Gravitas Infinitum is taking advantage of unprecedented opportunities by developing the Hemp Economy Services Platform which includes business services, whole plant hemp processing using our advanced proprietary technology, and cloud-based customer-centric software under the Gravitas Kannavis (GK) brand.
In 2014, Hemp was legalized by the US Federal Government and currently being legalized across most states. The 2018 Farm Bill reclassified hemp, and it is now legal to grow industrial hemp. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced a rule that outlines how states can submit plans that will enable producers to grow hemp in those areas. The worldwide market for industrial hemp was estimated to be over $6 billion and growing in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% or greater. In addition to favorable changes in U.S. law, the hemp market is benefiting from growing consumer awareness and demand for hemp-based food and a wide-range of industrial products.
Our rapid progress and overwhelming acceptance of the “10 Steps To Hemp Success” model, highlights an industry-wide need for advanced hemp processing and our ability to fill that need with a technically superior and scalable approach.
Gravitas brings six core strengths to any acquired company. Purchasing Power Aggregation, Logistics Aggregation, Digital Marketing, Sales/Advertising, and Digital Transformation, Automation of business functions. These are areas that small businesses typically don't invest in or focus on until much later in their growth cycle.
Gravitas’ investment philosophy is deeply rooted within each member of its team. Gravitas’ team of Principals and Advisors have the experience necessary to help us identify, and successfully implement the necessary strategies to become a world class services provider for the hemp industry. The Team believes in the importance of trust‐based partnerships focused on the pursuit of both “value and values.”
The Company’s strategy is creating a multi-use facility in Southwest Florida to provide proprietary processor assembly, a location for Southwest Florida Processing, Warehousing, Seedling/Clone Propagation, Global Hemp Training and Technology Center, and corporate headquarters.
Processing Assembly: These activities are already in progress. Current plans and client agreements target May-June 2020 for 1st processors being commissioned. Facility can scale to 2-4 systems per month being assembled, with room for expansion in the current building. This facility will be the Southeastern USA parts and maintenance depot and will also house the operations team running systems 7x24.
Seedling/Clone Propagation: Planned for automated hydroponic seedling and clone propagation as a Florida Certified Seedling/Clone provider. Pending Florida approved rules and permitting to be made available to the company in January of 2020. The facility will ramp up to provide seedlings/clones for 2,000 acres, with 2,000 plants per acre and two harvests or 8,000,000 seedlings/clones this will support 1 processor. We will scale this as acreage expands and will also sell retail seedlings/clones.
Global Hemp Training and Technology Center: This will encompass our own hydroponic grow-out systems to full mature plants for processor testing, materials, and genetics testing. Training for processor operators/maintenance personnel, hemp applied materials research, and liaison with county, state,federal teams.
Corporate Headquarters: This facility will also house our Executive, Operations, Customer Service, Field Operations, and Processing teams.
3 Levels of Groups For The Hemp Economy Services Platform
We have test marketed to over 1,000 people and companies. We received overwhelming acceptance of the model. Additionally, we have registered significant market demand, and have outstanding Government support. Our rapid progress highlights an industry-wide need for a multi-faceted approach.
Level 1 – Our 10-Step to Hemp Success Program is for small farmers looking to get into Hemp business, but they need knowledge, on-going services, and minimizing risks
Level 2 - Existing independent Companies/Groups that have established protocols and require processing.
Level 3 - Strategic Partner Groups such as large-scale land-owners, companies, and groups that are new to Hemp and are looking for investment into the processing and overall hemp industry with reduced risk, plus tactical deployment of seedlings/clones and processing of their crops.
GRAVITAS is taking advantage of the ATTRACTIVE OPPORTUNITY for Hemp Economy Services Platform..
The US hemp industry is poised for rapid growth. It is being assembled by millions of people with little standardization, structure, and transparency. Herein lies what marketing analysts believe is one of the largest economic opportunities is the U.S. We are utilizing our experience in bringing technological innovation and building industry-wide business services platforms to successfully enter and capture a significant share of this emerging market, what many call the new “Hemp Economy”.
