Chicago startup Fyllo, a marketing tech firm for the cannabis industry, just added a high-profile face to its board of directors.
The startup announced Thursday that Christie Hefner, the former CEO of Playboy, has been appointed to its board. Hefner, the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, was chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises from 1988 to 2009, helping grow the company from a magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company.
Its the latest move for Fyllo, which in August raised another $10 million in funding for its platform that helps cannabis brands execute and create ad campaigns. Since its founding in 2019, Fyllo has raised $26 million in outside capital.
As marijuana becomes legalized in states across the country, Fyllo is helping cannabis brands with the difficult challenge of ensuring that their ads comply with state and federal advertising regulations.
The startup, one of Chicago Inno’s 20 Startups to Watch in 2020 and recently named one of our Inno on Fire winners, has grown to more than 70 employees.
"Fyllo is very well positioned to both aid the growing number of large and successful companies in the cannabis space, and, even more, in opening up valuable ways for all brands to reach this dynamic market segment," Hefner said in a statement.
In addition to the board announcement, Fyllo said Thursday that it added three new strategic advisors: Samantha Skey, CEO of SHE Media; Shane Atchison, CEO of Wunderman Thompson North America; and Joe Raaen, director of global strategic partnerships and programmatic data strategy at Annalect/Omnicom Media Group.
