Marketing Tech Company Fyllo Launches With $16 Million

By Dan Anderson ● Sep 9, 2019
  • Marketing tech platform company Fyllo announced it raised $16 million in startup financing from premier institutional and venture capital investors

Fyllo — the world’s first marketing tech platform for the cannabis industry — announced it raised $16 million in startup financing from premier institutional and venture capital investors. And Fyllo’s seed round of financing — the highest ever among Midwest startups — gives it a strong start as a leading provider of cannabis-compliant advertising and analytics for the fast-developing cannabis industry.

The seed round financing was led by JW Asset Management and Canada-based K2 & Associates. JW Asset Management is also known for investing in other major players in the cannabis space including TerrAscend and Canopy Rivers. In conjunction with this round, JW Asset Management managing director Jason Klarreich is going to assume a seat on Fyllo’s board of directors.

Fyllo is intending to use its initial funds to expand its technology platforms and add personnel to meet operational needs. And in addition to its Chicago headquarters, Fyllo also has offices in Los Angeles, Denver, New York, Toronto and Tel Aviv with expansion planned for Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Cleveland. Fyllo anticipates more than doubling its staff in the next several months.

“Fyllo has made a running start by assembling a team of executives that is highly adept at early-stage growth,” said Fyllo founder and CEO Chad Bronstein. “We’re confident that our intellectual property, technology stack, and go-to-market strategy will result in exceptional value for cannabis brands and mainstream publishers alike.”

Along with the addition of Bronstein, Fyllo’s executive team includes

– Brent Skoda (founder/chairman), former chairman/CEO, Vapergy Holdings, LLC

– Aristotle Loumis (co-founder/chief innovation officer), former president/founder, Marcus Lemonis E. Group

– Michael Chock (co-founder/chief operating officer), former executive vice president, MEDIA iQ Digital

– Erik Shani (co-founder/chief product officer), former SVP/brand intelligence solutions, Amobee

– Conrad Lisco (chief marketing officer), former SVP Marketing, Amobee

– Nicole Cosby (chief data & compliance officer), former SVP Standards & Partnerships, Publicis

“We are excited to partner with Fyllo as they address a major unmet need for the cannabis industry,” added Klarreich. “Chad has built a great team with the experience and talent to deliver superior marketing solutions to companies across the cannabis industry.”

Through its proprietary technologies, Fyllo is offering an important solution that enables online publishers and cannabis brands to meet compliance requirements on a large scale.

The company’s data and analytics engine CannaBrain is able to support ad campaign management, measurement/reporting, and a range of creative management services for better brand targeting and reach across all devices and channels. And endemic and non-endemic publishers can also use the company’s services to create and monetize data and inventory that is compliant with cannabis regulations on a state-by-state and market-by-market basis.