Saucey Farms & Extracts Enters Promising New Deal With Jay-Z’s The Parent Company

Saucey Farms & Extracts, a boutique weed brand, is coming together with a hip hop icon to form what the new company is trumpeting as “a cannabis industry leader for the post-prohibition era.”

Under the deal announced on Tuesday, Saucey Farms & Extracts will enter into an agreement with TPCO Holding Corp., also known as “The Parent Company,” which will “manage the manufacturing and distribution of all Saucey products in the state of California.”

The glitzy side of this deal: Jay-Z is involved. According to the press release, “The Parent Company brings together global icon and entrepreneur Shawn ‘JAY-Z’ Carter, entertainment powerhouse Roc Nation, California’s leading direct-to-consumer platform Caliva, and top cannabis and hemp manufacturer Left Coast Ventures, to form a cannabis industry leader for the post-prohibition era.”

Jay-Z is identified as the “chief visionary officer” for The Parent Company.

Alex Todd, the founder of Saucey Farms & Extracts, cited the surge in marijuana reform as an impetus behind the deal.

“With all of the recent legalizations across the country, it was important for us to partner with a company that can help us grow to meet increasing demand,” said Todd in the press release on Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to working with The Parent Company, which has proven itself as a leader in the cannabis industry, and am excited to continue to expand our footprint in delivering our premium-grade cannabis offerings to consumers throughout California.” 

Steve Allan, the CEO of The Parent Company, said that the hip hop legend and mogul was drawn to the Saucey Farms brand.

“We at The Parent Company pride ourselves on not only the development but identification of powerhouse brands in the cannabis industry,” Allan said. “Saucey’s brand DNA and customer profile caught the attention of our Chief Visionary Officer Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter – which is no small feat – and their premium products, coupled with a unique understanding of where cannabis and mainstream culture intersect, are the perfect complement to our existing portfolio. We look forward to growing our businesses together in California and beyond.”

Saucey Farms & Extracts, The Parent Company, and Promise for the Future

Saucey Farms bills itself as “a luxury cannabis brand that offers products that are organically-grown, slow-cured and premium-grade,” offering a “selection of products [that] ranges from vape cartridges to cannabis flowers that appeal to all adult consumers, from novice users to veteran connoisseurs.”

The Parent Company, meanwhile, is touted as “California’s leading vertically integrated cannabis company combining best-in-class operations with leading voices in popular culture and social impact.”

For Jay-Z, the venture represents the latest example of his growing footprint in the cannabis sector. 

In January, he announced the launch of  an investment fund devoted to helping minority entrepreneurs get their start in the cannabis industry.

“It’s really unbelievable how that can happen,” Jay-Z said at the time. “We were the ones most negatively affected by the war on drugs, and America has turned around and created a business from it that’s worth billions.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on the cannabis fund at the time, saying that it stemmed from The Parent Company, or TPCO Holding Corp.

According to the Journal, the fund “grew out of the $575 million acquisition in December of California-based cannabis companies CMG Partners Inc. and Left Coast Ventures Inc. by Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp., a Vancouver-based special purpose acquisition company. In October, Mr. Carter launched the cannabis line Monogram, which will be a joint venture with the merged company, to be named TPCO Holding Corp.”

“As part of the Subversive deal, TPCO will seed Mr. Carter’s fund with $10 million and inject another 2% of net income every year thereafter. The fund will be run by Mr. Carter and Desiree Perez, chief executive of Mr. Carter’s Roc Nation entertainment conglomerate and recipient of a pardon from Donald Trump on the last day of his presidency. It will invest as much as $1 million in each startup cannabis company they choose,” the Journal reported.