Investment Portfolio
(This list includes all investments of $500,000 or more, displayed alphabetically.)
Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene was founded by the former heads of Kite Pharma and is a clinical stage biotech company focused on developing off the shelf (allogeneic) CAR-T therapies for various cancers and more recently for autoimmune diseases. In addition to a founder’s stake, Sonostar and its principals have invested in multiple private and public rounds in the company and have purchased shares at their recently distressed levels (sub $2) in the public markets. In 2024, Allogene pivoted its lead program to Cema-Cel, a 240 patient trial for patients with Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) following standard of care treatment for Large B Cell Lymphoma. Following an interim analysis in mid-2025, the trial will proceed with its preferred lymphodepletion methodology with an expected readout against the primary endpoint of event free survival in late 2026. Simultaneously, the company intends to advance its compounds in a mid-stage trial treating solid tumors in renal cell cancer and an early-stage trial testing allogeneic CAR-T in autoimmune disease.
American River Fund
Sonostar and its principals and affiliates invested $2 million as LPs in the American Rivers Fund in Q4 2021. ARF is a wholly owned and actively managed fund of Maritime Partners LLC, which recently became the largest owner/lessor of Jones Act marine vessels in the United States after its successful acquisition of J. Russell Flowers, Inc. in Dec 2021. With a fleet of over 1,600 vessels in service, Maritime Partners offers leasing services to ship operators across the country, with a focus on inland marine barges and tugboats. ARF is targeting a tax advantaged annual distributed yield in the low teens in addition to the potential for price appreciation on its managed fleet.
Andersen, Renewal by
Renewal by Andersen is the nation’s largest residential window replacement business. With individual businesses established based on specific geographic territories, RbA is a direct-to-consumer marketing solution that sells and installs high quality Andersen replacement windows in consumer’s homes throughout the country. Moore Holdings (controlled by Sonostar Partner, David Moore) owns a controlling interest and Sonostar principals and affiliates own a significant minority interest in the RbA Long Island, New Jersey, Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, Fairfield, CT, Westchester County, NY and Midwest territories. Excluding the Moore Holdings investment, Sonostar principals have individually and through affiliated entities invested several million dollars in multiple investments in what continues to be our most successful investment to date.
Andie
With operations in New York and Australia, Andie is a global direct-to-consumer women’s bathing suit and swimwear company. The inclusive brand, which takes pride in being created for every woman, every activity and every body type, has distinguished itself with its high quality, attractive, competitively priced products since its launch in 2018. Sonostar principals invested in two rounds for this venture, and, since inception, revenue growth has been consistently strong. The company finished 2024 with $20 million in net revenue and is projecting modest revenue growth and achievement of profitability for 2025. The company is also working toward significant growth through wholesale partners and expanded product offerings in 2026.
ARCA Family of Funds
Arca Funds is an asset management firm that provides investors the ability to gain direct exposure to the Digital Asset and cryptocurrency sectors. Arca launched their flagship Digital Asset Fund (DAF) in 2018. That fund has recently generated extraordinary returns and has helped solidify Arca as one of the leading digital asset management firms with over $1 billion under management. In addition to DAF, Arca launched their Bitcoin Trust, offering direct exposure to Bitcoin; Endeavor Fund in late 2021 targeting early-stage ventures; and an NFT focused fund in Q4 2021. In early 2025, Arca also launched the first institutional fund focused on AI applications in the digital asset space. Sonostar’s principals have been impressed with the portfolio management team at Arca since first investing as LPs in late 2020 and have invested several million dollars in each of the Arca funds.
Baby Generation
Baby Generation is a direct-to-consumer baby stroller, highchair and related baby products company. Since inception, the company developed a high-end stroller with all the features and positives of an UPPA Baby or Bugaboo stroller offered at less than half the price. The company has had immediate success – generating positive cashflow from year one. In 2024, the company had more than $45 million in net revenues and continues to remain EBITDA positive as it expands its physical retail presence across a growing number of Target stores.