The Global Industrial Hemp Market Size is Projected to Grow from $4.6 Billion USD in 2019 to $26.6 Billion USD by 2025, recording a CAGR of 34.0%.
Seven of the many industries being disrupted by the rise of hemp:
1. Functional Foods. Hemp contains all 10 essential amino acids, making it a good plant-based protein source. Hemp does not contain phytates, which are found in many vegetarian protein sources which can interfere with the absorption of essential minerals.
2. Biodiesel. Hemp can produce nearly four times as much oil per acre as the current favorite source of biodiesel, soybeans. Hemp could soon be the go-to for making diesel fuel from a renewable plant source.
3. Plastics. Now that the 2018 Farm Bill has legalized the production of industrial hemp, entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to use hemp as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic.
4. Paper. An acre of industrial hemp produces about four times the amount of paper that one acre of trees does.
5. Construction. Hemp can also be made into concrete.
6. Textiles. Hemp-based fabrics can stand in for cotton, denim,wool, or athletic leisure wear.
7. Packaging. As more cannabis-related products hit the market, the packaging industry is booming. Per CB Insights, the cannabis packing industry is expected to reach about $5 billion in value by 2026.
Allen Witters leads Gravitas with support from the company’s other Principals and Advisors. Over his 35-year career, Allen has helped shape modern business by founding and operating several leading services, manufacturing and technology companies.
Former and current Advisor to: US Navy; NSA; NRO; DoD/Pentagon; GSA; US Air Force; US Marine Corp; DOE; Whirlpool Corp.; Rockwell International; Litton Industries; ITT; Gilfillan Bertlesman; AOL/Time Warner; Disney; Rocketdyne; 3M; GM/DELCO; TRW; Wagner Spraytech; Wal*Mart; Sears Roebuck; Warner Bros.; Paramount Studios; Sony; HP; Hitachi Corp.; RR Donnelley; Experian; SGI; Government of Belgium; Government of Germany.
Allen has led private and public companies from startup to multibillion-dollar businesses representing diverse industries with operations and distribution in domestic and international markets. He has managed operations and staffs in 88 countries that serviced 135 countries around the globe, including Japan, China, South America, Europe, Middle East and the Soviet Republic. He has led multiple corporate development transactions, financings and purchase agreements ranging in value from $1 million to $9.6 billion, and managed several post-acquisition business transitions and integration initiatives. Mr. Witters role was Senior Executive responsible for the Capture, Proposal, Design, and Operational Roll-out of approximately 40% of the Contract Award. He was signatory on the only long-term sub-contract let on the project by the Team lead EDS Corporation. He directly interfaced with Senior Executive Staff members of the DOD, Navy and Marine Corp. His counterpart on the EDS team was the Government Business Groups President and together they lead the successful capture of the largest IT contract let by the U.S. Federal Government. He secured contracts with 63 Fortune 100 corporations and over 800, Fortune 1000 corporations.
Allen served as Founder/CEO of Computer Aided Timeshare from 1983 to 1989. CATS was the first company to offer time-share high end CAD/CAM systems in the US. He led the company through a successful IPO as the company grew nearly 40% per quarter until the company was sold in 1989 for a market value of $60 million. From 1989 to 1990, Mr. Witters served as Interim Chairman, CEO for Aortech, a heart medical device and R&D company. Allen raised $3 million to Company Aortech through Medical Funding, Inc., Merged into Aortech, at which time Mr. Witters resigned as an Officer. The Company began public trading after relisting and the company was sold in 1990 for $90 million, or 30x return of capital. Also from 1987 to 1992, Mr. Witters was CEO of DataMAP, where he oversaw the acquisition of a small-publicly traded company with a $250,000 market cap and helped grow the company to a $65 million market cap. While at DataMAP, Mr. Witters also created a graphic underwriting system that is still used by insurance companies today. Aside from insurance companies, DataMAP’s customers included Wal-Mart, Burger King, Taco Bell, Target and RR Donnelly.
29 years of industry experience with over $100M in business value and sales
Fortune 500 (e.g. Nucor Steel, GM, Boeing, Continental, Bank of America) Mid-markets (LendingTree, Questra), Start-ups (e.g. Greenway, Xbond, Punch Alert, ForestRim Tech, PriseWell, etc)
John is a business strategist, serial entrepreneur, and salesman extraordinaire with a long list of achievements. Through a proven combination of leadership, selling, and management skills John has enabled leaders and companies to achieve their goals and ambitions.
