Joyance Partners

Looking for what it calls delightful moments, Joyance Partners is a venture fund that backs products which leave people feeling calmer, stronger or happier and more in control of their lives. It seeks out emerging science and tech able to deliver those experiences, and it describes its goal as finding products at their point of origin and helping them reach people worldwide. A sister fund, Social Starts, runs alongside it.

Science and technology across health and consumer sectors

The fund focuses on health and consumer companies from pre-seed to Series A. Its areas of interest take in microbiome science, neuroscience, genetics and bioscience, immersive headsets and other mixed-reality tools, next-generation food and drink, and community. The firm says that, together with Social Starts, it is the first venture fund to concentrate on how individuals experience health, and it invests in companies that cultivate joy through science and tech across North America, Europe and Asia. Its stress on the individual's own experience means it judges emerging products by how each person lives with them, rather than by the machinery used to deliver care.

Fundamentals for steady investing and recent deals

The managing partner writes about early-stage investing and has interviewed founders, among them the head of a company building an all-plant alternative to animal fur. The firm says it follows five fundamentals to keep its funds steady in good times and bad, and it argues that large companies should get in early and think more creatively about their role in emerging science. Its recent investments include Exponent Beauty and Alba Health.