By Heart Infant Formula
Sonostar and its principals invested in this infant formula business in 2019. Since that time, the company purchased its own manufacturing facilities and completed testing of its infant nutrition products, successfully achieving coveted FDA approval. Through ownership of its supply chain as well as the manufacturing facilities, the company is well on its way to becoming the 4th fully integrated U.S. based, FDA registered infant nutrition company in the world. The goal of the company is to provide the infant nutrition category with next generation quality based on the most current nutritional science. The company launched its first commercial product in 2021, and by year-end 2024 was operating at a $100 million plus revenue run rate. Most recently, in addition to its direct-to-consumer success, the company has launched in Target, Walmart, Amazon and other top nationwide retailers. Sonostar has invested in multiple rounds, most recently in early spring of 2025.
Candid Therapeutics
Candid Therapeutics is developing potentially transformative drugs to address a spectrum of autoimmune diseases. The company was formed through the acquisition of two therapeutics already in clinical-stage development with T-Cell Engagers (TCE’s) that they believe will revolutionize autoimmune disease therapy. The vision of taking TCE’s, a class of cell therapy that has already proven to be successful in oncology and applying them to the autoimmune field was pioneered by Candid’s founder, Ken Song. Song recently sold his last company, RayzeBio, to Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1bln, and is well known in the biotech community for working smart, hard and fast to develop companies from early stage to attractive acquisition targets. The company successfully closed a Series A round in mid-2024, followed by a Series B closing later that same year. The company is actively working on an SEC filing for an IPO with hopes of going public in 2025. Sonostar and its investing affiliates participated in the Series A alongside our longtime partner, Two River Group.
Community, Inc.
Community is a marketing and data analytics platform offering enterprises—businesses, sports teams, politicians, entertainers—interactive and personable contact with their customers via SMS messaging. Community creates a unique phone number for clients to share as a new line of communication and offers AI messaging enhancements and unique response clustering capabilities to elevate their target audience’s experience from simple messaging to a feeling of genuine engagement. The company collects and manages customer datasets on behalf of their client, providing Community users exclusive ownership of their own customer data. They offer a seamless integration of their User Interface into an enterprise’s existing marketing platform, or can facilitate a more active role in market strategy and campaign development. Sonostar made an initial investment in early 2023 primarily to fund the continued development of their offering and growth of their customer base. The company has since brought in new management and successfully closed an additional round of funding in early 2025, in which Sonostar participated, to provide fresh runway for the new team to reach their target of profitability alongside continued growth in the next 24 months.
Desert Light Capital
Desert Light is a Hedge Fund started by Noah Kazam in 2022. The Fund focuses on publicly listed large to mega-cap technology-driven businesses with an emphasis on software, internet and information services sub-sectors. Their flagship Fund, Desert Light Capital LP, manages a select portfolio of core long positions, offset by more distributed alpha shorts and hedges. Since inception, Desert Light has produced a net return of +14.2%, +11.3% and +40.8% for 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively. In 2025, the team launched their second Fund, the Desert Light Select Long Only Fund, which offers long only exposure without the alpha short or hedge offset. Sonostar and its principals have invested in both of Desert Light’s active Funds as we believe Noah’s extraordinary due diligence and skillful trading discipline offer unique exposure to an otherwise crowded market sector. The results so far have been excellent.
Hubble
Hubble is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce subscription service providing comfortable daily and extended wear contact lenses to consumers at a price that is 30 – 50% less expensive than the brand leaders. Sonostar principals and Two River Group were significant founding investors and have participated in each subsequent investment round. With its addition of Contacts Cart, Hubble offers a full range of contact lens prescriptions for consumers, including most of the leading brands. The company is EBITDA positive and generating revenue at an approximately $50+ million annual run rate. Hubble hired former 1-800-Flowers.com Executive, Steve Druckman, as CEO to further drive growth, and help take Hubble to the next level.
