In case you missed it, a California cultivator of “premium” cannabis flower called CANNDESCENT just closed a $6.5 million seed round of funding – the largest ever on record for a Southern California grower.
The record-setting seed funding was led by a one-two punch of Texas investor Lee McPherson along with CANNDESCENT’s CEO Adrian Sedlin, a Harvard MBA with a proven track record of growing and successfully selling several web-based tech companies.
“We’re thrilled to have raised the largest seed round for a SoCal cultivator,” Sedlin said in a press release today. “It validates the milestones we’ve already achieved, our consumer value proposition, and the team we’ve assembled. We’re grateful for the opportunity to help our consumers, shareholders and employees.”
The company is enigmatic, showcases a “corporate cannabis” team of executives including EVP of marketing and operations Rick Fisher, and seems to have cultivated a cannabis 2.0 culture that screams “we mean business.” The news of the record-breaking seed round certainly took many industry-watchers by surprise, as the grower has glided into a crowded California market like a shark.
CANNDESCENT’s investors and leadership team are even talking about Six Sigma practices for the cannabis industry.
Texas-based Lee McPherson, who led the round of 30-plus investors, said: “At this moment in history, cannabis is an execution play requiring a blend of Six Sigma operations and state-of-the-art marketing. CANNDESCENT was the first company of the 50-plus I reviewed that possessed the vision, passion, expertise and focus to build something extraordinary.”
‘Ultra-Premium Flower’
CANNDESCENT claims that the company has created an “premium” brand of cannabis flower produced, packaged and distributed in accordance with all state and local laws. The grower says that it cultivates cannabis flowers that average 22%-33% THC content in fully licensed, indoor facilities.
According to the company’s web site, in “a sea of strain names” that mean nothing, the cultivator has launched one of the first branded and marketed line of strains that clearly communicates to consumers the effects of the different products and help consumers navigate to their desired outcome. CANNDESCENT has labeled those “strains”: Calm, Create, Connect, Charge and Cruise.
Another participant in the seed investor round, Adam Cohen, CEO of MJardin, the largest management company in the cannabis industry, said in a press release, “I’m responsible for over 500,000-square-feet of production and recognize exquisite flower when I see it. CANNDESCENT sets the bar for ultra-premium flower.”
First in the Desert: Facility With Permit Specifically for Cultivation
This grower has glided into the space like a shark, but the word is out, and the industry will next no doubt look for this team of Harvard MBAs now to execute.
Next month, CANNDESCENT says it will christen a facility is Desert Hot Springs, CA, the first facility in all of Southern California to operate with a municipally issued conditional-use permit specifically for cultivation. That’s a big first, considering a large swath of land has been put aside there for growing, but no one has made use of any of it so far.
That company also said that proceeds from the seed round will be used for “working capital, marketing, and additional property, plant and equipment.”
CANNDESCENT also says that consumers can purchase the company’s products through California dispensaries and delivery services that value the cultivator’s “professional management, reliability, marketing, and product quality.”
Is cannabis cultivation ready for corporate ninjas and Six Sigma …? It looks like time will tell.