Salveo Capital Press

PathogenDx, Inc., a Salveo Capital portfolio company which has developed an ultra-accurate DNA-based customized pathogen testing platform for the food, agricultural and health sectors, announced that the company has been awarded a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under their Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostic (RADx) program. The resources will be used to increase the testing capacity of PathogenDx's DetectX-Rv Microarray Assay for COVID-19 testing to a national level.The NIH launched the RADx initiative with the mission to make millions of tests available to Americans, especially those most vulnerable and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, by late summer of this year.

"We are honored to receive a federal grant from the NIH under their RADx program. The infusion of capital will help bring our microarray tests to the broader population during a time when we need it most," said Milan Patel, CEO of PathogenDx.

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One way in which Pearson hopes to steer his company through the stormy seas of 2020 is by expanding SPARC’s regional footprint by means of the cannabis merchant solutions provider Treez, a Salveo Capital portfolio company. Based in Oakland, Treez offers an innovative workaround to the banking issues that make it impossible for dispensaries to accept most conventional methods of payment by instead relying on a bank-linked app similar to Venmo or Paypal. Currently, the software counts roughly half of California’s legal weed retailers as customers.

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Marcy Capron Vermillion says she “can’t not” focus on the inequities, inefficiencies and indignities that exist between many CBD retailers and consumers hoping the product will relieve pain or improve other aspects of her life. So, she co-founded Equilibria, a Salveo Capital portfolio company and Chicago-based startup that cultivates its own plant which is then dispensed with thoughtful advice to subscribing individual customers. In this wide-ranging Grown In Q&A Profile, she discusses how her personal journey with cannabis inspired the company, market forces that cause dispensaries to fire budtenders if they spend more than 6 minutes with a customer, and the multiple ways to consume CBD as a suppository.

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Fyllo, a Salveo Capital portfolio company, announced a partnership with Lotame to create direct access to cannabis and CBD audience data through the Lotame Data Exchange (LDX), the world's largest marketplace for high-quality second- and third-party data. The partnership provides mainstream marketers with previously inaccessible audience data for data enrichment, ad targeting and analytics. Now more than ever, cannabis and CBD consumers cannot be ignored. They accounted for 55 million US adults in 2019, a 38% increase year over year according to MRI-Simmons.

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With completion of the acquisition of Grassroots (a Salveo Capital portfolio company), Curaleaf is the world's largest cannabis company by revenue and the most diversified vertically integrated cannabis company in the United States, the world's largest cannabis market. The transaction expands Curaleaf's presence from 18 to 23 states, with the combined company having affiliated operations spanning over 135 dispensary licenses, 88 operational dispensary locations, over 30 processing facilities and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of current cultivation capacity. Curaleaf's expanded geographic dispensary presence now offers access to medical or adult use Cannabis to more than 192 million people, or roughly two-thirds of the United States population. Upon closing of the transaction, Curaleaf has appointed Mitchell Kahn, co-founder and CEO of Grassroots, to the company's Board of Directors effective immediately.

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Leaf Logix Technology is a Salveo Capital portfolio company focused on bringing a sophisticated solution to a new and growing industry. The Leaf Logix platform is tailored for customers that need it for high-volume, complex operations. For example, Copperstate, which has nearly two million square feet of inside grow, uses Leaf Logix. Additionally, about 24 of the 30 top American MSOs, such as GTI, Harvest, Grassroots, Columbia Care and Holistic Industries, are Leaf Logix customers, according to Founder and CEO James Minutello.

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The most consumer-friendly method comes from the scientists at Kelsie Biotech, a Salveo Capital portfolio company based in Colorado. Its technology creates a micro-powder that can be pressed into tablets that rapidly dissolve under your tongue. The micro-powder is the perfect particle size and water-solubility to dissolve in about a minute. As the tablet melts under the tongue, the texture is somewhat creamy, not oily or gritty. If you can even taste it, the flavor is subtle wintergreen with no hint of grassy hemp, oil, or the burn of alcohol tinctures.

The best part is that more of the CBD you bought gets to your bloodstream - that's called bioavailability. Bypassing the stomach and successfully absorbing through the mucosa means higher bioavailability. The other benefit is speed. The direct route of the capillaries under your tongue shuttles active ingredients to the bloodstream in about 10 minutes, where edibles (or swallowed oils) can take an hour to deliver their diminished dose.

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Compliance technology platform Fyllo, a Salveo Capital portfolio company, is appointing board member Mitchell Kahn chairman. Kahn is the co-founder of Grassroots Cannabis, another Salveo Capital portfolio company and one of the largest privately held vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis operators in the U.S. He has extensive experience dealing with the regulatory complexities that go hand-in-hand with managing a high-performing organization in a highly-regulated industry. Kahn has been working alongside the team at Fyllo to create long-term value and extraordinary growth for the company since he first joined the board in November 2019.

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Blue Yonder announced that HERBL Solutions, a Salveo Capital portfolio company and California’s largest cannabis distributor/supply chain solutions company, is developing an end-to-end supply chain and fulfillment backbone with Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform as its foundation. This ultimately improves the end-customer retail experience and offers greater growth potential for HERBL’s retail and brand partners.

“Our mission at HERBL is to bring outstanding people, processes, and technology together to create a powerful supply chain never before seen in the cannabis space,” said Mike Beaudry, chief executive officer, HERBL. “It’s with this focus on quality that we selected Blue Yonder’s software solution, which will enable efficiencies and growth for our retail and brand partners, and to ultimately help propel our industry forward.”