Kronos Bio
Kronos began its operations with proprietary drug screening technologies and has used those technologies to identify novel therapies designed to make inroads against untreatable cancer targets. After failing with two in-licensed compounds from Gilead to treat AML and facing setbacks in its two clinical programs – one to suppress MYC driven transcription and one to reduce cell growth and Androgen Receptor expression in treatment resistant prostate cancer cell lines, Kronos has decided to seek a strategic solution to maximize shareholder value. Sonostar provided $1 million in Founder capital and has provided additional capital in multiple subsequent rounds, alongside our partners from Two River Group. We expect a sale, merger or liquidation to be completed in 2025.
Neogene Therapeutics
Sonostar and its principals invested alongside Two River Group in the initial and subsequent funding of this pre-clinical biotech company focused on identifying T Cell receptor (TCR) genes in solid tumors and identifying appropriate neo-antigen personalized T Cell therapies to treat these cancers. The company was sold to Glaxo Smith Kline at a price that provided an attractive initial return for Sonostar and affiliates, and has recently achieved a significant milestone in early 2025 that will deliver additional substantial return to investors.
Plum Life
Founded in 2020, Plum Life offered a proprietary digital life insurance selling platform that has been designed exclusively to benefit the Insurance Agent. The company’s wholistic approach was devised to enhance the agent’s entire experience from underwriting, quote generation, application and policy issuance. Sonostar invested $2.5 million in the initial and subsequent funding of Plum Life. In late 2023, Plum was acquired by The Simplicity Group in a cash and stock deal that provided a return of capital and a small positive return. Sonostar has subsequently sold most of its Simplicity stock for an additional positive return.
Red Starr Investments, LLC
Since its inception in 2010, Red Starr has produced a successful track record of bringing an institutional approach to smaller deals within the commercial real estate market. Their recent focus has been on opportunities arising from the impact of high short-term interest rates on property owners and lenders. The changing interest rate environment has left owners in need of ‘rescue capital’ for what are often strong real estate assets with near-term debt maturities. This enabled Red Starr to step in offering a blend of preferred equity and mezzanine debt which creates a debt-like risk profile with the potential for equity-like returns for their LPs. The number of opportunities they came across enabled them to fully invest their 2023 vintage Fund and still have enough deals in the pipeline to launch their Red Starr Fund IV in late 2024. Sonostar and its affiliates have committed $3 million to Red Starr’s latest Fund which has an expected investment drawdown period of three years.
Rilla Voice
Rilla offers the premier speech analytics software for industries involving in-person sales of products or services. Rilla records transactions between sales reps and their potential customers, then uses AI software to transcribe, analyze and provide in-depth feedback for reps and sales managers to increase their overall close rates. The company has had immediate success offering their SaaS to the home remodeling and services industry, and plans to explore new verticals such as pharma, autos and high-end retail in the near-term. Rilla’s YoY progress has already placed it among the fastest growing SaaS startups in history.
Symbiotic Capital
Symbiotic is a specialty credit fund seeking to position itself as a top lender to Life Science companies. Symbiotic believes that the recent financing challenges in the biotech and life sciences market provide an opportunity for secured lending to either late-development or commercial-stage companies with targeted returns in the mid to high teens and robust downside protection. Along with their capital, Symbiotic brings an extremely well-known management team to the market, including their Co-Chairman Arie Belldegrun, which works as an added attraction as a lender to companies addressing their financing needs. Symbiotic has already put over half of their capital to work in a number of high yielding, well structured financings since launching in late 2023.
Taxi Revival Alliance
Taxi Revival Alliance was launched in 2019 to gain direct exposure to New York City’s yellow cab business through the purchase of a portfolio of New York City taxi Medallions. Sonostar and its principals invested as LPs in the fund at its inception to take advantage of their compelling income projections, as well as in a subsequent round during the peak of the pandemic when medallion prices fell to record lows. Not withstanding the extraordinary difficulties presented by the pandemic and its aftermath, In 2024, the General Partners were able to sell all of the medallions for a modest profit and completed the distributions of proceeds to LPs in early 2025.
