Nabis, Cannabis Distributor, Raises Seed Round from Silicon Valley’s Elite Investors to Scale the Cannabis Supply Chain

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Nabis, one of California’s largest Type 11 Cannabis Distributors, raised a $1.25M seed round from Silicon Valley’s elite investors: Babel Ventures, CannaAngels, Jeremy Gardner, Scott Robinson, and Y Combinator alumni.

Nabis provides cannabis brands and cultivators with a full suite of distribution services around logistics, sales, and software. The team is building the supply chain infrastructure in this exploding new industry from the ground up. They currently distribute to over 2/3 of all licensed retail dispensaries in California.

Since the end of prohibition in January 2018, Nabis has moved millions of dollars worth of products and doubled their revenue every month to date.

Nabis cannabis distributors is led by CEO Vince Ning. Vince’s previous company graduated from Y Combinator and was sold to Amazon.  He followed to start Nabis with the goal of bringing modern logistics practices to the complex and regulated cannabis industry.

Vince mentions raising funding for cannabis touching companies like Nabis is vastly different than tech, finance and other industries. While starting his funding rounds, he quickly realized how different it was fundraising in the cannabis industry due to the nature of the product, institutional LP restrictions, etc.

According to Adrian Grant-Alfieri, Venture Partner at Babel Ventures “There’s still this massive taboo around cannabis in the VC community, specifically due to regulatory volatility and traditional LP wariness. At the same time, cannabis investments often present a compelling market opportunity paired with a growing body of evidence that supports distinct health benefits, checking critical boxes in the routine diligence processes that VC’s engage with.”

California and other states are quickly realizing the benefits of legalized cannabis usage. Regulations enforced by organizations such as BCC (Bureau of Cannabis Control), puts companies such as Nabis in secure standing to benefit from the growing cannabis demand by consumers.