# Joyful Ventures

> Joyful Ventures is a VC fund in West Hollywood backing Food and Beverage and SaaS. See 6 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: West Hollywood, United States
- Total investments: 6
- Last investment: Apr 2025
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joyful-vc/
- Website: https://www.joyful.vc/

Joyful Ventures is a social-impact venture fund investing in the future of sustainable protein.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.5M–$12M |
| Pre-Seed | $1.7M–$1.8M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Food and Beverage | 2 | 33% |
| SaaS | 1 | 17% |
| Analytics | 1 | 17% |
| Biotechnology | 1 | 17% |
| Machine Learning | 1 | 17% |

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 2 | 33% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 33% |
| Angel | 1 | 17% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Canada | 2 | 33% |
| South Africa | 1 | 17% |
| United States | 1 | 17% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nakitora AI LLC | NAKITORA’s mission is to accelerate food & beverage (F&B) innovation by harnessing real-time AI insights, helping brands create the right products for the right consumers, faster than ever. Their core product, TasteGPT™, is a generative intelligence platform that ingests 10M+ daily data points (menus, reviews, social, e-retail), using adomain-tuned LLM and real-time vector search to instantly surface emerging trends and unmet needs. They serve global F&B brands, CPGs, and innovators who need rapid, data-driven product development. Compared to batch analytics or generic tools, NAKITORA offers real-time, domain-specific ideation and zero-survey prediction. | $1.8M | Pre-Seed | Apr 07, 2025 |  |
| Nakitora AI LLC | NAKITORA’s mission is to accelerate food & beverage (F&B) innovation by harnessing real-time AI insights, helping brands create the right products for the right consumers, faster than ever. Their core product, TasteGPT™, is a generative intelligence platform that ingests 10M+ daily data points (menus, reviews, social, e-retail), using adomain-tuned LLM and real-time vector search to instantly surface emerging trends and unmet needs. They serve global F&B brands, CPGs, and innovators who need rapid, data-driven product development. Compared to batch analytics or generic tools, NAKITORA offers real-time, domain-specific ideation and zero-survey prediction. | $600K | Angel | Sep 03, 2024 |  |
| De Novo Foodlabs | Producing non-animal dairy proteins using precision fermentation | $1.5M | Seed | Aug 19, 2024 |  |
| Maia Farms | Maia provides B2B production of CanPro, a mushroom-based protein to the food manufacturers seeking a high-quality ingredient. | $1.7M | Pre-Seed | May 02, 2024 |  |
| Jellatech | Jellatech is a B2B biotech business based in Raleigh, NC, and with R&D in Wageningen, Netherlands. Jellatech is producing high-quality, pure, animal-free collagen and gelatin. Founded by a group of innovators, dreamers, entrepreneurs, and scientists, Jellatech is eliminating the dependency on animals, to make better ingredient products -starting with collagen and gelatin. | $3.5M | Seed | Aug 22, 2023 |  |
| New School Foods | New School Foods creates plant-based seafood with the same texture, flavor, nutritional benefits, and cooking experience as traditional seafood. The first product of the company is a plant-based filet that looks, cooks, and tastes like wild salmon. The company aims to accelerate the transition to a kinder, more sustainable food system. | $12M | Seed | Feb 02, 2023 |  |

6 of 6 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [BaseCamp Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/basecamp-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Blue Horizon Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blue-horizon-corporation) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Bluestein Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bluestein-associates) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [byFounders](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/byfounders) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Catalyx VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/catalyx-vc) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Clear Current Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/clear-current-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

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## FAQ

### What does Joyful Ventures invest in?

Joyful Ventures invests primarily in Food and Beverage, SaaS and Analytics startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Joyful Ventures's check size?

Joyful Ventures typically joins rounds of $1.5M–$12M at Seed and $1.7M–$1.8M at Pre-Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Joyful Ventures participates in.

### When did Joyful Ventures last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Joyful Ventures closed in Apr 2025. Shizune tracks 6 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### 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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