Snoop Dogg’s Cannabis VC Firm Sparks Savory Edible Brand With $4 Million
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
THC-infused savory snacks are getting a boost from Snoop Dogg.
TSUMo Snacks—a cannabis brand offering tortilla chips and cheese puffs infused with a 10-milligram dose of THC per bag—has raised a $4 million seed funding round led by Los Angeles venture capital firm Casa Verde, the companies announced Thursday.
The investment is the latest weed-focused endeavor for Casa Verde co-founder Snoop Dogg, with the L.A. hip-hop legend now looking to capitalize on the marijuana culture he helped popularize. Launched in 2015, Casa Verde raised $100 million last year for its second fund and has invested in startups across the cannabis market supply chain—from producers and manufacturers, to biotech firms, to sales and compliance software providers.
TSUMo Snacks has looked to differentiate itself among a crowded edibles market that has long skewed toward sweets like chocolates, gummies and lozenges. Sweet items are often cheaper to make and easier to portion out in accurate doses, while they also do a better job of masking cannabis’ earthy flavor. What’s more, strict regulations have made it more difficult to produce savory items.
“With all edibles, you have to stay within the 10% variance in terms of the dosing—and when you're talking about chips, which are irregular, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do,” TSUMo co-founder and CEO Caroline Yeh told dot.LA.
TSUMo was concocted by the team at Casa Verde alongside RedBud Brands, a venture studio whose founders helped launch the companies that make SkinnyPop Popcorn and makeup brand Urban Decay. Yeh joined the startup last March after nearly a decade of experience in the worlds of both cannabis regulations and food development, and TSUMo officially launched in September.
The cannabis brand currently offers five flavors of snacks in personal-sized bags that are sold at dispensaries across California. TSUMo plans to begin offering larger, multi-serving bags starting next month, will come out with larger, multi-serve bags, and will use the new funding to develop new flavors and snacks.
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Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
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