California-based CBD company Kadenwood announced this week it has raised $50 million in funding, with $20 million allocated to an upcoming national media campaign to drive consumer awareness for its portfolio of CBD brands, including the recently acquired Healist Advanced Naturals and Social CBD.
Consumer product-focused venture group The Craftory, which has backed brands including chickpea snack brand Hippeas and plant-based food maker NotCo, led the funding round alongside Arcadian Capital Management, with previous investors also participating. The funding round follows a $15 million series A round that closed in September 2020.
“The Craftory has worked with the world’s boldest consumer brands,” Kadenwood co-founder and CEO Erick Dickens said. “Their experience investing in cause-driven CPG brands that positively impact the categories they serve, society, and the planet aligns with our company’s goals, making them ideal partners as Kadenwood grows and evolves.”
Founded in 2019, Kadenwood has curated a portfolio of CBD brands working across a range of categories including gummies, tinctures, beverages, topicals and pet products and sold in 18,000 retail locations nationwide that are “positioned to meet the needs of several distinct consumer segments,” Dickens said. Those brands include Level Select, Purity Preferred Pet CBD and Purity Organic CBD Teas, partnering with the natural beverage brand last year. Kadenwood also operates a manufacturing arm, EcoGen Biosciences, that supplies hemp-derived ingredients wholesale in North America. Kadenwood acquired Colorado-based hemp processing and extraction company General Processing LLC last November to grow its production capacity.
Earlier this month, Kadenwood added two new companies to its portfolio: CBD gummies and supplements producer Social CBD, which the company says targets a younger audience, and UK-based CBD wellness brand Healist Advanced Naturals, which focuses on all-natural, sustainably sourced products. Dickens said the company aims to acquire brands that “can benefit from Kadenwood’s strategic cost of goods advantage” via its vertically integrated supply chain and advertising capabilities, while also helping the company reach new consumer or product segments.
According to Dickens, widespread awareness and adoption of CBD products has been hampered by a lack of national advertising support In response, the company is set to launch a media campaign that will include national and regional TV ads featuring a slew of professional athlete brand ambassadors: pro golfer Rickie Fowler, former MLB star Steve Garvey, retired NFL quarterback Carson Palmer and sportscaster and former basketball player Ann Meyers Drysdale. Marketing for the Healist Advanced Naturals will feature Olympic beach volleyball bronze medalist Holly McPeak. Social CBD products will be supported through social and digital media campaigns, Dickens said.
Despite declines in CBD supplement sales last year and the continued FDA regulatory limbo of CBD-infused food and beverage products and supplements, Dickens said he anticipates wider adoption of CBD will return post-pandemic as people “take their health and wellness more seriously.” Adoption will also grow as the industry moves toward higher quality product offerings, he predicted, noting that early CBD consumers have been “disappointed” with CBD products that “lacked efficacy and failed to deliver quality.”
“As the CBD industry matures beyond its early movers, [Kadenwood is] seeking to shape the future of plant-based wellness and build the long-term brand leaders in each category,” Dickens said.