For a year, naysayers have dismissed the early stage shroom boom as being a pumpy bunch of pubco RTOs that won’t be able to do business legally for years. To be fair, there’s some basis to that dismissal.
But only some.
We’ve also been talking about how Delic Holdings (DELC.C) was an all-star team of psilocybin and cannabis folk who had the network, public profile, knowledge, and plan to build what may be one of the few early stage shroomcos that doesn’t have to wait for the laws to change in order to do business.
Last month, they acquired a chain of ketamine clinics in the US – which are legal and doing business.
Yesterday, they announced they’ve acquired a licensed Canadian psilocybin and cannabis lab – which is legal and doing business.
Wait, what?
DELIC HOLDINGS IS A LEGAL, LICENSED, NORTH AMERICAN SHROOM COMPANY.
Let that sink in for a second.
Delic Holdings Inc. has executed a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of Complex Biotech Discovery Ventures, a licensed psilocybin and cannabis research laboratory focused on extraction, analytical testing and chemical process development. Founded by award-winning chemist Dr. Markus Roggen, and UBC professor Glenn Sammis, CBDV supports the psychedelic industry with high-precision chemical analytics and metabolomic identification. Following the transaction, CBDV expects to change its name to Delic Labs.
Now, this isn’t some deal where they’ve teamed up with a university to research stuff because it’s the only way they can get away with claiming they’re doing business in psychedelics. It’s not some deal where they really hope the rules will change so they can one day put their hands on psilocybin, or where they’ve bought a button mushroom farm in Langley BC or an AirBnB in Jamaica that they’re calling a wellness resort.
This is a legit, licensed, psychedelics lab.
Delic is in business.
The CBDV asset will allow Delic to add scientific-based research and analytics to its product offerings, being as that group received its Section 56 exemption from Health Canada, which allows psilocybin-based research and intellectual property development.
This is huge. While others might be toying with product development in private because they don’t want to get, you know, arrested, Delic will be able to get right into SKU generation, advance clinical testing, and slide into medical development which, let’s be honest, will be the first bastion of actual business, much as it was with cannabis back in the day.
Delic expects it can elevate the profile of CBDV through its media properties and connections, which is probably true, but almost a negligible side perk compared to having an actual license to handle, extract, test, develop, source and trial the good stuff. In essence, competitors will be pushed to do some of their business through Delic, because those licenses aren’t tossed around willy nilly.
Also worth noting, this isn’t a ‘we have a license, we’ll make money somehow someday, we’ll figure it out’ deal. Early on, a lot of licensed cannabis extractors struggled to get actual business going because getting the license was the entire focus of the business, and its granting might not appear for years, or would appear one day out of the blue. With no guaranteed timelines, companies were often caught unprepared when one landed.
CBDV? Already profitable. Already extracting, testing, developing chemical processes, and supplying global customers with weed-based products. Psilocybin is next on deck.
“Joining forces with CBDV is a foundational transaction for Delic. Science and research is the backbone of the psychedelic renaissance and adding the talent, know-how and expertise of CBDV will bear fruit both now and in the years to come. The fact that the company has a world-class team, history of profitability, more than 50 blue chip clients and is on track for significant growth, makes this a compelling acquisition for Delic and one that makes it a pillar of the company. Going forward, with the discussions we currently have in place with the many entrepreneurs worldwide within the Delic ecosystem, we see an opportunity to potentially commercialize this science in the near term.” – Matt Stang, founder and chief executive officer of Delic
CBDV will need a dealer’s license to commercialize its psilocybin research and associated IP, according to the company, so there are still pieces of the puzzle to be placed, but the big ones, the important ones, just landed.
THIS IS A BIG DEAL.
How big a deal? $7 million in company stock. Which is actually pretty reasonable.
We stood tall early on with Delic and said, “Yo, this team, guys.”
And you guys stood tall next to them and bought a bunch.
Now it’s becoming clearer why we all found ourselves here.
Giddyup.
— Chris Parry
FULL DISCLOSURE: Delic Holdings is an Equity.Guru marketing client and we’ve purchased stock in the company
