DENVER, Jan. 24, 2019 — Vangst (the Company), the leading human capital resource platform to the legal cannabis industry, announced today the closing of an over-subscribed $10 million Series A financing round. This round increases the total capital raised to date by the Company to $12.5 million. The financing was led by Casa Verde Capital and included Lerer Hippeau, among others.
“This has been a tremendous journey and we couldn’t be more excited to continue down this path with the support of our clients and investors. From permanent placements to on-demand, gig employees, Vangst makes the process of connecting cannabis companies with high quality employees seamless, efficient and cost-effective,” noted Karson Humiston, Founder and CEO of Vangst. “With new growth capital in hand, we plan to capitalize on the strong acceptance in Colorado and California of our on-demand platform, Vangst GIGS, and accelerate its rollout to 10 more markets in the United States and Canada over the next two years. In addition, we will continue to strengthen our leadership team and technology platform to help drive our ambitious growth plans.”
Launched in the summer of 2018, Vangst GIGS is a proprietary, bi-directional technology platform that matches employers looking to fill temporary positions with job seekers looking for temporary employment. Connecting companies directly with licensed employees, or Vangsters, Vangst GIGS is comprised of two separateportals – one for employers and another for on-demand, temporary employees. The employer portal empowers clients to quickly and easily post temporary job openings; the employee portal allows job candidates to quickly and easily search, apply and accept temporary job openings. As the first and only fully compliant and insured on-demand employment service in the cannabis space, Vangst is responsible for qualifying both employers and employees, as well as facilitating the exchange of payment between the parties.
Vangst GIGS is currently available in Colorado and California. The Company plans to expand the platform to 10 additional states, and Canada, by the end of 2020. Vangst GIGS and is the only approved temporary cannabis employment provider in California and to date has placed hundreds of temporary employees responsible for providing 120,000 total hours of service to the cannabis industry.
According to Vangst, nearly 35% of all cannabis jobs are part-time, resulting in costly job searching challenges for employers. Vangst GIGS will ultimately allow companies to hire faster, and for temporary workers, to both control their own work schedules and receive compensation quickly.
“Vangst has proven itself in both its vision and ability to execute – and in short order has become the unquestionable leader in providing human capital services to the cannabis industry. In lockstep with the overall industry, Vangst has experienced incredible growth,” said Karan Wadhera, Managing Partner at Casa Verde Capital. “We are thrilled to continue investing behind a dynamic leader like Karson Humiston and her incredible staff. We believe Vangst has a lot of runway ahead of it and we look forward to our continued relationship with the team.”
About Vangst
With offices in Denver, Colorado and Santa Monica, California, Vangst is the world’s largest recruiting platform focused specifically on the booming cannabis industry. Launched by Karson Humiston in 2016, Vangst connects all manner of cannabis and ancillary businesses across the legal cannabis market with the skilled talent they need. From full-time entry level and executive positions, to temporary (gig economy) placements, Vangst has harnessed the power of its industry knowledge and technology platform, to become the human capital resource provider of choice to its vast network of more than 600 leading cannabis companies. Vangst is on a mission to double the amount of employees in the cannabis sector between now and 2022. For more information, please visit: https://www.vangst.com/