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Lauren Gockley, a classically trained chocolatier, is the director of edibles at Coda Signature, whose product line includes truffles and “fruit notes” (fancy weed gummies). She said consumers may be turning to edibles during the pandemic for other social reasons, including community.

“With the pandemic, there’s not that same sharing of cannabis the way there used to be,” she said. “Passing around a tin of gummies is going to be much more acceptable than passing around a joint or a vape pen,”.

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Front Range Biosciences, a Salveo Capital portfolio company focused on agricultural biotech, has partnered with Rylie’s Sunshine, a Delaware-based CBD tincture company operated by 14-year-old activist Rylie Maedler and her mother, Janie. When Rylie was seven years old, she was diagnosed with aggressive bone tumors and epilepsy, which were both eventually controlled through the use of cannabis. “I decided to start the Rylie’s Smile Foundation to educate families about cannabis and to pass laws to make cannabis more accessible,” Rylie told Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower. “Front Range will [teach] us … how to best grow these plants in our region and on our farm, so our medicine can reach its full potential,”.

“At the highest level, it’s really a way for us to support what we think is a really exciting and worthwhile cause for the industry,” said Front Range Biosciences CEO Dr. Jon Vaught. “It’s about advancing the science and developing a better understanding of … cannabinoids and how they can hopefully have a positive impact on … people who are struggling with some really challenging health issues.”

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Federal and regional regulations created seemingly impenetrable boundaries for mainstream and cannabis companies to work together to reach new audiences, but as the national legalization movement continues to accelerate and an increasing number of consumers embrace legal cannabis products, the lucrative potential of cannabis consumer data can no longer be overlooked by mainstream companies. Cannabis data and solutions company Fyllo (a Salveo Capital portfolio company) has recognized the resonating demand for comprehensive industry data from mainstream companies and has developed pioneering technologies that will ultimately bridge these glaring and costly data gaps. Fyllo’s over 11 million consumer data profiles, which accounts for roughly half of the entire legal market, can be leveraged by mainstream CPG, fitness and wellness, retail and hospitality brands to fine tune their audience outreach and marketing strategies.

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Many cannabis companies see their interaction with a testing lab as a necessary step on the way to selling products in the retail space, but SC Labs (a Salveo Capital portfolio company) strives to create a more meaningful relationship with its customers. Founder and CEO Jeff Gray spoke with New Cannabis Ventures about how his company tries to create a collaborative relationship with clients, SC Labs’ competitive position and the importance of diversity in the cannabis space.

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Ascend Wellness Holdings, a Salveo Capital portfolio company and the leading private multi-state operator (MSO) in the U.S., believes that the onus is now on legal corporations to tackle cannabis criminal justice reform. Earlier this week, the company became the first MSO to match customer donations to Last Prisoner Project (LPP), the most visible nonprofit organization dedicated to clemency and expungement, re-entry programs and advocacy for individuals with cannabis convictions.

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PathogenDx, a Salveo Capital portfolio company which has developed an ultra-rapid DNA-based customized pathogen testing platform for the food, agricultural and health sectors, announced it is teaming up with Bertin Instruments to create an innovative solution to detect SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne viruses. This new solution pairs Bertin's Coriolis Air Sampler with PathogenDx's EnviroX-Rv testing technology to provide public facilities and buildings with a fast and accurate way to monitor the air for contaminants that pose a risk to public health.

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SUM, Superior Uptake Method, is a unique smokeless method to consume cannabis sold in Colorado dispensaries. A discreet, sublingual (under the tongue) dissolvable tablet delivers higher bioavailability relative to oils and edibles. With the success of its low-THC brand, SUM Microdose, it launched SUM Metadose, a sublingual tablet with 10mg of THC. The SUM brands are owned by Kelsie Biotech, a Salveo Capital portfolio company that provides non-THC base formulations and proprietary processes to co-manufacturers.

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The Curaleaf acquisition of Grassroots Cannabis, a Salveo Capital portfolio company, was announced last year. Now, the deal is moving toward closing and creating a major player in the U.S. cannabis space. Mitch Kahn, the Co-Founder and CEO of Grassroots, spoke with New Cannabis Ventures about the power of the right people, the imminent integration of the two cannabis companies and working through the pandemic.

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HERBL, a Salveo Capital portfolio company, is California’s largest cannabis distributor and supply chain solutions company servicing more than 850 storefront and non-storefront retail licensees. Founded in 2016, HERBL’s team is composed of distribution and retail experts with extensive experience in large-scale global supply chains. HERBL brings the state's leading cannabis retailers and top brands together through world-class technology, unparalleled service, and high-security, state-of-the-art facilities and trucks.

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A Weed Chef On The Maturing Edible Market: Chef Lauren Gockley is the director of edibles for Coda Signature, a Salveo Capital portfolio company. Gockley and Coda recently released a seasonal trend report that forecasts brands creating collections around season-driven tastes over rehashing formulas each year.

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Front Range Biosciences, a Salveo Capital portfolio company, announced in March a mission to transport hemp and coffee tissue samples to the International Space Station (ISS) to see how a zero-gravity environment would impact the plants’ gene expression. In partnership with SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Front Range Biosciences sent the samples aboard the March 6 SpaceX CRS-20 cargo flight to the ISS, where the tissue cultures were housed in a temperature-regulated incubator for 31 days under the care of U.S. ISS astronauts.

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