Participated · Equity · Jul 2021

C3 Industries is an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based multi-state, vertically integrated cannabis company that produces the Cloud Cover Cannabis brand and operates the High Profile retail network. The company produces products across all categories in Oregon and Michigan and is preparing launches in Massachusetts and Missouri. It currently has eleven retail locations fully approved in Michigan and multiple additional locations under development. C3 has previously closed more than $40M in private rounds, bringing total capital raised to roughly $65M to date. The company intends to use the new funds to accelerate expansion in existing markets, enter new states organically and via M&A, and invest in its team, brands and business infrastructure as it scales. C3 Industries is a vertically integrated cannabis company producing and retailing premium cannabis products under the Cloud Cover Cannabis brand and operating a retail network called High Profile. Led by Ankur Rungta (CEO), Vishal Rungta (President and CFO) and Joel Ruggiero (Chief Horticulture Officer), the company runs cultivation and manufacturing facilities and is pursuing branded dispensaries. The company plans a three‑state strategy focused on Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts and has submitted cultivation, processing and retail license applications in Missouri. C3 is expanding capacity: a new 35,000-square-foot cultivation and manufacturing facility in Webberville, Mich. is opening this month, additional production capacity is under development, and a 37,000-square-foot Franklin, Mass. facility is beginning construction. In Oregon it operates a 36,000-square-foot cultivation facility (operating for the past 18 months), is beginning construction on a hydrocarbon extraction lab, and recently closed an acquisition for a branded dispensary in Portland subject to regulatory approval. Financially, the company closed a round of private financing and has raised more than $25m in total capital to date; it intends to use funds to continue expanding in existing markets and enter new ones.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2020

Trym offers commercial cannabis growers a software platform to track and forecast crops from seed to sale, with features including integration with the regulatory platform Metrc and environmental sensors. The system provides comprehensive analytics and operations-management tools to help growers increase yield and reduce the bookkeeping needed to stay current with regulations. Trym says it is expanding its software offering and announced a $3.1 million seed round to support that growth. Of the $3.1 million, $1 million came from friends and family and $2.1 million was a preferred round co-led by 7thirty Capital and Delta Emerald Ventures. Welcan Capital, Arcview Collective Fund and others also participated, and the company said the round was oversubscribed. CEO and co-founder Matt Mayberry said the investors understand that connectivity is the future of cannabis agriculture and that Trym is helping drive a market disruption.

Led · Seed · Dec 2019

Vertosa engineers patent-pending nano- and micro-emulsions and pre-suspended aqueous solutions tailored to food, beverage, health, beauty and other infused-product makers. Their formulations are designed to maximize bioavailability, clarity, taste and stability while fitting manufacturers' texture and potency targets. The company works closely with lab partners and clients throughout the manufacturing process to accelerate products to market. Vertosa serves both licensed cannabis and hemp markets and lists clients ranging from startups (House of Saka, Tinley Beverage Co, GoodDay Beverages) to household names (Humphry Slocombe, VitaCoco). The company rebranded from Nanogen Labs after its August 2018 founding and is based in Oakland, California. Vertosa plans to use new capital to scale strategically, expand its team, and solidify its role in the infused-products supply chain.

Led · Equity · Oct 2019

Apex Trading operates an online wholesale platform offering order, inventory and client management tools, custom storefronts and data-rich dashboards for state-licensed cultivators, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Led by CEO and founder John Manlove, the company provides tools and services to help buyers and sellers operate more efficiently. Apex has established product-market fit since its first round in 2018 and has created a scalable model serving more than 1,000 companies. It is on track to facilitate over $100,000,000 in transactions in 2020. The company will use the new funding to accelerate its current traction in cannabis and to expand beyond its operations in five states. Apex is also preparing to launch Bushel44, a hemp-centric platform intended to streamline workflows, flatten the supply chain and deliver actionable data for hemp businesses. Apex Trading is a Boulder, CO-based technology company focused on wholesale transactions for the cannabis industry. Led by CEO and founder John Manlove, the company provides state-licensed cultivators, product manufacturers, distributors and retailers with an online wholesale platform. The platform features marketplaces, custom storefronts and data-rich dashboards to allow buyers and sellers to operate efficiently. The company nearly completed a Friends and Family funding round that was undisclosed and led by Sand Hill Angels, with participation from TL Partners and members of Tech Coast Angels. Apex intends to use the funds to accelerate development and build out the software to scale to a national level.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2019

Front Range Biosciences specializes in next-generation plant breeding, plant tissue culture, and cannabis seed development to improve the reliability and quality of industrial hemp and medical cannabis genetics. The company runs a Clean Stock program that supplies disease- and pathogen-free plants and seeds backed by data-driven breeding solutions. FRB operates facilities in Colorado, California and Wisconsin and maintains a partnership with the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona, Spain, giving it global reach. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado, the company positions itself as a market-leading R&D program in hemp and cannabis genetics. FRB is currently raising a $30M Series B financing round and has attracted investment from KEY Investment Partners, which will act as a strategic partner. KEY founding partner Pete Karabas is joining Front Range Biosciences' board as a board observer. Front Range Biosciences is a Lafayette, Colorado–based agricultural biotech that provides technology for breeding and producing new plant varieties and seeds in hemp, coffee and regulated cannabis. The company raised $8.5M in funding to support continued expansion of its hemp and cannabis portfolio. FRB plans to expand hemp seed production both nationally and globally and scale its young plant program, with production capabilities expected to multiply in 2020. Led by CEO and Co‑Founder Jon Vaught, the company has operated for a little more than three years. During that time FRB built over 160,000 square feet of facilities across Colorado, California and Wisconsin, acquired a cannabis genomics team and shipped millions of plants to farmers and growers nationwide. The new funds are intended to accelerate those production and portfolio expansion efforts. Front Range Biosciences develops Clean Stock® plant material using tissue culture, a sterile propagation technique, to address disease, inefficiency, inconsistency and scale for high-value crops. Its core product is sterile, duplicated baby plants on a defined nutrient medium for crops such as hemp, cannabis and coffee. The company supplies Clean Stock to growers and has partnerships to expand production, including with Frinj Coffee for coffee cuttings and Faith and Family Farms for cannabis in California. Led by CEO and co-founder Dr. Jonathan Vaught, Front Range is expanding Clean Stock production into California and taking orders for late 2018. It plans to use new funding to accelerate its Clean Stock program across Colorado, California and Canada, pursue IP development, and resource its varietal development program for hemp and cannabis. Front Range Biosciences specializes in tissue culture propagation of high-value crops, aiming to resolve cultivators' operational problems such as disease, inefficiency, inconsistency and limited scale. The company runs a varietal improvement program that leverages sequencing technology to map cannabis genetics and develop commercially relevant traits, including disease resistance, oil and resin yield, and desirable cannabinoid profiles. Front Range is led by CEO and co-founder Dr. Jon Vaught and COO and co-founder Nick Hofmeister. The company intends to use recent funding to scale its processes and expand into California and other legal cannabis states in the U.S. Its core product and R&D focus combine propagation services with genetic improvement to deliver more reliable, higher-yielding plant varieties for cultivators. Front Range Biosciences offers industrial-scale tissue culture propagation and an advanced breeding platform aimed at improving cannabis clone consistency and commercial traits. Its flagship product is tissue culture propagation for scalable, consistent clone production. The company also develops breeding tools to identify and enhance commercially relevant traits. Front Range will use new funding to build out its team and expand its tissue culture offering to improve efficiency and consistency for clone production. The company participated in the CanopyBoulder accelerator program for cannabis startups last year. It recently closed a $1.5 million seed round to support these efforts.