John’s early success as a collegiate All-American athlete translates well into his passion and drive for business and entrepreneurship.
In his first role as a startup founder-CEO, he became adept in developing and executing business plans and strategies which led to fast growth and a successful exit.
Over thirty years John has demonstrated a unique ability to create and visualize the roadmap to success for himself, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.
With a natural affinity for sales, strategy, and planning, he’s achieved the highest levels of success in executive and sales leadership roles in variety of industries including real estate, technology, communications, healthcare, manufacturing, and corporate security.
John’s highly diverse skill set led to the creation of Arciero Associates LLC, a management consulting and advisory firm, which leverages his experience as a C-suite executive and startup entrepreneur to help other entrepreneurs and business leaders.
John has worked for and consulted dozens of startups, mid-market, and enterprise companies providing a unique perspective and the ability to relate to clients as a trusted advisor and business leader. He sometimes assumes the CxO roles to expedite success.
His innovative marketing and sales strategies and approaches have yielded high-level client relationships and exceeding sales and revenue targets annually.
In his role as a growth advisor and business development coach and leader, he has generated millions of dollars in value for his clients over the years.
Driving structural innovation to serve markets and stakeholders more effectively is a 25-year passion. Dan has been a leader in adapting to and structuring change across diverse markets and industries including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, law and real estate.
He began his career after graduating from law and business school as an attorney in private practice and as an entrepreneur. As an attorney, Dan worked with a diverse set of clients ranging from Fortune 5 companies to start-ups. A focus was on adapting to the emerging implications of the internet to existing well-established businesses and creating new opportunities for venture-backed firms.
For example, Dan acted as primary digital counsel for Kodak and as outside general counsel for multiple B2B exchange startups within the food and agriculture industries whose members included Cargill, Dupont, Cenex Harvest State and others. Dan went in-house to GMAC initially as an attorney structuring GMAC international expansion of its securitization capabilities to new markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia and eventually starting and scaling a securitization business for GMAC in Latin America and ultimately selling and running the business for Lehman Brothers.
After 2008 Dan has been the CEO of three venture-backed firms within network security, healthcare and University-based innovation and is currently an Intrapreneur in Residence at Thrivent Financial, a Fortune 300 financial services company. Dan continues to invest and advise multiple companies on their innovation and scaling practices with an emphasis on structured roll-ups and alliances that adapt to changing market conditions.
20 years of financial and operational experience with a diverse set of firms from the smallest of operations in the family office investment space to his work at a larger conglomerate, General Electric.
Jason’s focus throughout his career has been on creating operational and financial efficiency to each allowing the company to spend the maximum amount of effort creating shareholder and consumer value. Developed a new US based blocker structure to secure upward of $30 million in commitments for a real estate fund. Led the implementation of a foreign blocker structure for non-US real estate investors generating more than $25 million of LP commitments.
He has been characterized throughout his 20-year hedge fund career with having a personal and positive communication style that inspires people to act decisively towards a common goal. He's consulted private clients in capital formation, hedge funds, private equity, and construction of their alternative investment portfolios ranging from floor trading commodity specialists to fintech and algorithmically driven, automated trading systems.
Specialties: Capital Formation, Alternatives Portfolio Development, International Finance, Compliance, and various aspects within the Alternative Investment, and Wealth Management industries.
More than 15 years of hands on experience implementing custom business solutions for various companies including PGA of America, 60+ School Districts, Multiplan and many other organizations. Strong social skills accompanied by a well-rounded understanding of various business processes, project management, business analysis, document management, sales and marketing, Luis offers a truly unique experience for clients and is a rare example of someone who brings an innovative and positive outlook on problem-solving to any business or technology challenge.
As a Director with Gravitas Infinitum, Luis is responsible for ensuring that all business development, marketing and operations are at their most effective capacity. With his extensive background in business and technology processes, Luis is leading the efforts to establish all systems and procedures.
