British American Tobacco Leads Europe’s Largest Cannabis Investment to Date

Sanity Group, a Berlin-based cannabis health and life-science company, has announced securing Europe’s largest cannabis investment round to date.

The record $37.6M Series B financing round was led by British American Tobacco Group, following the tobacco giant’s continued interest in cannabis investments, like Canada’s Organigram. The remainder comes from ongoing commitment from Sanity Group’s group of high-profile investors — bringing total funds raised by the four-year-old company to over $100M.

Sanity Group was founded in Berlin in 2018 by Finn Age Hänsel and Fabian Friede, and is focused on medical cannabis, finished pharmaceuticals as well as cannabinoid-based consumer goods in the wellness market. The company has earned support financially and strategically from leading U.S. and European investors, including Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital, Swiss VC Redalpine, TQ Ventures, Atlantic Food Labs and celebrity backers like the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, U.S., talent manager and record executive Scooter Braun, actor Alyssa Milano and German soccer player Mario Götze.

Bucking the startup scene

“This financing round is not only the largest funding round achieved by a European cannabis company to date, but also one of the few upsizing rounds in this current economic phase of the German startup scene. Against the backdrop of a challenging global economy, we are proud to have achieved a funding round of this magnitude,” says Max Narr, Chief Investment Officer of Sanity Group.

Sanity Group’s brands include Vayamed and AVAAY Medical (medicinal cannabis), Endosane Pharmaceuticals (finished pharmaceuticals), Belfry Medical (medical products and digital applications), VAAY (wellbeing) and This Place (natural cosmetics). Located near Frankfurt am Main, Sanity Group also operates a production and processing facility for cannabis extracts. More information can be found on sanitygroup.com/press.

Karan Wadhera, Managing Partner at Casa Verde Capital, adds: “Sanity Group is already the most well capitalized cannabis business in Germany and is on track to become one of the leading brands in Europe. We are thrilled with their continued progress and will keep offering financial and operational support as they scale.”