Folium Finance is an economic breakthrough for the cannabis community at large, offering exclusive monetary benefits to its Folium Biosciences customers. Recently launched, this innovative financial platform is designed as a debt and hemp-friendly resource that utilizes trusted financial engineers and individual business development techniques to assist industry-based businesses achieve profitability and sustainable growth while providing financial strategies that resolve critical business challenges and operational liability.
Founded in 2014, Folium Bioscience is a business-to-business wholesale, Colorado-based, organic hemp cultivation that is the largest vertically integrated hemp extraction company in the world; producing, manufacturing and distributing the finest Phyto-Cannabinoid-Rich (PCR) hemp oil with zero percent THC. Utilizing more than 300K square feet at their Colorado facilities, Folium’s Broad Spectrum hemp oil is able to meet the needs of North America and much of the world with a variety of white label products that range from water-soluble powder/liquid, to Nano-emulsions, to bulk ingredients, to cosmetics, to active lifestyle, to animal-safe products, and so much more. Using state-of-the-art purification and extraction methods, Folium is able to emphasize its focus on clinical studies, pharmacology research, product development and generating advanced biomass formulas.
Following their acclaim over the first few years, Folium searched for a way to continue innovating and filling gaps in the Hemp Community. “Banking options are limited in this industry and we needed to find a solution. As a result, we are building an entire ecosystem of not just merchant processing, but banking, funding insurance and, a full suite of financial services,” says Dale Takio, VP of Business Development. As a result, they’ve partnered with CannaSecure Alliance to formulate Folium Finance, a one-stop shop for financial services, exclusively available to Folium customers for their zero percent THC products.
It’s true that today’s industry faces limited options in the banking realm, forcing most companies to adopt a predominantly cash in, cash out business model, which poses a plethora of potential problems ranging from red tape, to inaccurate accounts, to robbery. So why is banking access still such a roadblock in this multi-billion-dollar industry? Cannabis remains illegal under U.S. federal law, and all the countries banks and credit unions are overseen by our federal government. A failure to implement policies or official laws that state whether a bank/credit union can or cannot work with cannabis-based businesses has resulted in a bottleneck of costly consequences.
There are, in fact, a few banks and credit unions that do accept cannabis companies as customers. Those companies, however, are charged excessive accounts and transaction fees in an effort to offset the additional liability costs the banks incur themselves. These extra premiums are often passed down the fiscal line to consumers, increasing product cost and making it more difficult for patients to afford medicinal marijuana.
This doesn’t just apply to cannabis either. It is beginning to affect the hemp/CBD industry as well. For example, Elavon, a U.S. Bancorp subsidiary and the fourth largest credit card transaction processor in the United States, recently announced that it will no longer accept new applications for CBD merchant processing. In addition, they have closed all existing CBD accounts and will no longer offer services to any business selling CBD.
“It’s frustrating for us and certainly for the businesses because they are providing a legal service in the states they’re operating in. If you’re on the CBD side of things, your business is federally legal and yet you’re getting penalized by a banking system that is slow to change,” says CEO, Kashif Shan.
Of course, with every problem that arises, a solution is bound to present itself. And with CBD moving into the mainstream market, the industry has been forced to generate creative solutions. The result is the realization of in-industry business models, platforms created by cannabis/hemp companies, for cannabis/hemp companies. Folium Finance is a perfect example of just that.
“We’ve been working on this program for quite some time,” says Shan, “we recognize that there’s an issue that impedes our CBD customers’ ability to conduct their business and so we’ve worked really hard to develop a solution to address that.”
With so many companies experiencing ‘hypergrowth’, a service of this magnitude is invaluable. Not only will businesses be able to send more funds to their bottom line, they can rest easy knowing their merchant processing is secure, allowing them to stay up to date with industry information, technology, and market research, as well as focus on expanding their business into additional capital infrastructures.
“What we’ve done is normalize the connection between the cannabis industry and financial services, which means they’ll be treated no differently than if they walked into a bank for a small business loan. All of which is based on their credibility as a business, not on the products they sell,” says Shan, “…by proving solutions we are establishing that when we help them grow their business, by default it grows our business”.
Ultimately, Folium’s symbiotic objective is to return a PCR quality of life to people and their businesses through non-psychoactive solutions. Although the program does extend to all cannabis products, “… our primary focus is on shaping the industry for CBD,” says Shan, “[that’s where] the heart of our organization is.”
By industry standards, this is only the beginning of the growth cycle for Folium Finance. “Eventually what we want to do is provide, not just financial solutions, but also business solutions. So, if someone wants to start a CBD company, we can give them guidance and insight. Our end goal is a complete total business solution platform,” posits Shan.
Currently, Folium provides products to 34 countries, with more accounts being added every day. With their eyes set on the global market as a whole, they have recently made a substantial acquisition in Europe and plan to open their second 200Ksqft facility in Canada by the beginning of next year, followed by a third facility in Greece by 2021. With demand growing in leaps and bounds, Folium has strategically positioned itself with the foresight of building out a larger, horizontal business solution platform for companies worldwide that will promote progressive partnerships, informed integration and economic stability that is custom tailored to each business. So, what are you waiting for? Discover for yourself the freedom Folium Finance can bring to your business.
