Flow Kana announced the completion of a $125 million Series B led by Gotham Green Partners – representing the largest private funding round for a cannabis company to-date, surpassing the previous record set by Acreage Holdings’ $119 million Series E in July 2018.
This is the second round led by New York-based Gotham Green for the company, after it led Flow Kana’s $22 million Series A in July of last year. Additional unarmed private investors also participated, bringing total funding for the startup to $175 million to-date.
“We strongly believe the cannabis industry is a catalyst for social change and are grateful to have found investors and partners aligned with this vision,” said Michael Steinmetz, CEO, Flow Kana.
Founded in 2015, and centered around Northern California’s Emerald Triangle region (Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity Counties), Flow Kana is building the first sustainable cannabis supply chain, partnering with craft farmers who focus on sun-grown, organic production, to build out a socially and environmentally-conscious and independent farm ecosystem. As of 2018, the company was partnering with 200 partner farmers.
“Throughout our supply chain, partners and customers have all committed to the sungrown movement and are dedicated to building an industry that has a positive impact on the great challenges that we confront in the world today,” said Steinmetz.
In April 2018, just before Flow Kana announced its Series A, the company had just begun the first phase of operations at The Flow Cannabis Institute, its 87,000 square-foot facility in Mendocino County. Through this site, Flow Kana offers a wide range of processing, co-packing, white label, and distribution services to its ever growing network of partnering brands, dispensaries, distributors, and manufacturers.
“Flow Kana’s vision and dedication to building the backbone of the California cannabis industry with a supply chain focused on small heritage farms that built this industry in the United States, are differentiators in the space and will be critical to this market’s success,” said Jason Adler, managing member of Gotham Green Partners, in July of last year.
Today, Flow Kana is at pace to complete the build-out of its Mendocino County headquarters. Flow Kana manufacturing also will expand its white label and co-branding services to a full portfolio of products, including a full range of oil-based vapes, topicals, tinctures, and a list of value-added services using cannabis inputs sourced from Flow Kana’s ecosystem of growers across Northern California.
“We are excited to participate in this recent raise, which will enable the company to leverage its unique position in the Emerald Triangle and broaden its reach and message across the state,” said Michael Henderson-Cohen, principal, Gotham Green Partners.
“We, as cannabis brands, farmers, companies and consumers, have the opportunity to collaborate in a truly meaningful way to foster a healthy cannabis industry,” added Steinmetz. “Let’s learn from the mistakes of industries past and come together to be the change we want to see.”
-Lynda Kiernan