Habitat Happenings

Haven Energy's fresh $40M, welcoming Hetal Retail

Daniel Faierman, Blake Lyon, JB Osborne & Emily Heyward
January 08, 2026

Habitat Friends and Supporters,

If you're receiving this, you're a founder, investor, or operator that we have genuinely enjoyed engaging with in the past… and/or someone we simply admire!

Our goal: to keep our community informed on what’s happening at Habitat Partners in hopes of finding opportunities to collaborate with you in the future.

For a quick refresher on us, check out our website.

Thanks for reading our year end update and hope to hear from you soon!

PS: check out our recent feature in Beauty Independent ⬇️

Habitat Partners On Valuation Discipline, Founder Dilution And The State Of Play In Consumer VC

Habitat Partners, the venture capital firm born out of branding agency Red Antler, explains how it invests in early-stage beauty brands.

www.beautyindependent.com/habitat-partners-valuation-discipline-founder-dilution-state-play-consumer-vc

(1) 💫 Recent NEW Investments

🏪 Hetal Retail (Seed+) - retail technology platform that empowers brands to maximize in-store shelf visibility for minimal cost (starting at $1.75 per store per month) via computer vision AI. Hiring for Senior Software Full-Stack Engineer, Front End Developer, and Operations Manager.

Hetal separates the auditing and correction functions traditionally paired in a merchandising visit. Hetal leverages weekly shoppers (lovingly called "Hetalites) to record store aisles throughout the day/week, and analyzes that data to extract high quality, image-backed, digestible shelf data at a fraction of the cost. Brands like Grüns, Arrae, Plant People, Lemme, Mezcla, Little Spoon, Oats Overnight, Everyday Dose, O Positiv Health, Mid-Day Squares, Beekeeper's Naturals, Nara Organics, Caraway Home are all using Hetal.

📩 Ping us for a demo! It’s a no brainer 🧠

(2) Habitat Partners Job Board (150+ roles)

(3) 📰 Portfolio Companies in the News

🧃 Roxberry: Roxberry just went live in 2,200 Walmarts! Use the store locator here to stock up. The U.S. kids beverage category is such a huge opportunity… an almost $19 billion market in 2024, forecasted to reach roughly $30 billion by 2033 at ~5–6% CAGR as childhood obesity in the U.S. has reaches 19.7% prevalence amongst kids 6–11 largely driven by sugary beverages.

💡Haven Energy: the high-growth climate tech company announced $40M in fresh equity and debt funding in the WSJ to scale the installation of more solar panels in California homes with batteries. London-based Giant Ventures led a $15M investment with participation from Comcast Ventures and the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.

💰️ Farther: Farther Co-Founder and CTO Brad Genser joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the firm’s objectives and what sets it apart from typical wealth management practices.

🪖 Scout AI: Scout was selected as a winner of the U.S. Army's xTechOverwatch Competition. The U.S. Army's xTech program is designed to identify world-class technologies and accelerate its transition into capabilities that strengthen the Department of War.

🤖 Figure AI: has become one of the most sought-after employers in AI, receiving 176,000 applications since its 2022 launch and hiring fewer than 500. The company’s ultra-selective recruiting reflects the intensifying race for top robotics talent as competition heats up across the sector. Figure recently announced ‘Project Go-Big,’ an attempt to build the world’s largest and most diverse humanoid pretraining dataset, accelerated by an unprecedented partnership with Brookfield, which owns over 100,000 residential units worldwide.

🛍️ Endear: the AI-powered CRM for retail launched a partnership with Leap. Leap manages every aspect of physical retail, from real estate to staffing. At the same time, Endear equips sales associates with data-driven, personalized clienteling tools.

🥯 PopUp Bagels: the buzzy bagelry is now live in California (Brentwood and La Jolla), Florida (Tampa, Jacksonville, Delray, and Carollwood), and Maine.

Check out PopUp’s latest feature in Bloomberg 📽️

PopUp Is Wall Street’s Bet a National Chain Can Actually Make Good Bagels

The viral startup won over New York with its smaller, fluffier bagels and now plans to expand to 300 stores in the next four years.

www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-10-24/popup-bagels-is-opening-300-new-stores-across-the-us?embedded-checkout=true

🫧 Sincerely Yours: Just months after launching, SY was named one BeautyMatter’s FUTURE50 Brands defining the future of Beauty and Wellness. SY’s So Soft Daily Moisturizer was also named Byrdie’s best overall moisturizer for teens…

… and in good company, InnBeauty Project’s Extreme Cream was named one of Byrdie’s 15 best moisturizers for all skin types. InnBeauty Project’s Extreme Cream was also ranked #4 overall and #1 in skincare on ShopMy’s 2025 Top 10 Beauty Products by Sales list.

🍫 Mezcla: Mezcla is now live at select Costcos with its delicious Pistachio Chocolate Puff Crispy Bar. A great way to start the new year!

🥦 Rooted Restaurants: Rooted CEO/Founder, Lily Rivkin, was featured in QSR Magazine’s Women Shaping the Future of Restaurants.

🧴 Elm Biosciences: Elm was featured in Vogue’s Guide to the Best Anti-Aging Serums. Co-Founder Martha Stewart shared Elm on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.