Fish-Waste Fueled Cannabis Company Looks to IPO, Says Green Relief CEO
*By Chloe Aiello*
Warren Bravo thinks investors will get behind his fish waste-based cannabis concept when his company, Canadian marijuana producer Green Relief, heads to the public market this year.
"We are going out, we'll say, sometime this year into the IPO space," Bravo, Green Relief CEO and co-founder, told Cheddar on Wednesday, adding that he's not committed to a specific time frame.
"We want to make sure the market conditions are right, because we only have one chance to do that successfully and we want to make sure Green Relief tells the story investors want to hear."
The story that Bravo is talking about concerns cannabis and fish ー or, more specifically, fish excrement.
Green Relief has developed a system in which filtered fish waste is used to fertilize cannabis plants, which in turn, clean the water for the fish. It's a closed loop, recirculating ecosystem that enables pesticide-free farming.
"It's the same ecosystem as any freshwater lake," Bravo said. "Any vegetation that grows in water is fertilized by the fish that live in that body of water. So we've commercialized an ecosystem, and made it scale-able and growing our cannabis plants in a very natural, clean, and organic way."
Once the fish are no longer of use to the cannabis plants, Green Relief donates them to charity ー Bravo said the company has managed to provide as many as 50,000 meals to homeless shelters in the Toronto area. In the future, Bravo said Green Relief may consider monetizing the aquaculture portion of its business, and experimenting with using more valuable fish, like Asian sea bass, fresh water prawn, or koi to clean the water. But for now, Green Relief is sticking to tilapia.
"Right now tilapia is what we do, because it's tried, proven and works really well in a farmed environment. So, as they say, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it,' and that's what we are using now," Bravo said.
Bravo added that the company is "on the path to profitability," as it considers a public listing, and is currently working with lawyers to finalize its prospectus.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/cannabis-and-tilapia-make-for-unlikely-but-sustainable-pairing).
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