Who this is
Torsten Greif co-founded Four 20 Pharma in Paderborn with four partners from a monthly poker night. The company is a pharmaceutical business that imports medical cannabis from Canada, processes it in Paderborn and sells it to pharmacies. With his partners he runs several other businesses, including software, construction, care homes and renewable energy. In 2022 Curaleaf acquired a 55 percent stake in Four 20 Pharma. Albert Schwarzmeier has spent around 20 years building companies, with a focus on trade, marketing and brand building, including with the Hitfox founders and as a partner at Heartbeat Labs. He bought a majority of the home building platform Musterhaus.net and later sold it to Funke Mediengruppe. At enua, founded by Markus and Lars, he invested and joined as managing director and CEO.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
What do Four 20 Pharma and enua do?
Both are pharmaceutical companies for medical cannabis. They source cannabis flower from EU-GMP certified growers in Canada, have every batch released by a Qualified Person and sell to pharmacies. Four 20 Pharma is based in Paderborn and processes part of its product in-house, enua is based in Cologne. To the episode →
How were Four 20 Pharma and enua funded?
Four 20 Pharma was bootstrapped: the founders gradually invested 3.8 million euros from their other companies, with no outside investors. enua took in just under 5 million euros from business angels, a family office and Albert himself, plus loans from high-net-worth individuals and a working capital line from its bank. To the episode →
Why did Four 20 Pharma sell a majority to Curaleaf?
In 2022 Curaleaf acquired 55 percent of Four 20 Pharma. At the time, full legalisation seemed close. Torsten figured that to matter you'd need around 100 of your own stores, each costing 1.5 to 2 million euros. Curaleaf had already built that kind of vertically integrated setup many times in the US, which is why they chose it as a partner. To the episode →
Quotes
„… wie oft wird ein Milliardenmarkt in Deutschland legalisiert?““How often does a billion-euro market get legalised in Germany?”
„Ja, und du musst einfach eine unfassbar intensive Aufklärungsarbeit machen.““And you simply have to do an incredibly intensive amount of education.”