Pilgrim Soul, the first cannabis brand focused on creative performance, secures $2M seeding round
Pilgrim Soul is a mission-driven brand focused on helping people elevate creative thinking to give them a competitive edge in business and life
Pilgrim Soul, a national cannabis lifestyle brand focused exclusively on enhancing creative performance, announces a $2M strategic seed round from top tech, retail, and cannabis investors. The round includes investments from Merida Capital Holdings, Bee House, Meaningful Partners, serial entrepreneur and Skip-Hop founder Michal Diament, and other well-known tech entrepreneurs. Additional brand advisors and equity holders include veteran NBA player and Viola Brands founder Al Harrington, Merlin Kauffman, founder of Soothe, and former Sperry & Club Monaco CMO Ann Watson.
Pilgrim Soul is tapping into a significant and growing trend in creativity. Guided journals and courses focused on creativity have seen double-digit growth each year for the last decade as categories for self-help and creativity continue to skyrocket. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Future Jobs Report listed creativity and originality among the top 10 critical skills to watch for in the workforce over the next five years.
Since the brand’s inception in 2020, Pilgrim Soul has garnered $5.8M in revenue by bringing a groundbreaking creative curriculum to the marketplace in the form of The Pilgrim Soul Creative Thinking Journals, which maintains its position as one of the top 500 best selling books on Amazon. The brand boasts a growing database of 250,000+ consumers who see the many benefits of enjoying and using cannabis for creativity, and has received a Clio Award for its innovative cannabis packaging.
In 2021, Pilgrim Soul released a line of Live Resin Vape Pens featuring exclusive blends of the most dynamic creative strains, available at top cannabis retailers in California including MedMen and Sweet Flower. In partnership with the scientists at AbstraxLabs, Pilgrim Soul analyzed 100+ cannabis strains that index high for creativity, along with secondary and tertiary states of mind. After identifying each strain’s common cannabinoid and terpene profiles, they developed a matrix to blend select strains to enhance a particular type of creative thinking, including Creative Awareness, Creative Imagination, Creative Focus, and Creative Reflection.
“Pilgrim Soul has a unique focus and business approach that will allow them to create, define and lead a new category in the cannabis industry,” said Mitchell Baruchowitz, CEO of Merida Capital Holdings. “Their commitment to helping people live better lives through creativity is aligned with our commitment to back meaningful brands and disruptive products.”
Pilgrim Soul Founder and CEO, Shawn Gold, has led an accomplished career in developing culturally influential brands through performance marketing, subscription, social media and content development. He has held CMO roles at Lowell Herb Co., MySpace, Engadget, subscription fashion leader TechStyle, and created digital communications strategies for brands at P&G, General Mills, Nestle and Mattel.
“Through my previous experiences at Stanley Bros, MedMen and Lowell Herb Co., it became clear that the next wave of cannabis brands will be vertically focused, mission-driven, and built around a strong belief system where the cannabis itself is just a portion of the total brand package,” said Shawn Gold, Pilgrim Soul Founder and CEO. “For Pilgrim Soul, it’s about helping people unlock their innate creativity through exclusive cannabis blends paired with a creative curriculum, community-driven programs and expert content via pilgrimsoul.com.”
“In leading companies like Sprouts Farmers Market, I have seen first hand what it means to scale a business by helping people live a better life,” said Amin Maredia, Co-Founder of Meaningful Partners. “I invested in Pilgrim Soul for their specific commitment to purpose and profit, providing a toolset for people to enhance their life by tapping into their natural creative abilities.”
At the core of Pilgrim Soul’s mission is the brand’s ongoing artist endowment initiative that enlists artists from under-resourced communities to design the original artwork on each vape pen and its packaging. Most recently, Pilgrim Soul collaborated with comedy legend Martin Lawrence on a limited edition version of their best-selling creative thinking journal featuring abstract cover art designed by D.C. artist Clarence James, inspired by Black culture, street art, underground youth culture and hip hop music.
To learn more about Pilgrim Soul, please visit pilgrimsoul.com.
About Pilgrim Soul:
Pilgrim Soul is a cannabis lifestyle brand focused on helping people elevate creative thinking to give them a competitive edge in life and work. Since the company’s launch in Oct 2020, Pilgrim Soul has created the best-selling The Creative Thinking Journal and premium Live Resin Vape Pens (available in CA) designed to help unlock the mind and release creative flow. For more information on Pilgrim Soul and where to purchase, please visit www.pilgrimsoul.com and www.pilgrimsoulcannabis.com. Find the brand on Instagram at @pilgrim_soul_creative.
