Cantourage

Cantourage is the direct heir to Pedanios - Germany's first medical cannabis wholesaler, founded by the same people and sold to Aurora. Founded in 2019 in Berlin, listed in Frankfurt under the symbol HIGH at the end of 2022, it has built a model in five years that makes it one of the most profitable medical cannabis companies in Europe.

Pedanios and Aurora alumni

Cantourage's founders are the same ones who built Pedanios GmbH, Germany's first specialized medical cannabis wholesaler, which managed the first imports of Canadian medical cannabis to German pharmacies before being bought out by Aurora Cannabis. They sold, pocketed the experience, and did it all over again.

Philip Schetter, Cantourage's CEO since 2021, is not one of the historic founders, but he is intimately linked to this history: he worked for Aurora Deutschland GmbH, of which Pedanios was the base, first as head of construction of the production facilities, then as CEO of Aurora Europe, overseeing expansion into 11 EU countries. The founders recruited him to lead their new venture.

A disruptive model: import, transform, distribute

Cantourage doesn't grow. Its model involves importing raw cannabis flowers from over 15 different countries (Jamaica, Portugal, New Zealand, Uganda, Canada, among others) and processing them in its secret facility in Bavaria into EU-GMP-certified pharmaceutical products, ready to be prescribed and dispensed in pharmacies in Germany and other European countries.

This Fast Track Access platform enables any cannabis producer in the world to access European medical markets by leveraging Cantourage's regulatory and commercial infrastructure, an asset-light approach that has attracted dozens of producer partners.

In five years, sales have risen from less than one million to 40 million euros. In 2024, Cantourage will achieve its first operating profit. Around 4 to 6 tonnes of cannabis are processed annually at the Bavarian facility.

Germany's cannabis reform of April 2024, which removed the narcotic status of cannabis and made prescribing easier, caused a 50% increase in the market quarter-on-quarter, according to Cantourage.