Treasure8 Announces Launch of HEMP8 To Address Biggest Challenges In the Hemp Industry & Opens Series A Round

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Treasure8, a company utilizing unparalleled food dehydration technologies to systemically fight food waste and climate change, announced today that it has officially launched its HEMP8 subsidiary, which has begun operations at its drying installation in Watsonville, CA. This is just the latest milestone for the company as it works urgently and swiftly to execute a Resource Revolution™ to create positive change in the current conditions of the food system, the environment, and communities around the world. Earlier this year, the company also announced it had officially opened a second food dehydration pilot plant, located on Treasure Island, in San Francisco, CA.

Treasure8's superior dehydration platform has now been deployed to the hemp industry, where better CBD yield, access to effective dehydration, and mold prevention are major needs and issues, all of which HEMP8 helps solve. Through low-energy, USDA-patented SAUNA™ dehydration technology (licensed from parent company, Treasure8) HEMP8 can dry hemp within 60 minutes, captures 2% more CBD than regular ambient air drying alone, and provides a LOG-5 killstep for mold prevention. And with a unique, DaaS™ business model, HEMP8 creates easy and flexible access to its technology for larger growers and processors.

HEMP8's goal is to become the premier hemp dryer and post-CBD extraction waste stream processor in North America. While many parts of the country have seen an influx of hemp crops the last few years as CBD has grown in popularity, drying capacity remains a huge issue. Many growers have been forced to leave millions of pounds (and billions of revenue) of the newly legalized plant to rot in the field--not only an economic and food loss, but a drain to the environment, too. The new investment round will allow HEMP8 to expand its dryer capacity and inventory to meet the fast-growing demand it is receiving in addition to its current order-book of over 5M pounds.

"We are incredibly excited to be the first to develop such environmentally advanced technologies for this purpose," said Timothy Childs, Founder, and co-CEO of HEMP8 & Treasure8. "The novel dehydration solutions we've commercialized for the food and waste stream dehydration business shows its value by efficiently helping to solve one of the largest challenges to the hemp industry, with fast, but also quality drying." Added HEMP8 and Treasure8 co-CEO Derk Hendriksen, "Additionally, with our unique DaaS™ model, we can reduce the cap-ex costs and friction points for farmers, allowing them to generate more revenue per crop."

Moreover, based upon Treasure8's unique regenerative upcycling practices, HEMP8 plans to "valorize" (or convert) the waste leftover from hemp CBD processing to create healthy and sustainable food ingredients (protein and fiber), as well as biofuel, to eventually power its low energy, clean-burning dehydration machines, and biochar to enrich the soil in which hemp is grown. This will be funded with a newly opened Series A, as well as a recently closed Friends & Family round, and an additional portion of a $5.8M Series B convertible note to Treasure8, provided by the Tuaropaki Trust, Treasure8's main investor.

About HEMP8: HEMP8 is a subsidiary by Treasure8, a technology company developing proprietary and regenerative methods to battle the urgent global crisis of climate change, often by upcycling food waste streams. HEMP8 has one of the most advanced dehydration capabilities in the world for hemp plants, and will also use Treasure8's regenerative upcycling model to valorize waste streams leftover from the CBD extraction process. Its parent company, Treasure8, was founded by serial entrepreneur and co-CEO, Timothy Childs, and today has helped some of the world's largest companies reformulate and advance their products. Additionally, Treasure8 has exclusively licensed and commercialized (in partnership with the USDA) SAUNA™, one of the world's most powerful dehydration technologies. SAUNA is backed by the CA Energy Commission and was named a 2018 winner of the US Far West Regional Federal Technology Transfer Award, a 2019 ASABE "AE50" Award, and received a 2019 World-Changing Ideas Honorable Mention from Fast Company.

SOURCE Treasure8