Medicinal cannabis startup Cannarma on Tuesday announced undisclosed funding from early-stage venture capital fund Zero to One at a pre-money valuation of Rs 17 crore. Registered with the government’s Startup India programme and incubated at Amity University’s Innovation incubator, the startup said it plans to use the funds for several growth initiatives including deeper engagement with existing customers, expansion into new geographies, building technology, expanding presence in more than 10,000 medical stores, clinics, and hospitals across India. The startup is also aiming to foray outside India by the next financial year.
Founded by Rohit Chauhan and Keshav Agarwal in August 2022 to provide therapeutic values of medicinal properties of cannabis, Cannarma operates in a market with a total addressable size of over $146.4 billion.
Praveen Kaushik, Director of Zero To One Fund, said, “As the world gears up towards alternative medicines, returning to human knowledge that has been ignored by science for centuries, the horizon of treatment using cannabis phytocannabinoids is growing wider and wider. The Cannabis plant, one among the five sacred plants in Ayurveda known as “Vijaya”, is having deep therapeutic values and had been used in healing chronic illness in olden times”
Cannarma aims to provide physicians and patients with medicinal cannabis-based products to tackle diseases including ppioid crisis, sleeping disorders, anxiety, depression, arthritis pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain, epilepsy, parkinson and cancer.
Speaking on the fund raise, Rohit Chauhan and Keshav Agarwal, Founders, said, “We are delighted to receive this funding from Zero to One Fund which will enable us to expand our net level of growth in the country and prepare ourselves for global expansion next year.”
The medical cannabis market in India is likely to grow to $13.13 million revenue by this year and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.64 per cent leading to a market volume of $26 million by 2028 on the back of growing demand for medical cannabis as more patients seek alternative treatments for various ailments, according to the data platform Statista.