Vitralogy
Vitralogy is an OaaS platform that was originally founded to fully automate data analysis of cooling towers in offices, hotels and apartment buildings to assure compliance with regulations regarding the presence and measurement of Legionella disease. The platform has been expanded to provide an end-to-end solution enabling building owners to ensure full and complete compliance with a host of regulations and building management applications. In addition to Legionella, Vitralogy is offering a suite of services to the commercial real estate market enabling assurance of regulatory compliance and cost-effective monitoring solutions. Sonostar’s principals have invested several hundred thousand dollars in this new technology solution which had its second year of accelerating profitability in 2024 with substantial projected EBITDA growth in 2025.
Some of our prior successes and failures
Successes
Paradigm Direct – A performance marketing company – sold to Mosaic for $200 million. Our original investment was made at a $6 million post money valuation.
Velcera (Pet Armor) – A generic flea and tick product company sold to Perrigo for $160 million, approximately 4x our investment.
USHS – the largest kitchen and deck remodeling company in the US, IPO’ed for 10x our investment and subsequently sold to Home Depot at a premium to its public share price.
Marquis Jets – The first 25-hour private jet card subscription service. Sold to Net Jets for 3x return.
Wintegra – a fabless semiconductor company providing single chip solutions for the convergence of voice and data infrastructure – sold to PMC – Sierra for $240 million.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals – early-stage biotech company focused on development of perifosene for cancer as well as various drugs for chronic kidney disease. IPO’ed and subsequently sold shares in the market at prices ranging between $7 - $18 per share vs our blended purchase price of approximately $3.
Kite Pharma – under the leadership of Arie Belldegrun, Kite developed one of the first CAR T drugs to be approved by the FDA. We were an early investor and participant in Kite’s IPO. The Company sold to Gilead for $11.9 billion in late 2017. We realized a 4x+ multiple on our investment.
Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) – Sonostar and its principals established a large position in shares of GBT in the low 30’s in Q4 2018 in anticipation of accelerated approval for Voxeletor, GBT’s lead drug candidate for the treatment of sickle cell disease. Sonostar exited its position in the mid 70’s in Q4 2019 following approval and launch of the drug.
Aqua Finance – We purchased our original investment alongside Blackstone in 2018 at a $200 million valuation and subsequently sold to Apollo/Athene in 2023 at a multiple of that valuation.
Some Failures
Double Agent – interactive search engine and information organization portal. Company was unable to raise additional funds and closed in 2001.
Leading Web Advertisers – An advertising monitoring service providing real time advertising tracking on the internet. Company was sold to CMP in 2002 at a substantial discount to the value of our investment.
Tigris Biopharmaceuticals – start up biotech focused on early-stage cancer research. After two successive failed trials, the Company was sold to a private investor at a substantial discount to our investment.
Night Operations Systems – High powered handheld military grade flashlight capable of disruptive illumination, and enhanced covert situational awareness. Unable to raise additional funds after several years of delayed development.
Golden Goal Soccer and Lacrosse Tournament Park – 300+ acre sports park featuring state of the art synthetic fields and housing for youth soccer and lacrosse. Fell victim to the recession in 2008 and was sold at auction for $2.5 million – a fraction of the $12 million invested.
Fire Capital – a real estate fund focused on the development of middle-class housing projects in various large cities in India. Hurt by setbacks during the recession, the business was sold for approximately 40 cents on the dollar in 2017.
Corbus Biopharmaceuticals – the Company’s primary drug candidate, lenabasum, failed in its Phase 3 clinical trial for scleroderma, resulting in a huge decline for the stock. Because of hedging, Sonostar’s losses were materially reduced but the outcome was disappointing and costly nonetheless.