Sanity Group Series-A

This is the Sanity Group pitch deck to raise a $29m series-a round in 2020.

The startup raised a small seed round in 2019. In February of last year, Sanity Group closed a $22 million “pre Series A” as Hänsel calls it, led by Calyx, a European fund focused on cannabis, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, and Karan Wadhera, a managing partner of the cannabis-focused fund Casa Verde. The remaining $4.8 million came in later in the round that included the celebrity investors.

About

Sanity Group is a holistic European Cannabis company focusing on health, wellbeing, and scientific research. To utilize the full potential of its health benefits, Sanity Group is investing in fundamental research of the cannabis plant and its active ingredients as well as in specific areas of application.

It was founded in 2018 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

As the cannabis industry in Europe heats up, Sanity Group, a Berlin-based CBD and medical cannabis startup, is raising millions in a bid to dominate the burgeoning market.

Sanity Group sells CBD in Germany and Austria under the VAAY brand and recently entered the UK market. It’s raised $29 million from a range of investors including Scooter Braun’s TQ Ventures, Berlin investment fund Cherry Ventures, Hotspring Ventures, AGB Venture Capital, and Atlantic Food Labs, and celebrities like the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, actress Alyssa Milano, and soccer player Mario Goetze.

The $29 million came from three funding rounds, Sanity Group managing director Finn Hänsel, told BI in an interview. The funding gave Sanity Group a valuation in the “high 9-digits” Hänsel said, but declined to disclose the specific number.

The company is looking to raise another $24 million (20 million Euros) this summer.

What sets Sanity Group apart from its North American counterparts, says the 38-year old Hänsel, is that the startup doesn’t grow cannabis, because that cultivation can take place in warmer climates with cheaper labor. Instead, it focuses on what Hänsel says are the more lucrative parts of the supply chain.

“Look, tell me one beer brand in the world that still grows their own hops,” Hänsel said. He added that cold countries like Germany or Canada will end up being outcompeted as growing cannabis indoors is expensive.

Sanity Group’s purview is “everything that comes after cultivation,” Hänsel says, like processing, product development, and research.

“If you invest in other markets, you probably have already a history of the market. That’s probably three to four or five years, and you already have revenues. You already have a lot of unit economics,” Hänsel said.

Cannabis, especially European cannabis, is a “very young market.”

“What also convinced investors to invest with us is that we keep that we have a good balance between already showing revenues and already having very strong brands in the market and having really an infrastructure, but on the other hand, still also having a vision for what we believe is going on in the next two to three years,” Hänsel said.

Funding rounds

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