 | 50% |
| Food and Beverage | 5 | 36% |
| Agriculture | 3 | 21% |
| AgTech | 2 | 14% |
| Beauty | 2 | 14% |

30 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 12 | 86% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 7% |
| Series A | 1 | 7% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 8 | 57% |
| Canada | 1 | 7% |
| Australia | 1 | 7% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 7% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Brian Frank | General Partner | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brian-frank |
| Bill Rusitzky | Advisor & Investor | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bill-rusitzky |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Brilliant Harvest | Brilliant Harvest is an AI-powered Helpdesk designed to support equipment dealer teams throughout the customer experience (CX), from purchase to repair. | $4M | Seed | Feb 05, 2026 |  |
| ALTR | ALTR is a beverage company that offers technology and non-destructive process for reducing alcohol or drinks with less alcohol. | $5M | Seed | Jul 07, 2025 |  |
| Izote Biosciences | Biomanufacturing Scale-Up Solution | $3.1M | Pre-Seed | Feb 01, 2025 |  |
| Heritable Agriculture | Heritable Agriculture is all about using advanced breeding techniques, biotechnology, and genetic research to improve crops, making them more resilient to diseases, pests, and environmental stress. Heritable Agriculture goal is to create varieties that can produce higher yields, require fewer resources, and adapt better to changing climates. |  | Seed | Jan 29, 2025 |  |
| Earthodic | Earthodic is an Australian materials science business makes useful biobased coatings. | $3.9M | Seed | Oct 29, 2024 |  |
| Boston Bioprocess | Boston Bioprocess is a CDMO platform for bringing microbes through pilot scale to industrial scale. The company provides strain evaluation, process development, and scale-up solutions to companies seeking to commercialize yeast, bacteria, and fungal microbes for both fermentation and downstream services. The company uses large bioprocess databaseand expertise to effectively remove knowledge and capacity bottlenecks in the transition from lab to pilot then to commercial manufacturing for bio-based product development. | $6.3M | Seed | Jul 03, 2024 |  |
| Nfinite Nanotechnology | Nfinite Nanotechnology is an advanced material company that enables breakthrough innovations to redefine how we live, use, and create using open-air atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. Nfinite makes functional nanomaterials that accelerate the development and commercialization of transformative technologies for a sustainable future, such assustainable packaging, batteries, and photovoltaics. They have created a rapid open-air nanocoating system that produces large-area, high-quality, ultrathin films at up to 100x the speed of conventional ALD at a lower cost. | $6.5M | Seed | May 14, 2024 |  |
| Yali Bio | Yali Biosciences is a food tech company that uses synthetic biology and genomics tools to make climate-smart, sustainable foods. | $3.9M | Seed | Feb 22, 2022 |  |
| Phytoform Labs | Phytoform Labs is a biotechnology company which aims to help breeders to cut down plant breeding times from decades to years using new gene editing technologies. Predictably evolving plants will maximise yields for breeders and improve the economics of breeding for customers. | $5.7M | Seed | Dec 16, 2021 |  |
| Plantible Foods | Plantible Foods is a B2B food technology company producing sustainable plant-based protein to optimize the food industry. The company develops a proprietary and vertically integrated agricultural manufacturing platform to allow food companies to innovate while optimizing costs and delivering products with improved taste, texture, health, andenvironmental footprint. | $21.5M | Series A | Sep 02, 2021 |  |

10 of 14 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Eighteen94 Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/eighteen94-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Lerer Hippeau](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lerer-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Redstick Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/redstick-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [SVG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/svg-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Vectr](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/vectr) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Acre Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/acre-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [SOSV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sosv) — VC Fund
- [ARCH Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arch-venture-partners) — VC Fund
- [OrbiMed](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/orbimed-advisors) — 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
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Artesian VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/artesian-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Blackbird Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blackbird-ventures-australia) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Biotechnology Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/biotechnology-investors-australia)
- [Biotechnology VC Funds in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/biotechnology-vc-funds-australia)
- [Biotech Investors in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/biotech-investors-australia)
- [Biotech VC Funds in Australia](https://shizune.co/investors/biotech-vc-funds-australia)
- [Biotech VC Funds in Oceania](https://shizune.co/investors/biotech-vc-funds-oceania)

## FAQ

### What does FTW Ventures invest in?

FTW Ventures invests primarily in Biotechnology, Food and Beverage and Agriculture startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact FTW Ventures?

Public channels for FTW Ventures 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 FTW Ventures?

The team at FTW Ventures includes Brian Frank (General Partner) and Bill Rusitzky (Advisor & Investor). 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