Three cannabis industry veterans are banding together to bring a major investment to the U.S. hemp processing market.
Geoffrey Whaling, the chairman of the National Hemp Association, has partnered with former Canopy Growth employees Bruce Linton and Tim Saunders to form Texas-based Collective Growth Corp.
The company, which is still in its developmental stage, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $150 million in an initial public offering (IPO).
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the money raised by Collective Growth will be used to build decortication and processing facilities in the U.S.
“Unless we get the infrastructure in place, and do it on a commercial scale within the next 12 to 16 months, I’m afraid interest by farmers and end users will start to wane,” Whaling told the news outlet.
At one point, all three men worked for the Ontario-based Canopy Growth, the first marijuana company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Whaling served as a strategic advisor for the company and also co-founded Hemp Developments LLC, which became a division of Canopy. Linton was CEO, while Saunders was executive vice president and chief financial officer. (Linton is now the executive chairman of Vireo Health International Inc.)
On top of Whaling’s position with the National Hemp Association, he is also the president of the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Council and is credited with building out the first hemp industrial park in the southern part of New York.
“We're all doing our best to focus on the most important issue, which is supply chain,” Whaling told Hemp Grower in January.
