The Venture Codex

Led · Series A · Jun 2024

Hoodie Analytics is a Chicago-based cannabis data and technology company that offers a market insights and product data management platform. Led by CEO Wes Shepherd, the platform tracks daily movements of the cannabis market and gives users access to people, processes, and data aimed at building winning brands. The company recently launched its new platform and plans to use the financing to accelerate market expansion. Hoodie strengthened its leadership and governance with the appointment of David Navama and the addition of Timur Sultanov to the board, alongside observers Andy Sturner and John Campbell. The business is focused on scaling its product and commercial reach within the cannabis sector. Hoodie Analytics operates a cannabis data and technology platform that tracks over 3.5 million daily unique offers across more than 8,000 dispensaries in the U.S. and Canada, capturing pricing, promotion, stocking status, distribution, and share-of-shelf metrics. It delivers next-day insights, enabling businesses to access market trends and data within hours. The company combines massive-volume data processing with application development and an easy-to-use interface intended for roles from brand salespeople to dispensary inventory managers. Hoodie aims to track every product in every dispensary every day and to build a product graph that connects industry participants. The executive team includes alumni from IRI, Nielsen, NPD, and Numerator. Hoodie says the recent fundraising will allow it to massively scale product and sales efforts and has added strategic advisory board members to support growth.

Led · Seed · Oct 2021

Bloomwell Group is a legal private medical cannabis holding company based in Frankfurt, Germany, led by CEO Niklas Kouparanis. Its portfolio includes licensed distributor, importer and product developer Ilios Santé; Europe’s cannabis telemedicine company Algea Care; and Breezy Brands, an incubator platform that operates Germany’s cannabis dispensary marketplace. The company focuses on operating businesses across distribution, product development, telemedicine and consumer-brand incubation within the European cannabis sector. In 2023 Bloomwell closed a multi-million euro growth funding to support its operations. The firm intends to use the capital to accelerate current business operations and position itself for future growth. As part of the transaction, Artemis co-founder William Muecke joined Bloomwell’s advisory board. The Bloomwell Group has repositioned itself as a holding company for medical-cannabis companies and potential future recreational cannabis businesses. Under the Bloomwell umbrella, portfolio companies Highterkeit, Algea Care, and Ilios Santé focus on the entire medical-cannabis value chain except cultivation. Founded in 2020, the company has grown to a headcount of 160 employees within a year. Bloomwell expects a turnover of €5 million this year. The firm emphasizes growth through cannabis, innovation, digitalisation, and a direct-to-patient (D2C) approach. Its home market, Germany, is highlighted as a major opportunity within a rapidly expanding European market.