The California-based company raised $58 million through investments
Vertical Companies, a cannabis firm based in California with operations in a number of states, has completed a Series A funding round that attracted a significant amount of attention. The company had looked to receive up to $20 million in investments, later updating that to $35 million due to investor demand, and ultimately received $58 million. The funds will be used to expand the company’s footprint and to help it bring its brands to market.
The funding round was led by Merida Capital Partners, a cannabis industry private equity fund, and an assortment of international companies. Among these were “significant players in the alcohol distribution and brand space,” according to a press release.
Vertical has four subsidiaries – Vertical Distribution, Vertical Wellness, V Brands Management and Vertical MSO. Vertical Distribution manages several cannabis distribution centers in California, including in Oakland, LA and Needles. Vertical Wellness is a hemp-based firm that has 2,000 acres of hemp cultivation under contract. It also operates manufacturing and extraction centers. Vertical MSO has a cultivation facility that is expected to encompass as much as 1.9 million square feet this year, and also operations extraction and manufacturing facilities. V Brands Management reportedly has one of the largest brand intellectual property portfolios in the cannabis space.
Vertical founder and CEO Todd Kaplan stated after the completion of the funding round, “I set out to build something special with Vertical more than five years ago by investing early in anticipation of the eventual legalization of cannabis. This financing announcement marks a giant step closer to our goal of building the best-run cannabis business in the industry. I want to thank all our investors and partners, our team, and everyone who helped get us to this point.”