EXCLUSIVE: Cannabis Lifestyle Co. Pilgrim Soul Closes $2M Raise With Supporters Like Merida Capital, Al Harrington

Cannabis lifestyle and creativity-focused Pilgrim Soul has closed a $2 million strategic seed funding round, supported by investments from Merida Capital Holdings and Bee House, as well as serial entrepreneur and Skip-Hop founder Michal Diament and other well-known tech entrepreneurs.

Additional brand advisors and equity holders include NBA veteran and Viola Brands founder Al Harrington; Merlin Kauffman, founder of Soothe and former Sperry & Club Monaco CMO Ann Watson.

"Like Skip Hop, the company I founded that brought product innovation to baby gear, I invest in companies and people that see around corners and help to redefine industries," Diament told Benzinga. "Shawn Gold [founder and CEO of Pilgrim Soul] has a keen eye for culture and a long history of assembling amazing teams that build breakthrough products."

Harrington also sees the similarities between Pilgrim Soul and his brand. In conversation with Benzinga, Harrington said, "Like Viola, Pilgrim Soul is a purpose-driven brand. For them, it's about giving a leg up to artists in marginalized communities and helping the average person tap into their natural creative thinking abilities."

What Is Pilgrim Soul?

Pilgrim Soul is a company focused on tapping into a significant and growing trend in creativity: Guided journals and creativity courses.

Since its inception in 2020, the company has driven $5.8 million 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.

"We are looking to build a new kind of cannabis company with diverse revenue streams, a 360 brand focused on creative performance where cannabis is just one of the products. Our Creative Thinking Journals and other non-cannabis products work to enhance the creative efficacy of our cannabis products. They also serve as a Trojan horse, enabling us to advertise nationally and build a database of 250,000+ creative cannabis users across America. This can be very expensive and very difficult for cannabis-centric brands to accomplish," Gold told Benzinga.

Get Into Vaping

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 MMNFF and Sweet Flower.

"We help people look at problems in entirely new ways, get out of their comfort zones, challenge default thinking, and tap into what makes them uniquely creative. We formulate our exclusive cannabis blends, expert content, and creative curriculum to unlock a person's innate creativity," Gold added.

Meet Shawn Gold

Pilgrim Soul founder and CEO, Shawn Gold, has had an accomplished career in developing culturally influential brands through performance marketing, subscription, social media and content development. He's held CMO roles at Lowell Farms Inc LOWLF, MySpace, Engadget and TechStyle. Gold also created digital communications strategies for brands at P&G PG, General Mills GIS, Nestle NSRGY and Mattel MAT.

"In helping to build innovative companies like MySpace, Wattpad, Engadget, Fabletics, and Lowell Farms, my job has been to see around corners and build businesses that take advantage of emerging trends. In an emerging world of Artificial Intelligence, outsourcing, and abundance of choice, creativity is an essential skill for personal enjoyment and job security. It is one of the few things humans do better than computers," Gold concluded.