A cannabinoid research company that recently moved to Santa Fe has pulled in close to $4 million to accelerate its path to market.
Trait Biosciences Inc., a company that researches and develops cannabinoid technology, announced the close of its latest financing round last week. Although the company didn't disclose a dollar amount in its announcement, data on the venture website PitchBook shows Trait raised $3.69 million in the form of convertible debt. Trait confirmed that information to Albuquerque Business First.
A pair of existing investors — Btomorrow Ventures and Gotham Green Partners — led the round. The money will primarily be used to help fuel Trait's go-to-market strategy, said Mike Tabor, business development manager for the company.
Tabor said Trait, since launching in 2017, has been focused on research and development activities. But the New Mexico company is now ready to take its water-soluble CBD tech to market.
It wants to do that through partnering with contract manufacturers and go-to-market partners. Those partners include large beverage and cosmetics companies, Tabor told Business First, that want to infuse CBD into their products using a water-soluble method.
"Whoever's interested in CBD," Tabor said. "We're just here to show them a better way."
Trait, he said, has developed a way to transform water-insoluble cannabinoids into water-soluble materials. It does that by feeding CBD and glucose into a specialized yeast in order to bond glucose molecules to cannabinoid molecules.
"The end result is a crystalline powder that dissolves right in water," Tabor said. "It's a very different approach than what the rest of the industry has been doing."
Trait's powder doesn't create a lot of "turbidity" in drinks infused with it — the liquid doesn't appear cloudy when mixed with the powder. And the company can maintain that lower level of turbidity at higher CBD doses, Tabor added.
Instead of selling the powder directly to consumers, Tabor said Trait wants to find more partners across the food, beverage and cosmetics industry to sell its powder to in order to infuse CBD in their products. The company expects the first launch of products infused with its water-soluble CBD powder to come in the first quarter of 2024.
Trait moved from a shared laboratory in Los Alamos to an approximately 8,000-square-foot lab facility in Santa Fe recently and expects to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for that new location in December, Tabor said. Around a dozen people work at that facility, and the company currently employs between 15 and 20 people depending on the number of assignments it gives to contractors.
The company's previous CEO, Peter McDonough, retired in February 2022. Dr. Hanny Kanafani took over and currently acts as president and chief operating officer of Trait, with David Smalley acting as the firm's chief legal counsel.
Additional PitchBook data shows Trait raised $24.62 million in a Series A venture round in early 2021. Btomorrow Ventures also led that round, according to PtichBook.
Btomorrow Ventures is the venture capital arm of British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI), a multinational tobacco company headquartered in London.
